Sapphire GQ Cocktail Competition

This Monday I was a part of the Bombay Sapphire & GQs’ most regional round for the “most inspired bartender” cocktail competition at the Wrigley Mansion.  The setting was wonderful with the view of Phoenix and Scottsdale and the vintage upscale feel of the Wrigley Mansion being fairly fitting as the mixologists from around the valley came together to put a new spin on one of the great classic spirits, gin.  The judges were an esteemed panel including Milo Rodriguez from Bombay Sapphire, Jason Asher head bartender from the Jade Bar at Sanctuary as well as a board member for the Arizona chapter of the United States Bartenders Guild, and another judge that unfortunately I only was able to shake his hand and get a quick name but cannot for the life of me recall it.

It was a great, laidback setting with the bartenders chatting it up in the prep area and people milling about tasting some of the drinks that were created as well as watching them being made for the judges.  After you made your drink for the judges you went back to the prep area and made samples to be passed out to the guests of the event.  The DJ did a great job providing the background music for the event and everybody was having a great time mingling.

Alright enough of the backdrop, lets get to the competition.  There were almost 20 bartenders entering the competition from various bars and positions in the industry.  The drinks varied quite a bit with some great presentations primarily represented as aperitifs in the martini form.  One of the great things about this competition was that after your drink was done and the judges tasted it, they would offer some feedback as to what they liked as well as some insights as to what you could do better and keep in mind for next time.

First place was Matt Mccullough with his Sonoran Summer.  It included one slice of jalapeno with the seeds removed, the juice of one lemon, st. germain elderflower liqueur, pomegranate juice, simple syrup, and of course Bombay Sapphire.  I liked the jalapeno with the seeds removed because it gave it that jalapeno flavor without that expected heat on it.  Great job matt and represent us well in Vegas!!

Second place was myself actually.  As I posted before, the name of my drink was Bombay Bliss.  It was clover blossom honey, basil, fresh lemon juice, ginger liqueur, egg whites, and of course Bombay Sapphire.  I was really trying hard to go with a very applicable drink that starred Sapphire.  The ingredients were nothing that you had to make at home or really prep besides the lemon juice, the rest you could get at the store and be ready to rock.  I could’ve used a tad more egg whites because the foam was not where I wanted it to be but overall I’m pretty happy with it.

Third was Dohls’ drink that I don’t have the recipe for but will update this post when I get it.  I know that it had raspberries and a ginger simple syrup but I think it also had lemon juice and some type of herb.  His presentation was fabulous with a little dry ice in the bowl on the bottom part of the 2 piece martini glasses.   The bottom is a bowl meant for ice while a V martini piece sits on top.  Great job Dohl!

Here are pictures from the event check them out!!!   Sapphire Competition

Sapphire GQ Drink Contest

So they are having a bombay sapphire drink contest and the winner gets a feature in GQ magazine.  Here was my submission, the Bombay Bliss

Clover Honey

Basil

Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice

Bombay Sapphire

Ginger Liqueur

Egg Whites

If you would like to help out, please text the code GQ4906 to 88704.  Thanks!!

New Orleans Cocktail history

So while I was in New Orleans for Tales of the Cocktail I went on a cocktail tour of some key points throughout the city.  Like the place where Antoine Peychaud used to have a shop, The Old Absinthe House and their original fountains from the 1800′s in the back room, as well as the museum of the american cocktail.  It was amazing to have so many historical cocktail spots also so close to each other.

The museum of the american cocktail was a wonderous collection of bottles, bar tools, publications, propoganda, and nostalgia.  It’s just one little room but it’s so interesting to see the history behind your profession and how it has evolved as well as adapted to modern day life.  Seeing how much the bartenders of old did without the internet to search for recipes, without an abundance of state of the art bar tools, or being able to acquire a plethora of spirits from around the world is inspiring.  Although my camera died before I got there, my phone did a pretty decent job of capturing some of the history behind our noble but forgotten profession.

Here’s some pictures of what I got.  Museum of the American Cocktail

New Summer Cocktail

So here’s the first of my summer cocktails.  I know it’s a little late but I didn’t forget about you.  The next one should be coming in a week or two, I have the idea but haven’t put it into action yet.

A Sweet Sake Summer

2 oz. Sake *

1/4 oz. tyku liquer

1/4 oz. Ginger Infused simple syrup

3-4 honeydew cubes

Garnish with a fresh ginger slice

I wanted to use honeydew because they are in season to give it a little sweetness but still have the sake come through which can be tough because it is such a delicate spirit that can get lost easily.  I used 4 honeydew cubes about 1 inch in size but you can tweak it depending on how ripe your honeydew is.  I started off with 5 but even as the night went on I moved it down to even smaller pieces of about 4.  It’s hot out here in Arizona, mix this refreshing libation up and enjoy the summer!

*A little note on the sake.  Sake comes in various styles and can vary greatly in its sweetness to dryness.  You want to go with a junmai ginjo sake that is drier to contrast the other sweet ingredients in the cocktail so you don’t just come out with a candy drink but a balanced cocktail.

Arizona Flair II recap

So we had the second in the Arizona Flair competition series once again at Ling & Louies this past Tuesday July 21st sponsored by snow queen vodka.  Not a large turnout, 3 locals, 3 out of towners.  I was one of the judges getting up pretty early for the prelims that were supposed to start at 11.  But as flair comps always are, it started quite a bit after that.  Since everybody was advancing it was more of a warmup for those who wanted to check out the setup and a little show for the business people having lunch in the restaurant.

