Cocktail Experiment: Little Italy Cocktail

This is a drink experiment that went extremely well. Ramazzotti is one of my favorite bottles to go to for a drink at my home bar, and it is not infrequent that a night at work ends with me pouring a ramazzotti neat upon getting home. It is a smooth bitter flavor, and has an alluring sweetness, almost like coca-cola. This drink is partially inspired by the Gunshop Fizz, a wonderful drink from the Rogue cocktail book. It also partially was because we had run out of limes and lemons at home, and I wanted to make a drink for my wife using some fresh ingredients, and strawberries were my best option. I am a big fan of equal parts drinks (Last Word and Negroni are two go-tos for inspiration), and also minimal ingredients.

Little Italy Cocktail:
1 oz. Rye Whiskey (I used Templeton, which is exceptionally good for this drink, Bulleit also works)
1 oz. Ramazzotti amaro (Have not experimented with others, but the Ramazzotti pairs perfectly with rye)
3 strawberries

Muddle 2 strawberries and shake with rye and Ramazzotti. Fine strain into a coupe, garnish with a strawberry.

Hardly a Rogue Cocktail, but refreshing nonetheless and a wonderful vehicle for the Ramazzotti to really take center stage.

100 Reasons Vodka Is Kind of Lame 100-90

100. It is boring
99. It tastes like nothing in most cases
98. While it is entirely untrue that if someone drinks vodka, they are an asshole; if someone is an asshole, they are 99% of the time drinking vodka.
97. It mixes poorly with almost all Italian vermouth and liqueur (maraschino, amaro, campari, good amaretto). While a skilled bartender CAN mix vodka with these things, gin, aquavit, whiskey or even tequila makes for a much better balanced drink when working with 
96. This:

95. Blue cheese stuffed olives are disgusting and have no business being anywhere near a drink. It's like putting wasabi in coffee.
94. The extra dry/extra cold vodka "martini" is a chilled double shot of vodka in an inverted cone glass and is dumb.
93. One time, when I was watching Real Housewives of New Jersey with my wife, the "Italian" guys who were some strange combination of boyfriends or husbands or in-laws, went to a vodka bar and talked about how much they loved vodka. Not sure this really counts as a reason why vodka is lame, but it at least counts as EVIDENCE that vodka is imbibed by idiots.
92. The only people that drank vodka before the 50s were Russians.
91. http://www.threeolives.com/flavor/smores
90. The lame joke that the extra dry vodka martini spawned where the bartender holds the bottle of vermouth over the shaker in lieu of putting any vermouth in the drink. Or worse, when they look at the vermouth when they pour the drink.

Bureaucrats Have The Best Taste In Everything

One of the challenges facing anyone serious about making drinks in Ohio is our byzantine liquor laws which still date from prohibition. The state tightly controls and owns the sale of all booze over 20% in Ohio, and the state also decides what products the state will be carrying and which products it will not. This article is a particularly good summary of what happens:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/story/2012-06-18/five-wives-vodka-ban-liquor-alcohol-laws-abc-control/55674928/1

If you are looking for a bottle of Pinnacle or Three Olives ANYTHING, you will have no trouble finding Mountain Dew, Fruit Loop, Whipped, and every other chemically enhanced mouthwash. Pinnacle/3 Olives=Nickelback. Right now, strega, amaro, calvados, most rye whiskey, a lot of good bourbon, dutch gin, aquavit, yellow chartreuse, and a myriad other wonderful things are found only across state lines.

The Mint Julep

One thing that may interfere with the "cocktail revolution" that I am hoping happens the next few years (similar to the wine and craft beer movements of the last couple decades), is the snotty attitudes of many bartenders and cocktailians who are the voice of good drinking. Ordering a drink at a bar is, after all, supposed to be fun: an escape from the diurnal judgement and condescension life inevitably brings. The best drink in the world means nothing without someone to drink it, and there will be nobody to drink a good drink without patient bartenders to graciously and humbly put the drinks before people, despite their demands for Apple Pucker.

