Thos who know me know that Madame teaches in London in the summer. While she is away, I "play in the kitchen" experimenting, riffing on ideas that require time and are sometimes a bit messy. This year is no exception. There is enough research out there that suggests that in general alcohol is not terribly good for us. This is being impressed on us by our excellent physician. However, we do like to have a contemplative drink at the end of the day. Enter the mocktail. The trouble is that most of the exlixirs, bases, and other products that go into mocktails generally don't deliver for us. They are eother too inspid, too light, too sweet, too everything - except tasty.
So with the challenge set for the summer of 2023, I reached out to Mr. all things cocktail and flavor, J.M. Hirsch of Milk Street. A simple request, one might think. Cutting to the chase, he recommended that I at lkeast look at the book, "Zero", by the folks behind the amazing Chicago restaurant called Alinea. I swear they must all own stock in exotic ingredients. I ended up buing angelica root, black cardomom, verjus, lots of (really expensive) vanilla pods, gentian root, dried fruits of all kinds, pineapples - to use the bark, not the flesh, bananas for roasting, chamomile, juniper berries, glycerine, all of the above for making the "back bar" items.
The point of this book is really that when we are making the back bar items, we may want to think like a chef rather than like a bartender. In other words we want to find ways of making the base concoctions taste and feel really good. And then bring expert bar-tending, flavor blending skills to bear on making drinks that use these basic items. Well, suffice it to say, I am no expert, but the blending - once the back bar items were made is definitely a big part of the fun.
For me the key gas been not to attempt to recreate the specific taste of any spirit, but to acquire the feeling. So the "gin" substitute doesn't taste like gin, per-se. But when made into a cocktail with some lime juice and a sugar cube, one ends up with something that feels like a daiquiri.
I was much more interested in just making the back bar items, and then playing mixologist - and learned a few universal truths.
- Balance is critical
- Bitter
- Sweet
- Sour
- Salty
- Deep flavor is critical
- Herbs
- Barks
- Fruits
- Temperature is critical
- The drinks are best served cold
- But allow them to warm gradually to release their full potential
- Serving method is critical
- Shaken with ice, and strained into a coupe - a little dilution helps
- Over ice with a mixer - more refreshing, but with less complexity
- The gin replacement
- The American whiskey replacement
- The tequila replacement
- The orange liqueur replacement
- The bitter amaro replacemnt
- The Jamaican rum replacement
- The sweet vermouth replacement