The working flair round was great with everybody turning out a pretty good round although with all the rules it shook up the standings for the finals round.  James had a super clean round nailing his pours and working the five people who were eating as best as could be.  Jason Magers had a good round keeping it clean and used his time wisely.  The big names coming from vegas, Alexi and Vladymyr had some really fun moves but it felt like they were holding back and had a hard time with some of the smaller details in the rules along with the accuracy on their pours.  Alex Mochnov came all the way from russia and put on a really fun round doing some very innovative moves but the spills took their toll.  As usual Jorge Cacho had everyone smiling with a big one of his own.

After a nice dinner break having some delicious food at Ling & Louies, the finals got under way.  Jorge had a few bobbles but finished his round strong with his signature tin work.  Jason turned on the speed and put on a show and you could definitely tell he’s been practicing again.  Lexi as always had a great round with some interesting combinations and tough juggling patterns.  Alex Mochnov came in strong with some great misdirections and exchanges as well as bringing the crowd in despite his lack of mastery of the english language.  It’s gotta be the smile.  James came up next with a solid round looking as comfortable as I’ve ever seen him in a competition having a great time and minimal drops.  Last but not least, Vladymyr Buryanov steps on stage and puts on a commanding performance.  He works the crowd while throwing some insane combinations.  But despite a dropless round and the judges giving him almost perfect marks for his exhibition, his deductions in the working flair round combined with not going for the 25 point bonus couldn’t bring him the gold.

So the places when the dust settles (there’s a lot of dust in Arizona) are

1st Place – James Sordahl

2nd Place – Vladymyr Buryanov

3rd Place – Alex Mochnov

Leblon Tales ’09 Comp Recap

So yours truly was lucky enough to be one of the two finalists who got to represent the Arizona chapter of the United States Bartenders Guild in the leblon competition at tales of the cocktail this year.  My cocktail was called “Espirito Brasilero” or spirit of brazil in portugese which is their native language also playing as a double entondre on cachaca being the spirit of brazil.  I had half a lime quartered muddled with 2 dashes of angostura and rock candy syrup, then add pineapple juice and Leblon Cachaca and shake well.  Strained into a cocktail glass garnished with a rim of sugar, cinnamon, and dried orange zest and a pineapple wedge.

The event was an exhilarating whirlwind that I will never forget.  Starting off by getting lost on the way to the event, we were a little behind on our prep.  We were told to prepare to make drinks for 400 people to try (what they expected to show up) which was quite an undertaking.  They told us to prebatch about 200 cocktails so I zested about 120 oranges and dried them out in the sun and brought that along as well as squeezing over 200 lime halves.  In retrospect I definitely should have brought a big juicer.  Having thrown this drink together in a couple of hours due to the fact that I got the rules the afternoon of the day before the deadline I was very nervous about my drink not being up to par compared to everybody else especially since we were being judged as a team.  I was even squeezing limes up until the people started asking for drinks so we didn’t have time to set up our western theme that we had delivered to new orleans.

Despite my worries and much to my surprise people really liked it.  I was blown away when I was told by a lot of people that my drink was easily in the top three for the competition.  There was a catagory for the crowd as well as a few judges coming around tasting everybodies drinks.  They only announced first place which team Vegas got 1st for the judges (Andrew Pollard and Tobin Ellis) and Tad Carducci from New York got 1st from the crowd.  So I’m going to claim 3rd (at least in my own mind, ha) unfortunately I was not able to get the judges scores to know where I really landed.

The music was great, the crowd was awesome and it was a blast as well as a great learning experience.  They had a live band playing some wonderful music spanning some classic jazz to some latin music.  The people coming through were having a great time and were very friendly which is always the ultimate for me.  I love to see people enjoying themselves with friends, especially those they don’t get to see everyday. Thanks to all and I’ll see you next year!

Tales of the Cocktail 2009

This was my first Tales of the Cocktail and let me tell you, what a ride.  There was a barrage of people from different parts of the industry, new and exciting products, as well as classes and events to choose to be a part of.  Being my first time out and wanting to keep up on all the new techniques I went to all the classes and as many events as possible to get a view of what the top mixologists around the country were working on.

Thoroughly exhausting for those of us not used to walking around all day but with so many great restaurants, historical cocktail sites, and wonderful jazz music for the aficianado in me I couldn’t help happily wearing myself out.  That combined with drinking copious amounts of alcohol can take quite a toll on the body.

The classes ranged from tips on effectively tasting and classifying spirits to the cutting edge molecular mixology like dehydrating a negroni foam into a tasty bitter marshmellow.  The more you delve into this exciting industry the more you realize how much there is to learn.  The breadth of knowledge contained within the panelists is astounding.  But as even the panelists stated, even for them there isn’t a finish line for information.  You never stop learning.

One thing that was very interesting for me was seeing people from so many different parts of the industry and how they interact.  Coming from the flair world all of us pretty much were working in the same spots with the same job duties more or less.  But seeing people come into classes as promoters, ambassadors, bar owners, bartenders, photographers, chefs, etc. is very interesting in how they approach the information.

Aside from the classes, they had many events with spirited dinners, cocktail tours, and competitions.  One of my favorites was the traditional new orleans funeral procession.  Each year they have a funeral for a cocktail they think should be laid to rest.  This year it happened to be the red headed slut.  So they started with a eulogy at harrahs and then a huge procession with an 8 piece jazz band, coughin, and upwards of 50 mixologists from around the world marched through the streets of new orleans with a police escort putting to rest the red headed slut.  What a great tongue in cheek event.

Anyways, there are countless other tidbits that I could share but it would go on forever.  All in all, a great event that I think anybody who is serious about cocktails should attend.  Doubly so for me since New Orleans is one of my favorite cities.  Next year now that I know what to expect will be much smoother.  A few tips for those who haven’t been but now must check it out, bring your vitamins, keep drinking water, stay near the monteleone and try to moderate the drinking at night if you want to attend the classes the next day.