Some cocktails you might find on our Mixology Tour
These are just some of the many speciality cocktails you might find on one of our Mixology Tours. Book now only $40/person. Tours are available Friday and Saturday evenings from 5:30-7:00
The Ramos Gin Fizz
The Ramos Gin Fizz is a classic cocktail from New Orleans created in the 1880s by Henry C. Ramos at his Imperial Cabinet Saloon. The drink recipe originally called for 12-15 minutes of shaking to be properly executed and it is storied that during the Carnival at the 1915 Mardi Gras, there was a corps of 35 Shaker Boys, shaking their arms off to keep up with Demand at the Stag, a bar that Ramos purchased in 1907. Ramos reportedly released his closely guarded recipe in defiance of the Volstead Act passing, in hopes that curious drinkers would keep his drink alive. Since then the Ramos Gin Fizz has solidified itself as one of the house drinks of New Orleans, as well as cocktail bars around this world to date. The appeal of this drink, that uses aeration and emulsification to create a rich yet refreshing profile, has reigned as one of the most notable classic cocktails because of its ability to be easy drinking while also allowing the botanicals of the gin shine.
SMOKEY MAPLE BACON OLD FASHIONED WITH CANDIED BACON
Now I’m not really one for hype – a drink’s either good or it’s not and today I’m going to let you in on a secret. It’s my original secret literally the best old fashion drink you’ve ever had. I’m not kidding. I’ve made this drink hundreds of times for celebrity mixologists and regulars alike with the same response – wow.
What excited me most about the Maple Bacon Old Fashioned is that – in keeping with tradition – the drink only has 3 ingredients and can be whipped up in any home bar in just a few minutes. Of course you can dress it up too and turn it from a great cocktail into an inspiration with a little bit of time and effort.
Put cracked ice into a mixing glass and 60ml (2 oz) of bacon whiskey, 15 ml of grade B (more flavorful) maple syrup. Cracked ice is important because it’ll cool and dilute the drink more than whole cubed ice would – and you need that to balance out this boozy tipple. To that add three dashed of fee’s Black Walnut Bitters and a dash of Angostura (optional).
Smoke your glass, in whatever way you can. Allow the smoke to sit in the glass while you stir the drink in your mixing glass. Stir a little longer than you usually might – 15 seconds maybe.
Allow the smoke out of your glass and strain your cocktail over fresh cubed ice. The smoke will likely warm the glass so you’ll need cold, hard ice to keep the temperature of the cocktail down. Garnish with the candied bacon and serve immediately.
WHAT IS IN AN OLD FASHIONED
As I’ve discussed before the old fashion drink is more of a style and less of a specific recipe. And the style calls for only four ingredients that every bar will have on hand; spirit, sugar, water (ice), and bitters. Any spirit, any sugar, and any variety of bitters in ice is, by definition, an old fashion cocktail.
Of course in the modern cocktail renaissance we’ve seen a groundswell surrounding the venerable old fashion drink with mixologists engaging in sporting one-upmanship of epic proportions. Just the other day I had a gin sage old fashioned with maitake mushroom simple syrup. It was fancy but not great.
The Disco Sour, created by Megan Deschaine at 492 King Street, is a cocktail combining pisco, Velvet Falernum, lemon juice and butterfly pea flower. Blackberries are used as a garnish and they are dusted in gold, continuing a disco theme. Remember when mirrored balls with their faceted surfaces provided a rotating change of color at the dance clubs? So, too, does this spirited beverage undergo a color transformation as the butterfly pea flower extract reacts with the acidity of the lemon.
The butterfly pea flower is mostly indigenous to Thailand, but has been known to grow in other parts of Asia, Africa, Australia and America. It is a brilliant blue and most closely resembles an iris. Despite its very mild aroma and taste, this flower is especially fun to incorporate into cocktail mixing because of its unique reaction to pH change. Exposure to acids causes a transformation ultimately resulting in a beautiful hot pink and violet beverage. It is difficult to measure exactly how many shades of color the cocktail willpresent, but every stage of transformation provides a visual stunner as dilution impacts the shades of blues, violets and magentas revealed in the glass. Deschaine creates the “disco ice” by tinting water with the butterfly pea flower extract.
The drink is based on the Pisco Sour that is made using a South American brandy called “pisco.” Pisco has been produced in both Peru and Chile for hundreds of years.
A take on the traditional Pisco Sour, the drink refreshes in the sweet-tart way of Collins and sours. Deschaine’s use of the earthy-fruity pisco is the perfect foil for tropical ingredients. The 100 percent natural butterfly blue extract is tasteless. The brandy base of pisco is moderated by the spicy-sweet-almond notes of Velvet Falernum.
Says Deschaine, “During the months before we opened the doors to 492, I spent a lot of time thinking about cocktails. This was the first cocktail I have ever created that a name came to me first. … I asked myself, how can I make the pisco sour disco? Boom! It’s going to change colors … I could not be more thrilled with its reception.”
These are just some of the many speciality cocktails you might find on one of our Mixology Tours. Book now only $40/person. Tours are available Friday and Saturday evenings from 5:30-7:00
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As I’ve discussed before