Craft cocktails are still on the periphery of the mainstream, and yet the show Portlandia already has lampooned the movement with precise accuracy. I can't exculpate myself from the criticism entirely: it's hard to not get judgey when you are asked for an Appletini or a "Martini List." "Awwww man relax, it's just drink and food" is the sage advice my friend, Ron Arps gave me a while back, and I find myself connecting with people most, when I take that advice. I think this video is a perfect example of everything I love about craft bartending: perfect execution, understanding, amiability, passion, creativity, showmanship. From the moment Chris McMillan begins talking in this video, I want to be seated at his bar. The meat of this video begins at 4:30, enjoy and please don't judge me if I steal this bit of prose to start reciting behind the bar when fall comes and I have more time to craft mint juleps.

VERMOUTH IS BEAUTIFUL/THE MARTINEZ & NEGRONI

I had my first experience as a bartender 5 years ago, and I still remember my first night very vividly. After studying a cheap bar guide I had picked up to study a couple weeks prior to my first shift (Harvard Bartending Guide, not recommended), I had memorized a Cape Cod, Greyhound, Sex on the Beach, Red Headed Slut, Washington Apple, and about 20 other drinks that I had no interest in ever drinking. I had learned the difference between bourbon and Irish Whiskey, and also learned that vodka was the easiest thing to make drinks with. Despite being 27 and at least somewhat experienced in life, I felt nervous stepping behind the bar for the first time.

That night, I unlocked the bar's front door, waded through the darkness to turn off the alarm, then fumbled for the light switch. As the inverted tin buckets hanging from the ceiling illuminated the dive, I was caught staring in confusion at all the bottles behind the bar. I had mostly drank beer up to that point, so the bottles were mostly things I had read about in my book, and the only one I had any experience at all drinking up to that point was Maker's Mark. So I tried to familiarize myself with each bottle, knowing what it looked like, so that when a customer ordered it, I wouldn't look like too much of an amateur reading every bottle trying to find the Grand Marnier. The last two bottles I took in were the Martini & Rossi Vermouths, one "sweet" and one "extra dry." I had never tried vermouth, as I had never had a martini at that point, or a manhattan. It was the one thing I had to try at the opening of my shift.

I opened the sweet vermouth first, put the bottle towards my nose, and before it was six inches away, I puckered my lips in horror at the putrid odor, very reminiscent of dirty socks, emanating from the bottle. Perhaps the dry was better? No, not by a long shot. I then poured myself a small taste of each and....DEAR LORD, one of the most awful things I have ever tasted. It was like drinking rain water that had been left to ferment with grapes and leaves in an abandoned tire. From that point on, I would never serve a customer a drink with vermouth as much as it could be avoided. Churchill, Bogart and Hemingway never wanted vermouth, as I had read in my guide, and those guys, from everything I had heard, knew how to drink. If the gin and whiskey in someones martini or manhattan is a good product, why taint it with the wet dog stench of vermouth. I decided that anytime someone ordered a martini I would pour the booze, and completely skip the Vermouth. I also participated in the trite bartender joke of looking at the vermouth while I poured, or swirling the bottle around the glass, so as to "comically" incorporate the vermouth into the cocktail. I feel great shame in confessing how horrible a bartender I once was, but at the same time, it is necessary to make clear: most of the bad drinking and bartending that goes on today is the result of misinformation and aggressive marketing, and not stupid people.

I also share this anecdote because I imagine my experience with vermouth was very similar to other bartenders' experiences with vermouth. By now, just about every bad bartender (myself included) has indulged in the vermouth "jokes," and miserably spread the lies of vermouth and further indoctrinated an innocent and undeserving public with the misconception that vermouth is bad and the more booze in a drink, the better. I guess this might be a valid opinion, I just don't think it leads to nearly as much pleasure in drinking. A well balanced vodka or gin martini, with a good dry vermouth, and maybe a dash of orange bitters and a twist of lemon, or even a barspoon of olive brine, is a great drink that can be savored, and lends an experience of taste and novelty. Remember this forever: vermouth is wine, it must be refrigerated.

