Spirited Cocktails

Recently, I had the privilege to visit the Maker’s Mark Distillery in Loretto, KY. In this post, I’d like to share my experience, what I saw, what I learned, and what I tasted. In the interest of full disclosure though, I’d like to tell you right up front that the folks at Maker’s Mark did pay for the travel expenses for my visit (my airfare and hotel for one night). I was not financially compensated in any other way.

With that out of the way, I hope you’ll indulge me. I’m about to geek out about whisky.

If you’ve never been to a whisky distillery, stop what you’re doing (well, finish reading this post, then stop what you’re doing) and book a trip. The greatest concentration of distilleries in the US is in Kentucky, along the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. The process of making whisky is fascinating, and while not everyone enjoys it the way I do, I find the smell of a distillery intoxicating (even before I’ve had anything to drink!)

The distillery at Maker’s Mark is no different. And it has quite a history! I was able to spend most of my day with Victoria MacRae-Samuels, the Director of Operations, and Dave Pudlo, the Distillery Education Director. I took about 20 pages of notes, but I’ll try to distill it down to the essentials. (I know – awful, awful pun.)

The History

The distillery itself was first established in 1805 as Burks’ Gristmill and Distillery. It was purchased in 1953 by T.W. (Bill) Samuels Sr. and his wife Marjorie. The Samuels family had been distillers for generations, but they had recently sold their family distillery and trademarks. They purchased the Burks property simply to have an already-established location (which happened to have a reliable water source on-site) where they could continue to produce whisky in small batches, mostly for family and friends. 

They started to develop their recipe from scratch. The main criteria that Bill Samuels Sr. had laid out was a desire for a very “drinkable” bourbon – one that was smooth and round, without too much burn. Rather than produce a variety of different batches that would then need to be aged for years, Bill and Marjorie settled on their proportions of corn, wheat, and malted barley by baking batches of bread.

I was always curious about the Maker’s Mark name (and symbol). Victoria educated me on this one. Marjorie Samuels was apparently quite a collector of pewter objects. And apparently, the highest quality pewter always had a “maker’s mark” to identify its creator. Inspired by this tradition, Maker’s Mark got its name, and its symbol (which you’ll see embossed on every bottle). Being a fairly creative person, Marjorie played quite a role in the bottle design, as well. They used hand-torn labels, and dipped each bottle in wax to evoke the style of quality cognac. Marjorie even hand-lettered the first bottles (and her lettering design is still used today).

The first barrel of Maker’s Mark was bottled in 1958, and the recipe hasn’t changed since. It’s clear from talking to the staff at Maker’s Mark that the heritage of the brand is very important to them.  Much of my conversation with the staff centered around ensuring that Maker’s lived up to “the way Bill wanted it.”

The Whisky

We actually have two different bourbons to talk about today. First – the classic Maker’s Mark. As we talked about earlier, Bill Samuels was aiming for a very round, “drinkable” bourbon. One of the ways that goal is achieved is through the proportional blend of corn, malted barley, and red winter wheat. The attention paid to the sourcing and quality of the ingredients at Maker’s genuinely surprised me. Not that I expected them not to care, but for an operation of their size, I was surprised to still see the degree of hands-on individual attention that was paid, including actual people physically inspecting the ingredients upon their arrival. The staff are well educated about the sourcing of the ingredients, and they’re given broad latitude to refuse a shipment from a supplier if it doesn’t meet strict quality standards. And of course, careful attention is paid to the water, which comes directly from a lake on the property.

We won’t go through the whole distillation process here, but I’ll say again, if you’ve never had the opportunity to watch whisky being made, find a way to make that happen. Most major distilleries offer tours – take one. It’s a fascinating process.

Once the cooking, fermentation, and distillation is complete, the raw whisky (what we’ve come to call “white dog”) is put into new American oak barrels to be aged. It spends between 6 and 7 1/2 years in one of the 24 warehouses on the Maker’s property, each of which holds upwards of 20,000 barrels. Each warehouse is 6 stories. Barrels enter on the top floors, where the temperature is highest, and where they’ll generally spend three summers. Over the remaining years, the barrels will be rotated down to cooler temperatures as new barrels come in.

Tasting the original Maker’s Mark, you’ll find, I think, that it lives up to the spec that Bill Samuels established back in 1953 – a smooth nose, and a smooth taste, very drinkable, with hints of vanilla, caramel, and baking spices, followed by a nice round finish (a little quick for my normal taste, but in general, a very good quality in bourbon.) It makes for a great introduction to bourbon for those who insist they don’t drink whisky (in other words, those who just don’t know any better yet.) And given how well rounded it is, I think it also makes a great palette for building cocktails.

