Sunken Harbor Club Originals Flashcards
CONTINENTAL NAVY
Milk Washed Lapsang Plymouth Gin, High Density Orgeat, lemon
5 drops saline
1⁄2 oz lemon
1⁄2 oz HD orgeat
2 oz Milk washed Lapsang Plymouth Gin
- shake with 1 medium rock and 3 small cubes
- strain into a coupe
Background
The Continental Navy is a dramatic retelling of the classic Army and Navy cocktail. The key addition of smoked Chinese black tea (lapsang souchong) delivers a musty aroma reminiscent of freshly fired cannons on a naval vessel. The Army and Navy cocktail was first published in 1938 in the New York Sun’s drinking column “Along the Wine Trail.” Cocktail writer David Embury promoted this recipe by including it in his book Fine Art of Mixing Drinks where he rebalanced the cocktail into an example of a traditional sour.
Key Ingredients
High Density Orgeat - this orgeat was a collaboration between Orgeat Works and bartender Thomas Waugh during his tenure at Death and Company. Thomas challenged Orgeat Work’s owner Adam Kolesar to come up with a unique expression for his cocktails. The end result was an almond syrup with a high amount of orange oil and a thicker body thanks to the addition of gum arabic.
Lapsang Souchong - Born in Tongmu village in Fujian, this Chinese black tea may be one of the oldest varieties in the world. It is known for its smoky profile which comes from a unique treatment of the leaves. The processing includes withering the tea in bamboo baskets above pine wood fires, and further drying over smoky pine fires once the leaves are oxidized and rolled. The lapsang method includes one more interesting step – pan-frying, a common step in making Chinese green teas. This brings multiple layers of smoke to any brew or cocktail.
Plymouth - this softer style of gin is largely associated with the British Navy. The Plymouth Distillery’s proximity to the Royal William Victualling Yard made it an ideal location for supplying naval officers with gin in the 19th century. Therefore, if you drank gin while in the British Royal Navy, it was most likely Plymouth.
Technique
Milk washing/Tea infusion - created by Dave Arnold in order to achieve the perfect alcoholic version of an Arnold Palmer. The issue with traditional tea infusions into alcohol is that the higher the amount of tea flavor extracted an equal amount of unpleasant tannins also makes its way into the liquor. Taking a step from milk punch Dave used whole milk to strip the tannins from his tea infusion. He then followed this by breaking the milk from the infused spirit using the citric acid. After the mixture is clarified, a small amount of whey proteins are left behind which will froth up when shaken in a cocktail leaving the drinker with a highly aerated cocktail. The general idea is to first intentionally overshoot the tea infusion, achieving a strong flavor suited for cocktails, and then use milk washing to reduce the harshness of tannins, while also providing texture.
WAVE BREAK
Street Pumas Panamanian rum, lemon verbena infused Dolin dry vermouth, cucumber syrup, Giffard Creme de Peche, lime, mint
10-12 mint leaves
5 drops saline
1⁄2 oz cucumber syrup
3⁄4 oz lime
1⁄4 oz Giffard Creme de Peche
1⁄2 oz lemon verbena vermouth
2 oz Street Pumas Panamanian rum
- place mint leaves in the bottom of a collins glass and muddle
- flash blend remaining ingredients with 8 oz crushed
- pour over 4 oz crushed into minted Collins glass
- garnish with mint and sail pick
Background
The Wave Break combines two iconic mint drinks from the tropical canon, the Mojito Caballito and the Missionary’s Downfall. Hailing from Sloppy Joe’s Bar in Havana Cuba, the Mojito Caballito adds vermouth to the typical Mojito mixture which lends another layer of botanicals to the cocktail. The Missionary’s Downfall also delighted drinkers of the 1930s but at Don the Beachcomber’s in Hollywood. This best seller was a frozen concoction composed of chopped mint, peach brandy, and pineapple served to guests as a palate cleanser or as an after dinner refresher. We bridge these two cocktails with the addition of cucumber which lends itself to fruit forward and botanical flavors.
Key Ingredients
Cucumber syrup - we produce this ingredient by juicing whole cucumbers (skin included) and Brix adjust the juice to 50 Brix. The juice’s sugar content is measured with a refractometer then the juice is combined with enough white sugar to bring it up to the strength of simple syrup. The syrup clearly leans on the fruitier, melon side of the cucumber.
Lemon Verbena vermouth - Native to South America, lemon verbena grows wild in Peru and Chile and takes best to warm climates with full sun exposure. Tea drinkers in that region combine lemon verbena leaves with hot water to create a popular herbal drink known as “te de cedron.” The original Mojito Caballito used the dry vermouth to enhance the botanicals of the mint and the infusion of lemon verbena into said vermouth takes this idea one step further. The lemon verbena is infused into the vermouth with nitrous oxide which rips out the citrusy top notes of the herb.
Street Pumas Panamanian rum - Distilled from molasses in Panama “at a site that shares lineage with the iconic distilleries of Nicaragua’’ and proofed in Jerez at the Navasos Palazzi distillery. This white rum serves a drier style giving drinks that call for a light rum a lot of structure. The Street Pumas line was designed by PM spirits to be an ideal collection of spirits for the creation of cocktails.
Technique
Flash blending with herbs - Fresh herbs, especially mint, are an exciting addition to a drink, even a flash blended one. But putting herbs in the drink mixer results in a ripped-up salad floating in chewy chunks throughout the glass. It’s not pretty and it’s not delicious. Here’s how to avoid this pitfall. The Tiki-Ti and the Mai-Kai employ mint in this way: muddle it in the bottom of the glass first, then blend everything else and pour it on top. Simple and effective. The drink receives the desired mint oils, but the leaves aren’t agitated into expressing negative flavors, let alone their shredded remains.