Although it often tastes very bitter/intense/foreign/bad at first, vermouth by itself is an acquired taste that can be enjoyed very easily on the rocks, and is enjoyed very frequently by Italians as an aperitif. When a well selected vermouth is balanced correctly in a cocktail, it soars and brings a complexity and tenderness that a chilled cup of vodka in a cone glass is never going to touch. There are myriad kinds of vermouth, and each one will pair differently with different booze in a Martini, Manhattan, Martinez, Bronx, Negroni, Satan's Whiskers, El Capitan, or whatever drink it is you are using vermouth for. I blame bad bartending more than bad customers for the debacle. A bottle of vermouth left opened on the shelf for months is going to taste awful on its on as well as in a drink.

As far as the Heminway/Bogart/Churchill argument goes, Robert Hess has a great theory, that I believe to be true: those guys were drunks and by the time they were barking at bartenders to eradicate the vermouth and anything else that got between them and their spirits, they were all pretty much drunks who drank for the effect of the alcohol, rather than the pleasure or novelty of the drink itself. One of my new favorite drinks that uses vermouth, is the Martinez, which is rumored to be the original martini and dates back . It is a simple drink that requires only a few ingredients, and when made correctly, brings out the complexities of all its ingredients. I also have a soft spot for any drink that utilizes Maraschino Liqueur, which should be a staple in all bars, even dives. There are an infinite number of ways to balance a Martinez, but I find this ratio to be a very palatable one, especially when one uses Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth. It is a good starting point, from which one can tinker, I've seen equal parts gin and vermouth, 2:1 vermouth to gin, and they all were great. If you also live in Columbus, Curio at Harvest is barrel aging a Martinez cocktail right now, and I was lucky enough to try it. It tasted like a perfectly balanced Martinez with a wonderfully complex nutty finish:

MARTINEZ
1 1/2 ounces gin
1 ounce sweet vermouth
1/4 ounce maraschino liqueur

The Negroni is my go to drink at the end of a shift. It may be a little off putting at first, but I have a hard time imagining a person who can finish one and not crave another a week later. There are infinite paeans to the drink on the information superhighway, so I will keep it short. If you have never had this drink, make it your next one and pretend you are Mastroianni:

 NEGRONI 1 oz gin (Plymouth, Beefeater or Tangueray are my go-tos for the Negroni)
1 oz sweet vermouth (I recommend Martini & Rossi here)
1 oz Campari 1 dash Angostura bitters

About My Cocktail Blog/The Improved Cocktail

My name is Joe Peppercorn, and this is my blog about cocktails. I had been waiting tables for about 8 months at Basi Italia, one of my favorite restaurants in my hometown of Columbus, Ohio, when about a month ago, the owners asked me to replace their soon-to-be-departing bartender. The former bartender was a congenial and well liked guy who made well balanced drinks for our clientele, and while I found the task of replacing him formidable, I accepted the challenge in hopes of learning a new craft, and perhaps discovering a new drink or two that I wouldn't mind sipping at the end of a long shift. I had bartended in dives for about five years prior to this, and while I could pour a row of shots from a speed pour, perfectly measured, with my eyes closed, I had no idea what a negroni was, or much less, how it was made, and one of my first days behind the bar, when asked for a Sazarac, I replied, "is that a tequila?" This blog is a humbling chronicle of what I hope is, my transformation from bad bartender to craft bartender. My opinions will become more spirited and hopefully I find a way to tie this blog in with music in some way, as I feel that everything in life should be tied in with music in some way.

The owners of Basi Italia are wonderful people who have great respect and love for their customers, and create some of the best food I've had the pleasure of trying. I am very fortunate right now: they have put a lot of trust in me, and have given me a lot of freedom to do as I please behind the bar, provided the drinks and the experience at the bar match the quality, freshness, and honesty of our food and wine. I take it as a fun but formidable challenge.