Maker’s “46”

Now we come to the real reason for my trip – to taste Maker’s 46. A key fact worth underscoring is that this is the first new expression from Maker’s Mark since they started producing bourbon over 50 years ago. Maker’s has become a classic recipe – a “known good” quantity – and the general philosophy at the distillery has been “don’t screw it up.” But after half a century or so, it was time for something new.

What I found most surprising about Maker’s 46 was that it begins as fully-matured Maker’s Mark. Rather than start from the very beginning, the Maker’s team were seeking a new expression of a classic recipe. To achieve this, they worked closely with Brad Boswell – a 4th generation cooper from the Independent Stave Company of Kentucky. They evaluated a variety of different wood profiles, landing finally on the 46th choice (yup… 46) – French white oak staves that are seared on each side very quickly, at very high temperatures. Ten or so of these staves are then added to a barrel of fully matured Maker’s Mark, which is then aged for an additional two or three months.

The result is a bourbon vaguely reminiscent of Maker’s Mark, but bolder in every way. The aroma is more intense, with more apparent spiciness and caramel. The flavor follows suit – with a very similar profile of vanilla, caramel, and baking spices like cinnamon, but expressed in a much more complex way. I particularly appreciate the spiciness, and the much longer finish – a lingering sweet and spicy mix that I much prefer, especially when sipping a bourbon neat (which I will tend to do occasion.)

I think Maker’s has once again achieved their goal – a drinkable, accessible bourbon that lives up to the values set forth by their founder, but at the same time, presents a bolder, modern choice.

In reading this, I know I sound gushy. All I can do is assure you that my sentiments are sincere. I don’t do “reviews” very often because I won’t write about things that I don’t enjoy (I leave the bashing to others). When I do enjoy something, I’m happy to share it with you. Though my bottle of Maker’s 46 is off limits. Get your own.

Thanks again to Victoria and Dave for showing me the ropes and giving me the history I so appreciate (I love a good story). Thanks as well to Natalie Stone, Herb Stucker, and the rest of the staff at Maker’s Mark who took time out of their day to indulge my inner whisky geek.

Cheers!

Josh

Another cocktail courtesy of Rachel Maddow. Isn’t she the best?

This excellent holiday punch actually comes by way of Josey Packard of the bar Drink in Boston. You can watch Josey make the punch via this video from Rachel Maddow’s show:

Here’s the recipe (you can find the full details on Rachel’s website). Heed their advice – when playing with alcohol and fire, caution is the word of the day. Have a fire extinguisher handy.

Prep:

Acquire a pyrex bowl or other heat-treated (or otherwise fire resistant bowl).
Stud 3 oranges with cloves.
Roast them for 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees, until softened.

Warm the alcohol for the punch (immerse a container of it in hot water).
Set the spices aside, for the pyrotechnics.
Also warm the diluting ingredients.
Have some sugar on-hand.

Spices for pyrotechnics:

Ground cinnamon
Ground allspice
Ground nutmeg

Alcohol:

1 pint dark rum
1 pint brandy

Diluting ingredients:

Juice of 3 oranges
Juice of 2 lemons
Pint of apple cider
Pint of water

On-hand, for continued extinguishing:

Pint of apple cider
Pint of water

Procedure:

Pre-heat punch bowl with hot water from the tap.
Put roasted oranges in hot, newly emptied bowl.
Pour heated alcohol mixture over oranges.
Use a match to ignite alcohol.
Be aware at all times of how hot the bowl is by touching the outside of it frequently.
Toss pinches of the spices at the flame carefully.

Extinguish the flame by pouring the heated juice/cider mix over the punch.

If the punch doesn’t completely extinguish, pour more cider or water over the mixture.

Cheers!

-Josh

There’s only one thing I pay more attention to than spirits and cocktails, and that’s politics. I’m a total politics geek. Election night is my Super Bowl. I know – it’s sad. But it’s who I am.

Standing at the intersection of politics and cocktails is one of my favorite people – Rachel Maddow. Host of the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, she is a former Rhodes Scholar who holds a DPhil in politics from Oxford. She also happens to be an absolute connoisseur of classic cocktail culture.  For nearly a year now, Rachel has been seeking a breakthrough on one of the closely held secrets of the Obama White House: What kind of cocktails are the Obama’s serving at their infamous cocktail parties!? Finally, that breakthrough came this past week when Rachel herself attended a White House holiday party.

Rachel reported this momentous news in the Cocktail Moment section of her show this past Friday:

At this particular cocktail party, cocktails were mixed by Derek Brown – bartender at my favorite DC cocktail bar, The Gibson.