SINGAPORE BURRAPEG
Champagne, Clear Creek Kirschwasser, lime cordial, Benedictine, makrut lime leaf tincture, cardamom tincture
6 drops cardamom tincture
1 dash makrut lime leaf tincture
1⁄2 tsp Benedictine
1⁄4 oz lime cordial
1⁄2 oz Clear Creek Kirschwasser
5 oz Vouvray 2017 champagne
3⁄8 oz clarified pineapple
- carbonate
- serve in a chilled nick and nora glass -garnish with a lime spiral
Background
St. John has had a consistent fascination with a champagne drink found in the writing of Charles H. Baker, the Maharajah’s Burrapeg. The writing and story around the drink were intriguing but the actual recipe was not that different from a traditional Champagne cocktail. The major difference between the two was the presence of a large spiral of lime zest in the Burrapeg. How could we enhance that lime characteristic and make the Burrapeg its own unique cocktail? We decided to raid the ingredients of another cocktail that has plagued many tropical bars, the Singapore Sling. In this instance we are utilizing the early versions of the Sling which tend to be aromatic and dry - perfect for a champagne drink. The Kirschwasser and Benedictine were staples of early Singapore Slings and each provide their own counterpoint to the lime and sparkling wine. To further dry out the drink we add a small amount of spice from some house tinctures, cardamom and makrut lime leaf.
Key Ingredients
Clear Creek Kirschwasser - Cherry eau de vie. In German, Kirschwasser translates to “cherry water”, and is an integral ingredient in Swiss fondue, Black Forest cake and tortes. This expression uses dark, sweet table cherries from Washington and Oregon. This eau de vie imbues the sparkling wine with an additional layer of dry fruit.
Benedictine - A cognac based herbal liqueur. In 1510, the Benedictine monk Don Bernardo Vincelli created the recipe for this French spirit, which calls for 27 plants and spices. The three main ingredients are Angelica, Hyssop and Lemon Balm. It is found in every iteration of the Singapore Sling.
Cardamom and Makrut lime tinctures - Spice tinctures were ubiquitous in early cocktail guides as many American mixologists had to make their own ingredients before the mass importation of liqueurs from Europe. The cardamom tincture is adapted from Thomas Waugh who crafted this for the opening of ZZ’s Clam Bar. The cardamom pods are toasted before steeping in high proof vodka for 48 hours. Since makrut lime leaves are a fresh herb they require a little more hardware than the cardamom. The lime leaves are blended with 97% alcohol, then that mixture is pressurized in a whip cream whipper where nitrous oxide force infuses the blended leaves into the high proof alcohol.
Technique
Force carbonation - The issue with many champagne cocktails is carbonation. Adding more ingredients to a sparkling wine can cause the bubbles to go flat. The added ingredients can avoid some damage to the carbonation by chilling but they will never add to the bubbles. The solution is to carbonate those ingredients alongside the champagne so that the drink is presented at one uniform level of bubbliness.
PIMM’S TROPICALE
Pimm’s No. 1, Tanqueray, lime cordial, orange bitters, carbonated
3 drops saline
1 dash orange bitters
1⁄2 oz lime cordial
1⁄2 oz Tanqueray
1 1⁄2 oz Pimm’s No. 1
3 oz water
- carbonate
- pour over ice into julep cup with 3⁄8 oz lemon
- garnish with a cucumber slice and mint
Background
Inevitably, Charles Baker turns to the task of bettering the Pimm’s Cup in The South American Gentleman’s Companion, describing a party in Rio at which the Cup is denigrated and dismissed, but a defender suggests a version more befitting their tropical latitude. The secret ingredients: the not very tropical Rose’s Sweetened Lime Cordial and the downright English extra pony of gin. In England the Pimm’s Cup is often prepared with “lemonade” which colloquially refers to bitter lemon soda. This serve takes both of these ideas into account by taking the improvements that Baker mentions and turning the whole drink into a highly carbonated soda.
Key Ingredients
Pimm’s No. 1 - spicy gin based liqueur. Created by James Pimm in 1823 for an oyster house in London. The bitter herbs and botanicals found within the liqueur were used to aid in digestion. The Pimm’s Cup is often associated with Wimbledon and summer in England.
Lime cordial - This is our attempt to get to an “antica” Rose’s lime cordial using entirely natural ingredients. Rose’s was at one time a vital ingredient to cocktails and was often called for alongside fresh lime in cocktail guides of the early 20th century. It was the first commercially produced fruit concentrate, patented by Scottish ship chandler Lauchlan Rose in 1867. In that year, the Merchant Shipping Act required all British ships to carry lime juice, for the prevention of scurvy. Our lime cordial involves clarifying the lime juice which removes all the pectin and bitter elements of the juice. This clear juice can then be boiled into a syrup with lime peel and white sugar. The syrup is finished with citric and malic acid which preserves the acidity of the lime juice indefinitely.
Technique
Force carbonation - Unlike the Burrapeg this drink contains no bubbles to begin with therefore we need to add some water to the cocktail. The water will bring the cocktail down to an appropriate level of sweetness and proof for carbonation. The ingredients need to be chilled before carbonating as carbon dioxide increases in solubility, the colder the liquid. Once chilled the cocktail will be carbonated in a plastic bottle three times to ensure that all space in the bottle is taken up by CO2, not oxygen.. The citrus is not included in the bottle to prevent spoiling. We will be pouring the citrus half way through the pour of the cocktail.
