EMBURY COCKTAILS

Tanner's Punch

The newest member of Team Embury, Tanner Sarff, taking a testing whiff of a punch he worked up for Justin Violinis' party for the launch of his Fearless Project. Milagro gave us some bottles of Silver to work with,requesting that we do one batch of their signature Milagro Freshest Margarita (2 parts Silver, 1 part lime juice, 3/4 part of their own branded and really quite good amber agave-makes a foolproof, perfectly sweet margarita) and left us to come up with one of our own. While kicking around ideas I was reminded of a classic soda pop-y Mexican approach to margaritas using Squirt instead of fresh citrus, and when I mentioned it to Tanner he perked up--being from Arizona where Squirt is quite popular and had some ideas right off the bat. In New York, as events would prove, it is quite hard to find. (Eventually I found litre bottles at a D'Agastino on Christopher Street.) We had a batch of Mark Buettler's one-of-a-kind home made Sriracha bitters that we really wanted to take out for a spin, and Tanner set out to create something working with these elements.

 

Muddling up some strawberries was a brainwave that proved successful.

When trying out ideas that will eventually be made into a punch it's extremely useful to make individual serving sized drinks first, and to use a jigger to keep track of your ratios. This makes fine tuning far simpler, and allows you to easily replicate the recipe on a large scale by simply recreating that ratio, using a measuring cup instead of a jigger. Using a 1 ounce/2 ounce jigger works well when your bigger measuring cup is a 2 cupper.

 

Pouring little amuse bouche size servings in shot glasses is a very civilized way to taste each iteration as it evolves, and you're not stuck with a full cocktail that sort of demands to be consumed--when trying recipes there's no need to drink the whole thing, as you may easily lose track of your results after a few. This method keeps your consumption at a more moderate, manageable pace. Until you give in and go all Cookie Monster when you hit the winning combination. Which is okay too.

 
Again, the ace in the hole here (aside from the hard-to-find Squirt) were the most-likely unique sriracha bitters.

 

Tanner added a little extra citrus to sort of freshen up the Squirt's tangy grapefruit flavor profile, just a bit of lemon and lime. Sometimes you get it right in just a couple tries and this time it happened-the second batch was pretty much spot on and rather than further mess with it we just went ahead and built a punch size batch in a Montana Jar.

 

2 cups.

Smelling and tasting as you build the punch is key--while you follow a ratio, you still adjust and tweak as you go.

Naming a drink can be incredibly easy or incredibly hard--and often I find really good drinks that you'd like to share can be quite tricky--stakes are high, as you think this one might actually become popular in some small way. This time we got a great drink but a safe fallback name.

TANNER'S PUNCH

2 Parts Milagro Silver
1 Part Squirt
1/4 Part Lime
1/4 Part Lemon
Muddled Strawberries
Sriracha Bitters
1 slice of Jalapeno per serving

You get this great pink punch, with a layer of slightly ominous strawberry protoplasm. The slice of jalapeno mans up what could otherwise be a bit pretty, and a pinch of Murray River Pink Salt on top of the drink makes it pretty bad ass. So we packed up our punches and headed down to the party-photos in the second half of the post.

Wednesday's Cocktail: The Lovely Rita

Embury Cocktails Presents: The Lovely Rita from Embury Cocktails on Vimeo.

iPhone & iPad friendly version here.

Literary Cocktails: Molé Margarita Punch

For the final party at the Key West Literary Seminar we decided to pull out the stops and make a really dazzling, seemingly improbable cocktail as the grand finale. Over the 3 days of the Seminar our little cocktail table had gained something of a faithful following, with repeat visitors who sought us out and even one group that referred to themselves as our "groupies", which was flattering. I was struck by how this sophisticated, literate crowd of (as I like to refer to them) lifetime New Yorker subscription holders found the notion of specialty cocktails to be quite novel. It's easy living in New York and being within this whole cocktail scene to forget that this boozy renaissance has not quite hit outside of urban centers--there are certainly exceptions around the country, little bars and restaurants that take the craft of the cocktail seriously, but there's plenty of room for education and better libations.

So when we began serving the molé margarita minds were promptly blown.