The menu:

The Emerson
Old Tom Gin
Sweet Vermouth
Lime Juice
Luxardo Maraschino

The Stone Fence
Laird’s Applejack
Apple Cider
Fee Brothers Aromatic Bitters
Mint

The Robert Frost Cocktail
Sherry
White Port
Bourbon
Sugar
Orange Bitters

Rachel ended this segment with a quote that demonstrates why she’s so awesome. “Remember, martinis do not contain vodka.”

Cheers,

Josh

As the holidays hurl towards us at breakneck speed, deciding what to get for that special someone (or your parents, your siblings, your boss, your co-worker, your doorman, your super, your postman, and so on, and so on) becomes a challenge. I’m here to help, though mainly just by way of taking advantage of other people’s hard work.

First – let me talk briefly about scotch. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure how scotch became the quintessential non-threatening, no meaning implied gift, but there it is. For some reason, Johnnie Walker Blue has taken hold as the guaranteed-to-impress brand. I actually do like Johnnie Blue, but let’s be honest – it’s a bit pricey, no? (At $150 per bottle, I’d say yes.) The folks at Chivas sent me a sample of Chivas Regal 18 to taste, as well as a sample of Johnnie Walker Blue for the sake of comparison. From my vantage point, they’re actually tough to compare, as they have very different flavor profiles. I find Chivas to be generally sweeter (in a caramel sort of way), with a nice smoky finish. With Johnnie Blue, the smokiness is more up front, and the sweetness that follows tastes more like bittersweet chocolate to me. 

Don’t get me wrong – both Chivas Regal 18 and Johnnie Walker Blue are fine blended scotches. But with Chivas 18 averaging $55 per bottle vs. Johnnie Blue at $150, I think Chivas 18 might give you a bit more bang for the buck. Just my two cents though.

As for other holiday gifts, for those not particularly inclined towards scotch (who are you, anyway?), there are many other options. I’d thought about pulling together a boozer’s gift guide, but so many of my friends have beat me to it, I thought I’d just go ahead and share some of my favorites:

-Hal Wolin of A Muddled Thought has been publishing an ongoing series on good gift ideas for the spirited individual in your life.
-Selena Ricks of The Dizzy Fizz has a two part gift guide: Part 1 with excellent DIY ideas, and Part 2 with a selected list of educational materials (you can never know too much about booze).
-Our friend James over at NY Barfly has a great list of places to drink over the holidays (we’re working our way through the list one by one!)
-Paul Clarke at Serious Eats has a very comprehensive list for the budding mixologist.

If you’re looking for something to buy the overworked and underpaid Spirited Cocktails staff (you know, me), I wouldn’t turn down my very own Meehan Bar Bag from Moore & Giles. Just sayin.

Happy holidays!

Cheers,

Josh

I had the great pleasure this past week of spending an hour with Dave Arnold and Nils Noren, both professors at the French Culinary Institute here in New York. Nils and Dave have each won acclaim in their own right – Nils as executive chef at New York’s Aquavit, as well as a number of restaurants in Europe, and Dave as an award-winning food writer and director of culinary technology at FCI. But together, they are arguably the world’s leading cocktail mad scientists.

It’s relatively safe to say that those of us mixing drinks at home will generally chill those drinks with ice. Not Nils and Dave – they use liquid nitrogen. At home we might make a hot drink on the stove. Nils and Dave use a device they call the “Red Hot Poker”, which heats up to 1,750 degrees Fahrenheit. They have great tools, inquisitive minds, and the courage to experiment and discover new and fascinating ways to make our beloved art more interesting.

As Dave was quick to point out, though, home bartenders aren’t subject to the constraints that professionals must confront. A professional bartender must be able to mix a wide variety of cocktails, using any number of ingredients and techniques. When entertaining at home, we have the ability to remove those constraints, and chose to focus on a specific cocktail or two. That frees us up to spend a bit more time, and maybe bring some of these more exciting techniques into our own homes.

Here are just a few of the topics we discussed:

Shaking

Nils and Dave have spoken prolifically on the subject of shaking. In fact, Dave presented on the topic in one of my favorite seminars at Tales of the Cocktail last year. But during our interview, Dave noted that while those of us more familiar with mixing our own drinks know how long to shake out of habit, many at home just aren’t sure. Their solution: shaking to completion. Rather than building a cocktail using juices and spirits then adding ice, Nils and Dave made ice out of their juice. As a result, you simply combine your ingredients and shake until the “ice” is completely incorporated into the drink. The cocktail they made to demonstrate used ice cubes made of clarified apple juice combined with Tanqueray gin (2:1 apple juice to gin).