YELLOW TANG
Black Cow Vodka, banana cordial, pineapple juice, lemon, lime cordial, passion fruit, vanilla
5 drops saline
5 drops vanilla extract
1⁄2 tsp passion fruit purée
1⁄2 oz lemon
1 1⁄2 oz pineapple
1⁄2 oz lime cordial
3⁄4 oz banana cordial
1 1⁄2 oz Black Cow Vodka
- flash blend with 8 oz crushed ice
- pour over 4 oz crushed ice into a swizzle glass -garnish with plantain strip and orchid
Background
This is what happens when a Blue Hawaii goes yellow. Bartender Harry Yee created the Blue Hawaii for the Hilton Hawaiian Village in the early 1950s for guests who were eager to taste original, island cocktails. His creation became an icon of Hawaiian, resort style drinking. Often misrepresented on chain menus, the original Blue Hawaii is citrusy and fruit forward. The Yellow Tang takes this idea and applies it to a different hue, yellow. If the Blue Hawaii is blue
and orange forward, the Yellow Tang is yellow and banana-y. This drink is a fruit bomb but should finish dry and citrusy thanks to the trio of lemon, passion fruit, and lime cordial.
Key Ingredients
Banana cordial - there is a wealth of banana liqueurs on the market. However, the new offerings come off as a bit green and bitter. They do not conjure the canonical experience of bananas for breakfast, proudly topping French toast. The solution is to use freeze dried bananas to perfume a liqueur with a more familiar banana flavor. The bananas rehydrate in the liquid infusing their essence. What liquid do we use - 99 bananas. The party shooter staple delivers high proof and a ton of artificial banana flavor. The freeze dried bananas will correct any of the harsh chemical flavors of the 99 and after the infusion leave the drinker with a high proof flavorful liqueur.
Passion fruit puree - At Sunken Harbor we will not be using a passion fruit syrup. Passion fruit will be treated as a purely acidic ingredient. The acidity of the fruit is essentially half that of lemon juice or 3% and we are going to take advantage of that bright impact. Uncoupling passion fruit from sugar also allows the bartender to pair the passion fruit with other sweeteners in this case lime cordial.
Black Cow Vodka - a highly textured vodka from England. This spirit is made at a dairy farm in West Dorset, England using the byproducts of their cheesemaking. The vodka is made using whey, as it is high in lactose and sugars to convert to alcohol with a specific yeast that will react with lactose. The product is triple filtered, including through a carbon filter made from coconut husk. Unlike a lot of other craft vodkas, the Black Cow is still fairly neutral in flavor but its mouthfeel is unprecedented which adds a creamy finish to the Yellow Tang.
Technique
Flash Blending - the foundation of the majority of drinks in the tropical canon. Flash blending can be thought of as mechanically-assisted swizzling using a drink mixer. Instead of manually turning a swizzle stick around in a glass, you have a three thousand R.P.M. motor doing it for you. It’s a fast method of dilution, aeration, and chilling that cannot be replicated by human hands. This style of mixer circulates and aerates, because it uses a firm paddle rather than the blender’s thin, sharp blades. It chops just enough of the ice to drop the temperature quickly, creating a layered drink with whole ice on the bottom, chopped ice in the middle, and an aromatic foam on the top. With ice in these three different roles, the drink is kept cold with less ice, preventing over-dilution. In the Yellow Tang, flash blending produces a large head which carries through the life of the drink
Flash blending isn’t just about using a mixer with a paddle. It’s about balancing ice between the mixer and the glass. With a measured amount of pure ice already in the glass, less ice can be used in the tin, resulting in a more aerated drink, since there are fewer solids to move around. After years of experimentation, we found this formula works best: a full cup (8 ounces) of crushed ice in the tin, and half a cup (4 ounces) of ice in the glass. However, in some recipes this is adjusted, depending on the ingredients and the volume of the drink.
EL PRESIDENTE
Comoz Blanc Vermouth de Chambéry, Hamilton White Stache rum, Panama Pacific 9 yr rum, Pierre Ferrand Dry Curacao, grenadine, orange bitters
5 drops saline
2 dashes orange bitters
1⁄2 tsp grenadine (50 Brix)
1 tsp Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao
1⁄2 oz Panama Pacific 9 yr
1 oz Hamilton White ‘Stache
1 1⁄2 oz Comoz Blanc Vermouth de Chambéry -stir with cubed ice in a chilled mixing glass
- strain into a chilled coupe
- garnish with a lemon peel
Background
This first appeared around 1915 in John B. Escalante’s Manual de Cantinero. Often conceived in the years since as Cuba’s answer to the Martini. The original drink was an upside down cocktail where a low-proof ingredient (e.g., vermouth) is used in greater measure than a high-proof one (e.g., rum). This form is fairly popular with both bartenders and bar goers today, offering a sessionable experience that’s lower on alcohol but still rich with flavor. But the original El Presidente from 1915 was there first, specifying two parts of vermouth to one of rum. While the original was “upside down” and modern takes are usually rum-forward, our version is a fifty-fifty split between vermouth de Chambéry and a blend of two rums.
Key Ingredients
Comoz Blanc Vermouth de Chambéry - In many subsequent American cocktail guides, the vermouth for the El Presidente was simply listed as “French,” or even as dry vermouth, the type of French vermouth most commonly available in the United States. But the Cuban original called for vermouth Chambéry, a specific style from the Alpine outpost of Chambéry with a distinct flavor profile. Haus Alpenz (producer of Dolin) revived the Comoz recipe specifically for the El Presidente cocktail. Comoz proceeds with a thread of bitterness from its inclusion of wormwood, and a finish of stone fruit and cherries. In an El Presidente, the attributes of the Comoz mesh with the other ingredients in a manner tailor made.
Hamilton White ‘Stache - Made primarily with lightly aged rums from Trinidad with a small amount of molasses based aged rums from Guyana and the Dominican Republic, White ‘Stache follows the age old tradition of taking slightly aged rums and carbon filtering them to take out the color and tannins while leaving in a depth of flavor gained in barrel that is hard to find in un-aged clear rums. Ed Hamilton crafted this rum specifically for Cuban style cocktails like the Daiquiri and Mojito.