It's gone by different names since Mark Buettler created it in the fall at Dressler, after challenging himself to find a way to use Ovaltine in a cocktail. When German bitters outfit Bittermans came out with their Xocolatl Molé Bitters, he saw a way to crack the code. The resulting neo-margarita was called Puebla on the Dressler menu, but I called it Y Tu Molé Tambien when I first wrote about it. We re-dubbed it the  Tarnished Halo at a party for James Rosenquist where Mark did the cocktail catering and renamed the drink after one of the artist's pieces. But for for the purposes of the party I simply referred to it as a "molé margarita"....and the crowd went wild. I'd batched it by sense rather than measurements---I had the luxury of having had many, many of the originals from Mark's hands. And in lieu of using store bought Orgeat Chris Otten of Bad Boy Burrito made a batch from scratch, toasting almonds for a couple hours, then cooking them down with a quite a lot of dark agave nectar--he did it using his considerable cuisine kung fu, dispensing with anything resembling a recipe, so I can't tell you what he did. But Torani makes a perfectly fine Orgeat (here). Like with the Bennett punch we made a big batch, shook individual drinks with ice and strained into glasses, topping with the bitters as a final touch. These glasses were rimmed with the crowning touch--a combination of Ovaltine, almond flour and Murray River Flake Salt. I'd recommend starting small and making individual drinks before jumping up to the punch version--get to know the flavor and you'll be able to tweak the big version to your taste. Here is the original recipe:

Y TU MOLE TAMBIEN/TARNISHED HALO

1 1/2 oz blanco tequila

1/2 oz fresh lime juice

1/3 oz dark agave nectar

1/3 oz Orgeat

Shake Strain into a Double Rocks Glass rimmed with Ovaltine/Almond Flour/Sea Salt

Add Fresh Ice

Top with 4 Dashes of Bittermans Xocolatl Molé Bitters

Give a Slight Stir to Incorporate the Bitters and Serve....

Rim Mixture:

2 parts Ovaltine
2 parts almond flour
1 part sea salt (Mark used  Fleur de Sel de Guerande, we used Murray River Pink Flake Salt)

Happy literati, suffused in a molé and tequila glow.

Torani Orgeat

Bittermans Bitters

All Mark Buettler posts and videos 

Friday Night Cocktails: Y Tu Mole Tambien

This beguiling number comes from Mark Buettler of Dressler in South Williamsburg, who will be our inaugural Bartender Of The Month for October, or, if you care to go there, Marktober. Mark had been talking about wanting to make a drink that tasted like Ovaltine, spurred by the announcement of a new product, Bittermans Xocolcatl Mole Bitters. These  bitters are a result of a transatlantic collaboration between the Massachusetts based Bittmermans and estimable German bitters makers, The Bitter Truth, something like a DC/Marvel Comics cross brand storyline--and Mark did await their arrival like a kid anxious for a hot new comic book. The drink is essentially an almond and coca margarita which manages to sidestep any of the cloying, cutesy flavors that might bring to mind by using dark agave nectar coupled with the almond syrup Orgeat to bring the sweet, and the mole bitters to bring the muscley, bass-heavy cocoa notes. One of his earlier iterations actually used Ovaltine on the rim all on its own, but a combination of almond flour and sea salt anchored the high cocoa notes with a needed maturity, while preserving the potent comfort food  association from childhood. The resulting cocktail is an adult's sweetest bedtime wish imaginable.

Y TU MOLE TAMBIEN

1 1/2 oz blanco tequila

1/2 oz fresh Lime Juice

1/3 oz dark agave nectar

1/3 oz Orgeat

Shake Strain into a Double Rocks Glass rimmed with Ovaltine/Almond Flour/Sea Salt

Add Fresh Ice

Top with 4 Dashes of Bittermans Mole Bitters

Give a Slight Stir to Incorporate the Bitters and Serve

Rim Mixture:

2 parts Ovaltine
2 parts almond flour
1 part sea salt (Mark used  "Fleur de Sel de Guerande")

Bitterman's bitters

All Mark Buettler posts and videos

Wednesday's Cocktails: Poolside Sangria & Spicy Pepino

Two more today from the poolside Tres Generaciones party in New Orleans. The Poolside Sangria defied two strong convictions I'd held for decades: first, that tequila and white wine should never, ever play together and second, that peach schanpps should never, ever be played with period. Two simply brutal hangovers from senior year at Catlin Gabel High School led to these aversions.  But Bobby Gleason's winning white tequila-gria (sorry) cleared those misconceptions right up. The Poolside Sangria is perfect for wilted guests seeking relief on a blazingly hot summer afternoon, instantly delivering cottonmouth-grade refreshment and almost just as instantly an inescapable sense of euphoria. Crying out to be batched as a punch, this one.

3G POOLSIDE SANGRIA

1.25 oz Tres Generaciones Plata
.50 oz DeKuyper Peachtree
1.50 oz Fresh Lemon Sour*
1.50 oz Sauvignon Blanc

Build cocktail over ice, garnish with a sliced strawberry a thin lemon wheels.