Clarification

Speaking of clarified juice, these guys are not fans of juices that make their cocktails cloudy. Nils also feels that clarifying ingredients like juices gives a cocktail a better mouthfeel (and is also better if you plan to carbonate your cocktail, which we’ll talk more about soon.) As a result, they incorporate the use of additives such as ascorbic acid (which prevents the juice from oxidizing) and Pectinex, which is an enzyme that breaks down the pectin in apples and allows the juice to clarify. Dave talks more about this on their blog, Cooking Issues.

Liquid Nitrogen

This is just plain cool. Nils and Dave like to play with liquid nitrogen for a few reasons. Naturally, it’s fun, but as they point out, it also lets you chill a cocktail very quickly, and without any dilution. This can be a huge help if you’re batching large quantities of cocktails, as you might for a party. It also makes for some great cocktail theatre!

Hopefully it goes without saying, but just in case, it’s worth pointing out that Nils and Dave are experts and handling volatile substance like liquid nitrogen, and they’re able to do so in controlled conditions. Liquid nitrogen can be dangerous, so you should avoid trying this at home unless you are properly trained to do so.

Carbonation

Who doesn’t like a little bubbly now and then? We’re used to finding those bubbles in champagne, or the occasional splash of club soda or tonic, but Nils and Dave – as you should know by now – like to get a bit more creative. From the pages of a recent class they taught at FCI on Holiday Cocktails, they prepared a traditional mulled wine called Glögg. Glögg is a red wine, sugar, and spices like cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, cloves, and so on. And if I had to make a guess, I’d venture to say that Nils added a bit of aquavit as well! But rather than serve this cocktail warm, as is traditional, they decided to add carbonation, and serve the drink cold.

This is actually something you can try at home, with many of the carbonation systems now available to consumers. Dave advises, though, that with mixed drinks, you generally need to use a higher pressure setting than you would for normal soda water. He suggests 40psi (as opposed to the 30psi you’d use for seltzer), as the sugar in mixed drinks has a tendency to absorb more of the carbon dioxide.

Emulsification

Dave Arnold is an expert on hydrocolloids (he teaches a class on the subject at FCJ). These ingredients – such as Xanthan, carrageen, alginate, gellan, and pectin – allow for adding texture and shape to ingredients that aren’t normally friendly towards that sort of manipulation. Case in point: butter. Butter shows up in a few cocktails; most notably, the Hot Buttered Rum. But the challenge is that it tends to separate quickly, so you get a layer of butter on top, and the rest of the cocktail below. Not the ideal experience. The solution: a butter syrup, made with an emulsifier called TIC Pretested Ticaloid 210S (a mix of Gum Arabic and xanthan gum). The butter syrup will mix evenly throughout the cocktail, and never separate. The demo cocktail was the Cold Buttered Rum, which is served at FCI’s restaurant, L’Ecole. (Complete recipe for Cold Buttered Rum)

The Red Hot Poker

Once again, this is just plain cool. The Red Hot Poker is really just that – a long stick that gets very, very hot (1.750 F to be exact). It’s really meant to be a modern day substitute for the now forgotten Loggerhead (which was basically a fireplace poker that was used to heat drinks way back when.)

The advantage of the red hot poker is not only the speed and uniformity with which the drinks are heated, but at that temperature, you basically get instant beverage ignition, resulting is some lovely caramelization of sugars and citrus. It’s a taste you simply can’t get by heating your drink on the stove. Nils and Dave talk more about the Red Hot Poker on their blog.

Needless to say, you don’t want to try this at home (or maybe you want to, but you shouldn’t). Dave did suggest a solution for those at home, though: Lava Rocks. By heating stone over an open flame, then adding it to your beverage, you’ll get as close as possible to the red hot poker effect as you can without actually having a red hot poker. Dave got his set by purchasing a stone bowl – the kind used often in Korean cuisine, and breaking it into pieces!

Rotary Evaporation

Have you ever tried a scotch infused with dry roasted peanuts? Or an aquavit infused with Douglas Fir (which absolutely tastes like a Christmas tree)? The key to creating such things is rotary evaporation, which allows for distillation at low temperatures. To be honest, the topic is far to complex to describe here, but fortunately the guys have written an entire primer on the subject.

Wrapping Up

I can’t thank Nils and Dave enough for taking the time to demonstrate these cutting edge techniques for me. As I mentioned earlier, Nils and Dave teach classes at the French Culinary Institute – if you ever have the opportunity, go! You can find more about their upcoming schedule on their website, or by calling 888-FCI-CHEF. You can also partake of some of their work at the FCI restaurant, L’Ecole.