Panama Pacific 9 yr - Panamá-Pacific Rum is the brainchild of San Francisco-based Haas Brothers, an importer, marketer and merchant of distilled spirits since 1851. Estate-grown sugarcane is harvested from the renowned Panameño growing region of La Provincia de Herrera, then small batches of molasses are fermented using special proprietary yeast strains. The mash is distilled in an antique Coffey copper column-still and rested in American oak casks.
Grenadine - We will be making our grenadine with fresh pomegranates. Bottled pomegranate juice is wildly inconsistent from brand to brand. Popular labels taste one-dimensional, while obscure imports are closer to marinades than juices. The color of bottled juice is off, leaving many classic red cocktails a burnt sienna at best. Alton Brown, on his Good Eats program, has pointed out that pomegranates, cut from the center, were not unlike citrus fruits and could be juiced with a simple citrus juicer. The seeds stay in the shell and are pressed like a grapefruit or orange’s juice vesicles. The fresh juice is Brix adjusted to 50 Brix with white sugar. The syrup is finished with orange oil from orange peels and some citric acid.
Technique
Stirred, Up - stirred, up cocktails achieve their proper temperature entirely during their preparation. Each step of prep should involve keeping things as cold as possible. Here are a few tips to keep a stirred drink at the correct chill. The mixing glass needs to be cold at the beginning. This is either achieved through a frozen mixing glass taken directly from the freezer or packing the mixing glass with crushed ice on the bar. While stirring the cocktail, a small handful of crushed ice in addition to the cubed ice will aid in proper dilution, this can also be achieved by cracking whole cubes. When serving the cocktail, grab the coldest glass the freezer has.
PINEAPPLE BOLA
Elijah Craig Bourbon, pineapple gum syrup, lemon, orange bitters, mint
5 drops saline
1 dash orange bitters
3⁄4 oz lemon
3⁄4 oz pineapple gum
2 oz Elijah Craig Small Batch Bourbon
- shake with 1 medium cube
- strain over a large rock in an old fashioned glass -garnish with mint
Background
This drink transforms the Derby Tropicale cocktail into a whiskey sour a la a Gold Rush or Penicillin. The Derby Tropicale was printed in Charles H. Baker’s South American Gentleman’s Companion and originates from Max Bilgray’s Tropic Bar near the Panama Canal. The drink morphs into its current form through the use of pineapple gum syrup balancing the cocktail like a classic sour. The original drink used pineapple juice which is pleasant but the extra water from the juice drowns out the whiskey. Concentrating the pineapple into a syrup solves this issue. The name comes from another whiskey drink found in Baker’s work that also pairs whiskey and pineapple.
Key Ingredients
Elijah Craig Small Batch Bourbon - Elijah Craig was a Virginia-born Baptist reverend who preached the word of the bible on the frontier but practiced the art and science of farm distilling. Craig is given credit for popularizing the signature American bourbon practice of aging the spirit in charred oak barrels, a step that is now included in the federal laws that govern the making of the popular whiskey. The whiskey ranges in age from 8 to 12 years with a mash bill of corn, wheat, rye, malted barley
Pineapple gum syrup - How do you strengthen the backbone of a pineapple syrup? Add gum arabic. Gum arabic is an emulsifier and thickening agent which enhances the rich texture already found within pineapple. It also preserves the foam of the pineapple better in a shaken drink, and half the enjoyment of a good pineapple drink is from the creamy head found on top. Gum syrup requires a different order of operations than standard Brix adjusted or simple syrup. Since gum arabic is an emulsifier, it affects water content. It needs to be incorporated into the water before the amount of sugar is incorporated. This is achieved by blending the gum and pineapple juice together on high in a Vitamix before sugar is added.
Technique
Shaken, Down - Shaken drinks served on ice require a shorter shake than up drinks. We are aiming for a small amount of dilution and a larger amount of aeration in the tin. Shake with 1 medium, shaking cube until the tin is chilled. The remaining water that is needed to balance the cocktail will come from the ice in the glass.
EL DIABLO
Siete Leguas Blanco Tequila, Clear Creek cassis, lemon juice, ginger syrup, raspberry syrup, cardamom tincture, soda
5 drops saline
1 dash cardamom tincture
3⁄4 oz lemon
3⁄8 oz raspberry syrup
3⁄8 oz ginger syrup
1⁄4 oz Clear Creek cassis
2 oz Siete Leguas Blanco Tequila
- shake with 1 medium cube
- add 3 oz soda to the tin
- strain over small ice into a chilled balloon glass
Background
Once relegated to obscurity, the El Diablo now stands as one of the few classic cocktails that Tequila can call its own. The recipe’s origins seem straightforward. Trader Vic included a “Mexican El Diablo” in his Book of Food and Drink of 1946, where he noted it as one of his own formulas. Concurrently, another cassis and lime cocktail was out and about on the cocktail scene. The Tequila Sunrise had been the signature drink of the Agua Caliente resort in Tijuana,
Mexico since the 1920s. It looked identical to the Diablo, with soda water instead of ginger ale, though its color came from dashes of both cassis and grenadine. Charles H. Baker also recounted a long Tequila drink known as the Mexican Firing Squad which involved grenadine, lime, soda, and bitters. In adapting the El Diablo, the major change was replacing ginger ale with ginger syrup, a move common to the Sasha Petraske constellation of bars. The sweetened ginger juice furnishes a blunt spice with an addictive burn. But we’ve also taken a step back toward the Agua Caliente version with a touch of raspberry syrup in addition to crème de cassis. The additional layer of fruit opens up the complex notes of the Tequila.
Key Ingredients
Siete Leguas Blanco - a Tequila producer that uses old methods of production and it shows. Siete Leguas cooks their agaves in brick ovens, extracts sugars from the agaves using both a tahona and a roller mill, and distills in small copper pot stills. This blanco contains notes of cracked pepper, citrus zest, and vanilla - all notes that pair well with a ginger forward cocktail.
