Showing posts with label cocktails. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cocktails. Show all posts

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Baby It's Cold Outside.


Greetings, Jason here, just throwing in my two cents or so. With my 10+ years behind the bar, my near obsession with old cocktail books and bar tools, and complete submersion into the cocktail geek culture (magazines, blogs, competitions...) I'm the guy in charge of cocktails at the Great Lakes Distillery (or, as I'm affectionately known to the other guys at the distillery "cocktail monkey").

So, now that the introductions are complete.
F**K it's cold
Current temperature outside: -11º F (-23º wind chill)
Yeah, I know I'm from Milwaukee, I should be used to this. I'm just not a winter person. But, I'm going to try and stay positive. Let's talk HOT drinks shall we. You have your toddys, buttered rums, spiked coffees, mulled cider, glogs...but I wanted something different. I wanted a hot GIN drink. You don't hear much about hot gin drinks. Now, I'm sure there are some out there, but I'm not up for research tonight. I'd like a drink. Upon inspection of my fridge I found a jar of "winter spice syrup" I made 2 weeks ago. I was looking to make a syrup that would play well with old-fashionds and various toddys. Basically it's a simple syrup flavored with cranberries, figs, cinnomon, cloves, orange peel, allspice and nutmeg. I would love to post the recipe, but I didn't write it down. Oops. I've found that this syrup plays well with gin too.

-11º Below
1.5 oz Rehorst Premium Milwaukee Gin
.5 oz winter spice syrup
dash of fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 oz boiling water

Combine in a heated snifter and enjoy while hot.

Keep warm. Good night.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Artisan Spirits Rank High with Chef's

A recent survey of Chefs by the American Culinary Federation ranks "Micro-distilled/artisan liquor" as 9th out of 208 items on their list of hot trends for 2009. Other spirit and cocktail related rankings include;
  • 9 "micro-distilled/artisan spirits"
  • 16 "culinary cocktails"
  • 23 "food/alcohol pairings (beer, wine and spirits)" 
  • 41 "organic cocktails"
  • 49 "muddled cocktails"
  • 82 "martini/flavored martinis"
  • 84 "absinthe"
  • 138 "beer based cocktails"
  • 140 "vodka"
  • 163 "whiskey/whisky/bourbon"
  • 168 "rum"
  • 185 "breakfast cocktails"
  • 192 "gin"
Read the press release and view the full survey.
Looks like spirits are finally getting their due. For years the marriage of wine and food has been a given,  and beer has recently attracted a lot of attention from foodies. Hopefully people are beginning to recognize the value spirits can play in food pairing. In the coming months we'll feature some posts about good food/spirit pairings as well as upcoming food & spirit events. Stay tuned!