Skål! (Cheers!)

Today we celebrate the 76th anniversary of the repeal of prohibition (by way of the ratification of the 21st Amendment to the Constitution on December 5, 1933) here in the United States. Prohibition – for those of you blissfully unaware – was the nearly 15 year period in the early 20th century when the consumption of “intoxicating liquors” (our favorite kind of liquor) was outlawed.

Ironically, as is often the case when a society tries to legislate individual behavior, the population’s thirst for alcohol only increased, yet the few safeguards that had existed to protect consumers were no longer in place (after all, alcohol was illegal!) This gave rise to bathtub gin, moonshine stills, and organized crime efforts to import whisky from other countries such as Canada. People were blinded by poorly distilled spirits, and many were even hurt or killed as a result of the illegal activities. Plus, you couldn’t get a decent Old Fashioned to save your life!

Thankfully, this dark period didn’t last too long. Prohibition was ended at the close of 1933, and citizens of the United States could take comfort in the fact that their right to get bombed out of their mind was now enshrined in the Constitution.

So be sure to take this opportunity to celebrate your rights, and go out and have a drink with those you love.

More information can be found a repealday.org; a site created by our friend, Jeffrey Morgenthaler.

Cheers!

Josh

Our friends over at The 50 Plus Male – a blog for men of the baby boomer generation – asked us to write a guest post about cocktails and the role of the cocktail hour in social life. We chose to write about the cocktail we most identify with the baby boomers – the Martini. You can find the full post over at The 50 Plus Male. The boozy part is provided below.

One of the best parts of writing about cocktails and spirits is that the audience is nearly universal. I actually come from a technology background where, with a few exceptions, there wasn’t much diversity in the crowd. But writing about spirits on Spirited Cocktails, I’ve met so many people from so many different backgrounds and walks of life, and it truly enriches my experience.

All of that being said, there are a few mainstay groups of the cocktail world, and one of them includes men of the baby-boomer generation. When I meet these guys at various bars and events around New York City, they’re generally the type that appreciate the classic cocktails – Manhattans, Old Fashioneds, Gimlets and so on. And of all the cocktails that the 50 plus male seem to appreciate, none comes up more frequently than the Martini.

There’s a folk lore surrounding martini. It’s probably something we should blame on James Bond, but it seems that everyone has their own recipe for the perfect martini. To be clear, though, in my mind, a martini is not any cocktail served in a martini glass (Appletinis are most certainly not martinis). Again, in my mind, a martini is a cocktail made with gin, not vodka. Many of you may prefer vodka, and that is certainly your choice, but if you’ve never prepared a classic gin martini with a quality gin, I strongly urge you to give it a try.

So for those of you who may not be used to preparing your own martini, I wanted to share two variations that might help you get started.

The first is the classic dry martini. This recipe dates back to around 1895, and is my preferred method when preparing martinis for my guests. The recipe is as follows:

1.5oz gin (I prefer a London Dry gin, such as Beefeater 24)
1.5oz French dry vermouth
1-2 dashes orange bitters

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with fresh ice, stir well to chill, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a peel of orange or lemon.

Those that prefer the extra dry variety may prefer this more modern recipe:

3 oz gin
1/8oz French dry vermouth

To make this extra dry, add ice and the vermouth to your mixing glass. Swirl to coat the ice with vermouth, and strain off the excess. Add your gin, stir well to chill, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. The traditional garnish for this variation is a pitted Spanish olive.

A few notes:

-Yes, I said stirred. The general rule of thumb is that any cocktail made with only spirits (no citrus juice, sugar, etc.) should be stirred. A shaken martini is a cloudy martini, and probably a bit too watered down as well.
-The orange bitters in the classic recipe may be unfamiliar to you, but trust me – it’s a worthy addition. A dash or two of bitters in any cocktail can go a long way towards providing the depth and character that makes a good cocktail great. If you can’t find orange bitters in your local grocery or liquor store, you can order them online from my friend Greg at Cocktail Kingdom.
-As with any cocktail (just as in cooking), the quality of ingredients matters. Use a cheap gin, and you’ll get what you paid for. Gin has seen a wonderful resurgence in the past decade, and there are some wonderful, high quality gins for you to chose from. For a martini, a classic London Dry like Beefeater or Tanqueray probably works best. But some other brands worth trying for your home bar include Plymouth, Hendricks, and my favorite hometown gin, Blue Coat (distilled in Philadelphia!)

Cheers!

-Josh