Ginger Syrup - freshly juiced ginger and white sugar. Barman extraordinaire Toby Maloney created this syrup for Milk and Honey as a replacement for ginger ale and ginger beer in classic cocktails. It later found fame as a vital ingredient to the modern classic devised at that bar, the Penicillin. Its flavor profile is bolder and spicier than the ginger syrups that would have been known during the mid century tropical drink boom.
Raspberry Syrup - this syrup is made by sealing whole raspberries and white sugar into a vacuum sealer. Using a vacuum sealer to bag all the ingredients allows you to cold process this syrup, avoiding the changes to flavor characteristics that would come with doing it in a saucepan. We want fresh fruit, not jam.
Cardamom Tincture - the small amount of cardamom in this drink pops the ginger and gives the drinker a ginger beer like finish. This idea was taken from Court St Grocers who make their own ginger soda in which cardamom is a key flavor.
Technique
Shaken, Collins - You do not want to shake a Collins style drinks for a long time as you want to avoid over dilution. The El Diablo is served on ice and with an additional 3 oz of carbonated water which you need to take into account. With your Collins shake you want mostly aeration with a tiny amount of dilution and chill. Shake with a medium cube briefly.
SULTAN’S GOOD COUNSEL
Absolut Vodka, Lustau Fino Sherry, Za’atar orgeat, lemon, guava, Raki
5 drops saline 2 dashes Raki 1⁄2 oz guava
3⁄4 oz lemon
1 oz Za’atar orgeat
3⁄4 oz Lustau Fino
1 1⁄2 oz Absolut Vodka
- flash blend with 8 oz crushed ice
- pour over 4 oz crushed ice into etched double old fashioned -spritz with rosewater
- garnish with sumac
Background
An early proof of concept for what the revamped Sunken Harbor Club drinks might look like, this drink sought to use tiki style sensibilities with a distinctly “not tiki” spice blend. The idea was to lean on more rich and culinary flavor profiles, so a spice mix like Za’atar was a good fit, and all elements of the drink were centered around its profile. With vodka as the spirit base, the work put into the syrup is allowed to shine through, and the nutty qualities of Fino sherry
bolster the toasted sesame and provide a cleaner finish. Guava (a late and necessary addition) lengthens the juicy and floral notes of the sumac, and the mint garnish is used to further tie this drink to middle eastern culinary practice by balancing the savory thyme and marjoram with a clean, refreshing nose. The hope is that this cocktail will be a good showcase for some novel flavor combinations, while still being approachable and refreshing for lighter drinking palates.
Key Ingredients
Guava - Guava trees are native to South America and are grown in tropical and subtropical areas worldwide. A rarity in mid century tiki bars but a common ingredient in jams, jellies, and preserves. This fruit adds a floral finish and luscious texture to cocktails.
Za’atar orgeat - Za’atar is a common spice blend used throughout the middle east and north africa, usually consisting of sesame seeds, sumac, salt, and a variety of savory spices and herbs that vary by region. In our case, we lean on thyme and marjoram to get that savory quality without going into full food territory with other common additions like coriander and oregano. We first turn toasted sesame seeds into a thick milk by steeping them in water for 6 hours, followed by a quick blend and passing the mix through a nut milk bag. The milk is then heated and steeped with spices before being strained and brought to 50 Brix. The resulting syrup is deep and toasty with a noticeably “food-y” quality, undercut with sweet floral notes from the sumac.
Raki - otherwise known as Lion’s Milk, the unofficial national drink of Turkey made of twice-distilled grapes and aniseed. Raki is traditionally drunk mixed with water; the dilution causes this alcoholic drink to turn a milky-white colour.
Technique
Savory tropicals - Savory cocktails were once relegated to the Bloody Mary and its infinite offshoots. Spicy and savory drinks started to become popular once Americans started to embrace bolder cuisines in the early 2000s. During the craft cocktail boom, viral drinks like the Gordon’s Breakfast and the Spicy Paloma started to entice guests to embrace more savory offerings. At Sunken Harbor we want tropical drinks to get in on this action. After all, in the heyday of Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic’s, a Zombie or Rum Barrel would be served alongside boldly- flavored dishes. Could the seasonings found in those courses be integrated into the drinks themselves? Culinary drinks offer a strong connection to the cuisines most often linked with tropical cocktails, but also allow us to explore some unexpected cuisine pairings. In the case of the Sultan’s Good Counsel we are highlighting some middle eastern flavors in a flash blended swizzle.
PAN AMERICAN CLIPPER
Laird’s Straight Apple Brandy and Jersey Lightning, grenadine, lime, Vieux Pontarlier absinthe
5 drops saline
1⁄2 tsp Vieux Pontarlier absinthe
3⁄4 oz lime
3⁄4 oz grenadine
1 oz Laird’s Jersey Lightning
1 oz Laird’s Straight Apple Brandy Bottled in Bond
- shake ingredients with 1 medium cube and 3 small cubes -strain into a chilled coupe
- garnish with a pansy
Background
As introduced by Charles H. Baker, “from the Notebook of One of Our Pilot Friends Who—when Off Duty—May Seek One.” This is essentially a Jack Rose with an added dash of absinthe. The addition of the green fairy may seem like an odd choice however, absinthe and grenadine were often served together in France during the absinthe craze of
the early 20th century (this serve was known as “tomate” due to the color). The Pan American Clipper showcases how important a choice of absinthe can be as each bottle has its own unique botanicals and impact. We tested several different expressions with Vieux Pontalier winning the taste test. The absinthe is incorporated into the shaker so that it can louche alongside the apple brandy, lime, and grenadine. The louching will open up some of the flavors locked inside the absinthe.