The more Tabasco that can be added to drinks the better. The jalapeno and Green Tabasco in the Spicy Pepino rocks some serious heat, but the cucumber and cilantro soothe your tongue. Another party-starter.

SPICY PEPINO

1.50 oz. Tres Generaciones Plata
2.0 oz. Fresh Lemon Sour*
3 - ½” slices of peeled cucumber
¼ cup fresh Cilantro leaves (15-20 leaves)
1/3” slice of fresh Jalapeño pepper or 2-3 dashes of Green Tabasco Sauce

In a mixing glass muddle the pepper first then add cucumber and cilantro and muddle again. Now add remaining ingredients and shake vigorously with ice. Double strain using a fine mesh strainer into a chilled cocktail glass,

Garnish with a cucumber wheel on the rim and a floating cilantro leaf.

* HOW TO MAKE FRESH LEMON SOUR: "I use a mix of lemon juice and simple syrup. I always start with 3 parts lemon juice and 2 parts simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water) then adjust them there. I feel it is always better to be a bit tart and add a sweetener to the cocktail because if it is too sweet you can't take sugar out. Some people will use a ratio of equal parts lemon juice + simple syrup + water."

Bobby Gleason, Beam Global Ambassador.

Wednesday's Cocktail: Sweet Breeze

This is from Eddie Perales, Tequila Ambassador for Beam Global. Eddie and Bobby "G" Gleason of Beam served up some impromptu Tres Generacioes Plata cocktails poolside at the W French Quarter on Saturday afternoon at Tales, inviting a few journalists to stop by. Happily we'd wound up on that list, but anyone lucky enough to be staying at the W that afternoon was in for a treat as well. You walked in to the the courtyard and were greeted by giant platters of cucumbers, strawberries, lemons, limes, basil and jalapeno--more fresh produce than I'd encountered in a week of unrepentantly fatty and heavy New Orleans cuisine. Not that you'd want the food any other way, but you do begin to yearn for something fresh and green and uncooked.

The fresh fruit and the bracingly clean, triple-distilled Plata in Eddie and Bobby's capable hands helped clear away some of the the fog of Tales and for a couple of hours we felt human again. Bobby wrote us about his creation:

SWEET BREEZE

1 ½ oz. Tres Generaciones Tequila Plata

Take 6 fresh basil leaves put in a glass shaker with one half peeled red grapefruit, four large ripe  strawberries, muddle altogether

Then add fresh lemon sour, (I took the juice of six lemons and added a table spoon of orange marmalade and boiled it together, let it cool and added it to my cocktail.

Method – add all ingredients together shake “hard and with a smile’ and pour over fresh ice, garnish with a strawberry perched on the rim of glass and dust with fresh ground nutmeg.

Friday Night Cocktail: The Verdita

Mint, cilantro, pineapple and jalapeno. And tequila. A perfect first day of Spring drink. The Verdita is one that's almost hard to imagine until you've actually experienced it--our aim in making this video was to encourage people to try it, and, should they dig it, turn their friends on to it. It's an intense revelation the first time you do it, and it does transform a party into something wild. When you make your own batch-and you will-we'd love it if you'd share pictures and stories. E-mail us at [email protected].

Many thanks to Milagro tequila for helping sponsor our first party.
Big ups to Will Foster of Casita Bar in Shoreditch.
Casita on Facebook
Casita on Myspace.

Wednesday's Cocktail: The Verdita

Wednesday's Cocktail will also be the Friday Night Cocktail, a rare double booking, but the Verdita is a rare and special creature that merits the expanded coverage. A two part drink, not entirely dissimilar the the Sangrita, with which it is sometimes taken in tandem. Shoot the Verdita, then tequila. The Verdita is mint, cilantro, and jalapeno, finely blended in pineapple juice, then strained.  A good anejo tequila is called for; Embury partnered with Milagro tequila for a Verdita party last month that we filmed for our first throwdown clip. Please check back here Friday for the full story on how to make it, and how we do it.

THE RE-INVENTION OF THE TEQUILA SHOT

Tequila shots have a worrisome history, long-associated with idiot frat boys and poor decisions. As a point of no return, as the precise point at which the last night's big mistakes began, they are without rival. And yet there is an inexorable, eternal draw to their brevity and no-nonsense, balls-out summoning of the party gods, as well as their inevitable companion demons. But what if there were a way to transform the golden bullet's tendency to destroy, to change it into something that actually nourished at the same time that it liberated your meddlesome better judgment, sent endorphins rushing through your body while it inflamed your senses and that tasted amazing? And what if it glowed a cool evil green?