I began my tenure as bar manager with a disastrous week of experiments with a method that went something like this: muddle every fruit and vegetable I could find in the chef's fridge, cover it with vodka, and garnish with a citrus wedge. It provided a couple of refreshing coolers, but nothing you could say matched the Lamb Bolognese or Porchetta we serve. Then I turned to infusions, fusing mango, cucumber, strawberries with gin and vodka. While the results were (sometimes) wonderful, the labor and the cost ended up outweighing the ultimately underwhelming results of such experiments. After a couple Friday nights of trying to sling delicious cocktails and mostly having to fall back on sangria, dirty martinis, and sticky drinks consisting of vodka with juice and elderflower liqueur, I came home to my wife desperately yammering that after five years of bartending, I had learned next to nothing, and if I wanted to craft truly wonderful drinks, I was going to have to start completely over, admit I knew nothing about making good drinks, and relearn everything I had learned. It was humbling to be 31, a father of 2, trying in any way I can to hang on to a life of playing music, and (now publicly) admitting that I knew nothing about the craft I was basically now possibly entering a career in. I had no idea where to start, and even less an idea how to separate the good from the bad. I had some very vague grasp on the aesthetics of what made a drink "good" but no frame of reference or way to define them. Anytime I am dealing with a subject, my natural inclination is to compare it to music, so I started thinking about music and what I might tell a beginner in music if they approached me. "Bach and Mozart" would be my answer, so the question then was, who is Bach and Mozart in the drinking world? A few internet inquiries ultimately led me to the same person: Jerry Thomas. Jerry Thomas was a sporting man, musician sailor, amateur artist, and extraordinary bartender from the mid-19th to the late 19th century. My understanding is that he is the first one to write a proper bar manual, and his instructions laid the foundations and groundwork that all goodbartenders are familiar with and incorporate still today.

I could go on a long while about Thomas, but this is ground others have described in much more florid and flowing language I am capable of. If you are interested in finding out more about Thomas, I strongly suggest reading Imbibe by David Wondrich, something I thankfully did the first few weeks on the job. I still find myself going back to the Jerry Thomas' recipes when a customer asks for a drink using a particular high end spirit.

And so now, a month or two into the job, I am getting more comfortable, getting to know my booze, getting to know my customers, and trying to find ways to make everything converge. I have a lot to learn, I firmly believe that if one is to be really great at anything, they must put in the 10,000 hours it takes to get there. I think I might be about 300 hours in, with an extraordinarily long way to go. But I think it will be fun, and I can think of far worse ways to make money than this. As I mentioned above, the Improved Cocktail is a wonderful thing to try on any spirit. When I visited the Chicago speakeasy last Monday, and asked the bartender for a cocktail with genever gin, he wisely made me an improved gin cocktail with Anchor Genevere gin, and it was one of the best drinks I've ever had. I took notes, and when a gentleman asked me for a drink with Avion Tequila this past weekend, I made, much to his dismay at first, an Improved Tequila Cocktail, we ended up both agreeing it was a wonderful drink.

 IMPROVED COCKTAIL (JOE METHOD): Build in an old fashioned glass:
2 1/2 oz. spirit (Old Tom Gin, Genevere Gin, Rye, Bourbon, Anejo Tequila all will work wonderful) 1/2 tsp- 1 tsp of demerara or other simple syrup
1/2 barspoon Maraschino Liqueur (curacao will also work, but is not as much fun)
2-3 dashes bitters (dashes are more than drops, add them slowly until they almost take over the sugar) 1-2 DROPS of absinthe
BITTERS: When using bourbon or rye, stick with angostura bitters, though peychauds can shine with certain bourbons and a dash of orange bitters never hurts ANYTHING. When working with genevere, the orange bitters are a perfect complement, especially Reegan's. When using tequila, use the Bittermens Xocolati Mole Bitters. You can also experiment with other bitters, this is where you can be creative and make every drink different from the last.

 Stir the sugar, bitters and maraschino together and taste, if the bitters or maraschino are overpowering one another, either balance them out or start over, once you put the booze in, there is no going back, and especially since this is a recipe you will be wanting to use your top shelf, do not put the booze in until you are sure you have everything else balanced. After putting the spirit (gin/bourbon/etc) in, taste and add more if the sugar is at all overpowering the drink. NOTE: BE EXTREMELY CAUTIOUS WITH MARASCHINO AND ABSINTHE, THEY WILL TAKE OVER A DRINK IF THEY ARE USED EVEN A DROP TOO HEAVY
A more authoritative take on the Improved Cocktail, by the cocktail professor, David Wondrich, can be found here

And so now I will use this blog to chronicle my failures and triumphs and share the wonderful drinks I have had the pleasure to make for the wonderful people that come to the bar. My writing will hopefully improve as I go, as will the drinks. Please feel free to comment or share your ideas regarding the drinks I post. Cent'anni!