Key Ingredients
Laird’s Jersey Lightning - Laird’s Jersey Lightning is so named for the historical turn of phrase used for New Jersey made applejack or apple spirit, when the colony turned state was a prominent producer. Jersey Lightning is unaged and bottled at 50% ABV. The nose showcases overripe apples and fresh nonalcoholic apple cider, along with orange- champagne marmalade. St. John started using this product alongside the Lairds bonded for his Pan Am Clipper at Fort Defiance. He commented to Punch magazine on how this improved the cocktail, “You get the benefits of the barrel flavor that plays nicely with the pomegranate, the baking spices that come out in the bonded apple brandy, but you also get this really fresh, apple-y flavor from the unaged. It makes for a lighter drink, the color is better, it’s more lively.”
Vieux Pontarlier - produced by Tempus Fugit and made in Pontarlier, France. It is distilled from a Chardonnay grape base spirit from Burgundy. Vieux Pontarlier, at its heart, is a small batch absinthe utilizing 100 year old alembic stills, and 19th century techniques along with regionally grown exceptional wormwood to produce a historically accurate French absinthe. Notes of citrus, sarsaparilla, alpine herbs, cacao are all present in this.
Technique
Shaken, Up - Shaken drinks are meant to be enjoyed right away. An up drink is shaken with ice, and then strained into a glass without ice. The aeration it gets in the shaker is especially important for an up drink, since the texture derived from aeration is all you have in the glass besides the liquid itself. Aeration also enhances aroma, which is a huge part of how a cocktail is perceived. For proper aeration, large, dense ice cubes should be used in the shaker. As you shake, the ice cubes “whip” air into the drink. However, larger ice takes longer to melt, which can provide a challenge with dilution and temperature. Adding three small cubes (providing dilution) alongside one two-inch medium cube (providing texture) hits the sweet spot, delivering a tipple that has perfect composition, temperature, and alcohol content.
MAI TAI
Denizen Merchant’s Reserve, Coruba, La Favorite Vieux, lime, Latitude 29 orgeat, Clement Creole Shrubb, Grand Marnier
5 drops saline
1 tsp Clement Creole Shrub
1 tsp Grand Marnier
1 oz lime
5⁄8 oz Latitude 29 orgeat
1⁄4 oz La Favorite Vieux
1⁄2 oz Coruba
1 1⁄2 oz Denizen Merchant’s Reserve
- shake with 5 cubes
- dump into stemmed double old fashioned glass (16 oz) with lime shell in it -top with around 12 oz crushed ice
- garnish with mint, orchid, and a lime twist
Background
The Mai Tai was the epitome of the tropical drink’s mid century popularity. At one point in the 1960s, airlines were serving the drink during flights demonstrating how all encompassing the Mai Tai had become. Trader Vic first concocted the Mai Tai in Oakland, CA as a showcase for premium rum. Vic had to change the base rum several times in his restaurants’ specs as old stock was depleted. The original rum in the Mai Tai was the now-legendary Wray &
Nephew 17 Year Old, which seemingly was only manufactured on one occasion. Its heavily flavorful Jamaican profile, so prominent in the early twentieth century, was sidelined by a push for spirits of more neutral qualities in the middle of that century, led by the world’s new favorite, vodka. In order to give the Mai Tai more of what it lost with the disappearance of the old Wray & Nephew, Vic eventually began using rum blends of complementary characters, an approach that continues to be a preferred key to the Mai Tai puzzle. Overtime, the Mai Tai traveled to Hawaii where Vic had consulted on several bars including the Royal Hawaiian which heavily promoted his drink as the new favorite of the islands. As time marched on, resorts had to adapt the Mai Tai to what was available to them and the drink took on a juicier profile than what Vic had created back in the late 40s. We will be sticking to the original mantra of the Mai Tai which is to create a drink that showcases great rum.
Key Ingredients
Denizen Merchant’s Reserve - This blended rum was specifically designed for Mai Tais. Denizen collaborated with Smuggler’s Cove owner Martin Cate to create the perfect rum for the iconic Trader Vic drink. The bottle is 80% Jamaican rum and 20% Martinique rum. Denizen sources its Jamaican rum from Worthy Park, Hampden, Clarendon, and the New Yarmouth distilleries utilizing a mix of aged and unaged rums from those sources. The Martinique rum hails from Le Galion S.A.E.M. distillery, the last producer of molasses based rum on the island of Martinique. This distillate is known as “Grand Arome” rum due to its highly aromatic flavor profile.
La Favorite Vieux - our Mai Tai uses a small amount of Rhum Agricole from this producer. Their Vieux contains a strong musk of fruit and smoke which lends a sense of gravitas to our rum blend. This rhum produced from fresh cane juice is a blend of spirits aged three to fourteen years in used whiskey and bourbon barrels. La Favorite is one of only two remaining family owned rhum agricole distilleries. The distillery now runs two copper single-column stills with an annual production of ~500,000 L.
Latitude 29 orgeat - a collaboration between Orgeat Works and Jeff Beachbum Berry for exclusive use in the bar of his New Orleans restaurant Beachbum Berry’s Latitude 29. This was designed with mid century staples like the Scorpion and Mai Tai in mind. In contrast to the HD orgeat, this syrup’s almonds are blanched rather than toasted leaving the syrup with a higher floral characteristic.
Technique
Hybrid shake - Drinks at Trader Vic’s are made in every way imaginable. But for certain drinks that needed something different, Vic created a method of agitation unique to his bars. Crushed ice is used in the shaker, which is gently and rhythmically rocked, ending with a direct dump into the glass. This provides a slow and steady dilution that allows sour-style cocktails to thrive longer on the bar. Shaking with crushed ice can be very unwieldy so we solve this issue by subbing in a small amount of cubed ice. The drink is shaken with 5 cubes, dumped into the glass, and then topped with crushed ice. The resulting drink has a hybrid of crushed and cubed ice.
Spent lime wedge - A lime wedge without its juice is placed at the bottom of the old fashioned glass when preparing the Mai Tai. This coats the bottom of the glass in lime oils and infuses the lime flavor into the crushed ice. This is an evolution of the Trader’s technique of shaking with a lime shell. The spent lime wedge is a cleaner presentation and avoids the pith of the lime that a shell contains.
REMEMBER THE MAINE
Wild Turkey Rye 101, Carpano Antica, Cherry Heering, St. George Absinthe
3 drops saline
3⁄8 oz Cherry Heering
3⁄4 oz Carpano Antica
2 oz Wild Turkey 101 Rye
- stir with kold draft ice in a chilled mixing glass
- spritz St. George Absinthe 3 times into a chilled coupe -express lemon twist into coupe
- strain cocktail into seasoned coupe
Background
Charles H. Baker chronicled this drink during his visit to Cuba in 1933. He recounts Havana, “the unpleasantness… when each swallow was punctuated with bombs going off on the Prado or the sound of…shells being fired at the Hotel Nacional.” War hungry journalists used the phrase “Remember the Maine” to jump-start the Spanish American war however, it was used here in the context of overthrowing the dictator Machado. St. John pushed for the Remember the Maine to be placed on the Pegu Club menu during his tenure there. Placement on said menu firmly planted the Maine into the canon of Manhattan variants served during the early craft cocktail revival.
Key Ingredients
Cherry Heering - a popular cherry-flavored liqueur produced in Denmark from Stevens cherries, spices, and neutral grain alcohol. An essential ingredient for many classic cocktails, including the famous Singapore Sling and the Blood and Sand. It was invented in the late 1700s by Peter Heering.
Carpano Antica - Antonio Benedetto Carpano is the individual traditionally credited, perhaps posthumously, with inventing the commercial model for what we know today as red Italian vermouth. The Carpano brand was formalized some years later in the 1860s by Carpano’s nephew. Antica Formula is an example of the vermouth alla vaniglia style: a red vermouth with added vanilla flavoring and sugar to balance. Note: Antica Formula is based on an old recipe, but it is not Carpano’s original vermouth recipe.
St. George Absinthe - The first legal American absinthe released after the U.S. ban was lifted in 2007. The vermouth starts with an unaged brandy (made by St. George) that they infuse with the trinity of wormwood, fennel, and star anise which is then distilled in a 1,500-liter copper pot still. After distillation, St. George performs a secondary infusion of mint, tarragon, opal basil, lemon balm, hyssop, and stinging nettles to color the absinthe and give the product a final layer of herbs. This absinthe is far earthier than the Vieux Pontarlier pairing nicely with the spices found in the Carpano Antica vermouth.
Technique
Rinsing - seasoning the glass with a highly concentrated compound for added flavor and aroma. In the case of the Remember the Maine we are spritzing the chilled coupe with the St. George Absinthe. Coating the glass in absinthe acts like bitters for this Manhattan variant as the absinthe is presented in its concentrated, undiluted form. We will also season the coupe with a spritz of lemon oil for some brightness before the drink is strained into the glass.
FROSTY WRAY AND TING
Wray and Nephew Overproof, Ting white grapefruit soda, lime, frozen
150 ml Ting
37 ml Wray and Nephew Overproof
11 ml water
3 drops saline
- freeze
- Serve with a squeezed lime wedge and 1/4 oz lime juice -garnish with a grapefruit slice and a channeled lime twist
Background
This is a slushy version of the unofficial national drink of Jamaica. The Wray and Ting is a classic highball, served at rum shops to its guests. Numbering in the thousands across the country, these colorfully appointed rum shops, often branded with the logos of the closest major rum producer, operate differently than the conventional bar. Rum is commonly ordered and sold by the bottle, usually 200 milliliter flasks, alongside a DIY toolkit: cups, ice, fresh limes and a non-alcoholic mixer (most often Ting).
Key Ingredients
Wray and Nephew Overproof - 126 proof white Jamaican rum. It is a blend of both column and pot stills—the latter method provides the punch of pungent, overripe fruit endemic to GI-protected “Jamaica rum.” The rum is so entrenched in the Jamaican day-to-day that it’s developed cure-all utility—it’s used to purify burial sites, as a tool in spiritual rites and as a killer cold remedy.
Ting - Introduced in 1976 by Desnoes & Geddes, the brewers of Red Stripe, Ting is a soft drink made from a concentrate of Caribbean grapefruit, which is more bitter and less sugary than varietals like the Ruby Red. It quickly proved a mystical match for market-dominant Overproof. Ting’s profile and distribution was rocket-boosted by Pepsi’s acquisition of the brand in 1999.
Technique
Slushy drinks - Slushy machines work in two steps: slowly and uniformly freezing a mixture and circulating the mixture to keep it in that state. The slow, uniform freezing results in a different ice crystal structure than a blender drink. The format of uniformly freezing a drink frees up the drink creator to put anything in a slushy machine including sodas like Ting. The Wray and Ting can be batched ahead of time as carbonation is not an issue here. Lime juice is not part of the batch, but added to order, to ensure the crucial citrus bite in the drink. Since it contains no juice, the batch can slumber in the frozen drink machine or in a freezer until you are ready to serve.
TIJUANA TAXI
Del Maguey Chichicapa Mezcal, Cap Corse Blanc Vermouth, Noilly Prat Extra Dry Vermouth, Suze, banana cordial, Bittermens Orange Cream Citrate
5 drops saline
6 drops Bittermens Orange Cream Citrate 1⁄4 oz banana cordial
1⁄4 oz Suze
1⁄2 oz Noilly Prat Extra Dry
1 oz Cap Corse Blanc Vermouth
1 oz Del Maguey Chichicapa Mezcal
- build ingredients in a rocks glass (12 oz) -stir with a large rock in glass
- garnish with a lime twist
Background
Created by London bartender Wayne Collins, the White Negroni has become a modern classic of the aperitivo hour. Collins originally crafted this drink while traveling in Médoc where he had to improvise with the local array of spirits to make a Negroni. His French take on the drink spun a whole new sub genre of Negronis. Variants of the drink like the Negroni Bianco from Dante started playing with this format. Spirit producers have even caught on to the ferver creating products like Luxardo’s Bitter Bianco. The Tijuana Taxi is a banana laced take on the White Negroni family. When bananas came to mind, so did mezcal as a base. Mezcal can walk the line between fruity, saline, and acidic in a way which shows off the banana’s special qualities. Note that a mezcal with pronounced salinity is key to keeping your banana bold. Bringing together banana and white wine is a feature of Don the Beachcomber’s Tahitian Punch, which suggested the dry vermouth accent.
Key Ingredients
Del Maguey Chichicapa Mezcal - The Del Maguey “Chichicapa” comes from the valley floor of the village of Chichicapa, made entirely from agave espadín and hand-crafted by Faustino Garcia Vasquez. This low-valley mezcal shows elements of grilled pineapple, green pepper, and rainwater. It reads soft on the palate, yet registers 92 proof. Chichicapa was the first village Del Maguey founder, Ron Cooper, began working with over 23 years ago
Mattei Cap Corse Blanc - A blanc quinquina scented with local Cedrat fruit. In 1872, a merchant named Louis- Napoléon Mattei named his aperitif wine after his native Cap Corse, a peninsula of Corsica that juts northward into the Mediterranean. Mattei discovered the beneficial properties of cinchona tree bark during a voyage to the
Caribbean, and he brought it to Cap Corse to blend with local wine made from Muscat and Vermentinu grapes. He added spices that made their way through Cap Corse’s bustling port, as well as Cedrat (citron), a thick-peeled ancestor of lemon. Extremely complex fortified wine with a nice bite of bitterness and citrus.
Suze - a gentian based aperitif native to France. The gentian root is sourced in the mountains of Switzerland and France. This root gives this potable bitter an earthy quality that pairs well with the vegetal nature of both the Mezcal and Cap Corse Blanc. For decades this ingredient was not imported into the United States which made it a valuable commodity in early cocktail bars.
Technique
Stirring on a rock - The Tijuana Taxi will be built in glass and stirred with a large rock of Hundredweight ice. We want to control the level of dilution of this Negroni so that it can evolve with the life of the cocktail. Upfront the drink should be cold and chilled but still concentrated when served to the guest. As the drink sits, the mezcal will mellow out and the vermouths will take a larger role in the cocktail once more water is present.
SPECIAL DAIQUIRI NO. 1
Appleton Reserve 8 yr, Transcontinental Jamaica 2015, Denizen White 3 yr, lime, passion fruit, honey, falernum
5 drops saline
1 tsp passion fruit purée
1⁄2 oz lime
1⁄4 oz honey
1⁄4 oz falernum
1⁄2 oz Denizen White 3 yr
1⁄2 oz Transcontinental Jamaica 2015
1⁄2 oz Appleton Reserve 8 yr
- flash blend with 4 oz crushed ice
- pour over 4 oz crushed ice into a chilled tumbler (10 oz)
Background
This drink is attempting to revive a lost category of drink, the petite flash blended drink. This was found in some early Don the Beachcomber menus gracing the Light and Medium sections with names like the Montego Bay and the Gold Cup. The small format, flash blended drink is a bit of a lost art, with the Mai-Kai alone currently preserving that art with the Shark Bite and their Special Reserve Daiquiri. These cocktails are a hybrid of the up and rocks styles, with more dilution than an up cocktail, allowing bolder flavors to shine through. Think of it as an up drink that evolves as one sips. The small amount of crushed ice in the glass opens up flavors over time and prevents the drink from getting too warm. Our Special Daiquiri No. 1 highlights Jamaican rums blending 3 unique expressions into one blend, just as Don might have in the 1930s. Appleton Reserve provides the age with its barrel tannins. The Transcontinental Jamaica gives intense fruit tones thanks to its pot distillation. Finally, the Denizen White provides dryness and tang due to its charcoal filtration.
Key Ingredients
Falernum - we will be making our falernum at Sunken Harbor. The syrup starts with a concentrated infusion of spices (cloves, mace, star anise, and nutmeg) into overproof rum along with fresh ginger and lime zest. The ingredients are vacuum sealed for 24 hours to create a vibrant infused rum. This infusion is cut with cane syrup, lemon and lime juices, and almond extract. Our recipe is adapted from Raines Law Room. The syrup pours at 50 Brix therefore, it can be swapped in for simple syrup in any recipe easily.
Honey - Honey needs to be in a syrup for cocktail use, as it’s too viscous to pour on its own, and needs to be cut with water to blend with other ingredients. When making a syrup, most people approach honey as they would sugar. Often bartenders will cite a preference for a specific proportion of honey to hot water, such as 2:1. The problem with that thinking is that honey is not equivalent in sweetness to raw sugar, as it already has water content. Honey is about 80– 84 percent sucrose. Treating honey as if it were sugar will result in a syrup that isn’t sweet enough, lacking the full
flavor complexity you want from honey in the first place. In order to create a precision honey syrup, a scale should be used to measure the ingredients, including water. The recipe we will be using is a true 2:1 “rich” syrup at 66 Brix.
Technique
Flash blending for smaller drinks - in order to achieve the same balance of water and chilling found in our other flash blended drinks, we need to scale down the amount of ice in the tin and in the glass. The 4 oz of crushed ice will mostly liquify in the mixing tin with the remaining 4 oz crushed ice in the glass will carry the chilling duties.
