Mark Sexauer’s Cocktail Blog

   I received a package in the mail a couple weeks ago and with it came an interesting product.  I did a blog search and found many posts and reviews for G-Vine gin and also a little controversy?  G-Vine is distilled from a grape spirit that is infused with green grape flowers.  I had green grapes in the refrigerator, assuming they would play well with the G-Vine, and went to work.
   The Caipirinha is ballooning each year in popularity outside of Brazil of which it is the national drink.  With an explosion of great cachaca hitting the market as well as a thirst for “exotic” drinks, this summer is a big one for the Caipirinha.  The basic recipe is easy:

       Caipirinha
       2 ounces cachaca 
       2 tablespoons sugar
       1/2 lime, quartered
       
   Why did I bring up the Caipirinha when talking about a new (2 years old) gin?  I wanted to do something similar but using the G-Vine and its unique distillation ingredient as well.  I started replacing ingredients from the Caipirinha to shape my cocktail.

       G-Pirinha
       2 oz G-Vine Gin
       1 tablespoon sugar
       3/4 oz lemon juice
       5 large seedless green grapes.
       Muddle sugar, lemon, and grapes together in a tumbler.  After the sugar has dissolved and the grapes are crushed add crushed ice to fill glass and then the G-Vine Gin.  Stir to chill and serve.
       
   My picture shows my G-Pirinha with big ice cubes but I got a much better result and look the second time using small ice cubes.  I do like this gin, although not so much in a Martini it does make for an interesting mixer.  Try it, mess around and let me know what other drinks you come up with, Prost.

Article and Drink By: Mark Sexauer

   Bottle labeling is something I wish I had more time to care about.  I think it is very professional and shows an amazing attention to detail when homemade syrups and such are contained in a clean well labeled bottle.  There are a number of options when looking to label a bottle permentely and one of the most common is etching the glass itself.  There are a few different ways to do this, all three are easily done at home, if you’re not married they are cheap, and can be as simple or complicated as you want to make it.
   Glass etching with chemicals is the easiest method of engraving glass as well as the cheapest.  I picked up a bottle of Armour Etch for ten dollars or so at a craft store.  The general idea is to cut a design in a vinyl stencil and then apply some of the chemical to the glass for a short period of time.  Wash the chemical off with water and then take the stencil off.  I wrote up and printed out something I thought was pretty simple.  I taped the paper to the vinyl and then used an exacto knife to cut the lettering out.  This sounds easier then is, on top of that, I have little artistic talent.  It turned out okay anyway but next time I will tape the vinyl to the bottle itself, I had a problem with the vinyl moving around a little bit, if it was stuck to the bottle I bet I could get a cleaner cut.  I would also use an easier to cut font as well as make the lettering a little bigger.  I bought the blank stencil sheet but you can use electrical tape or anything similar to vinyl.  One of the draw backs of using chemicals is that the etch is not as bright or strong as engraving and can also streak or blot, especially if you are doing anything bigger then a letter.
   Another way to etch on your bottles is an actual engraver.  It is similar to the dremal, but for about $30 you can buy an engraver and bits.  This is where I would end up spending way too much time.  You draw out what you want to cut down and then go at it with the engraver, freehand.  The perk with using this method is that you can make the engraving as deep or shallow as you want and of course get a lot more intricate then you ever could with the etching cream.  Of course one of the draw backs with this is you need some sort of artistic ability to freehand engrave. 
   Sand etching is very popular as well for engraving glass and there are a number of starter kits to get you going.  The basic idea here is you have a sand like propellant that attaches to a nozzle and is blasted at the glass you want to engrave.  You have to cover the entire project to avoid scratching any other part of the bottle.  Same as with the chemical etching, the project is only as good as your stencil cut!  If you take your time and make a nice stencil, both of these methods are great.  Sand etching can take you a little further though as you can layer and shade with practice.  Another plus to sand blasting is the way the finished product looks compared to the chemical etches as well as coloring options.  If you have the space to set up something like this, I would go down the route of sand etching.
   There are of course many other ways to label your bottles and I will follow up in the future, but for me this is a start and much better then taping paper labels to my bottles.  I would love to see any other custom labeled bottles out there if you have them, hope everyone had a Happy Independents Day, Cheers.

Article By: Mark Sexauer

   Watermelon is a tricky fruit to tackle when wanting to use it in a cocktail.  It’s mostly water, obviously, hence the name, about 92% and the rest sugar and not much else.  The thing with watermelon that has always frustrated me when using it is the taste doesn’t transfer very well.  Call me crazy but watermelon candy doesn’t taste a freaking thing like biting into a fresh cut watermelon.  Juicing the watermelon is easy but the flavor only last about a day.  So to make a watermelon concoction practical to serve behind the bar, somewhat cost effective, not that time consuming, and taste like watermelon is almost an impossible task… almost.
   I had an idea in my head for a watermelon drink after some buddies and I cut one up and ate the whole thing.  When you cut the melon in half what do you see?  It’s round (like looking into the top of a glass) and has the look of a rim as well with the almost whitish rind.  See where I’m going with this one… I set out to make a watermelon cocktail that looked like a watermelon in the glass.
   Any other bartenders looking to experiment with watermelon keep in mind that the ENTIRE melon is edible.  That might not mean much for experimenting with a drink but it does mean endless garnish ideas.  Just throwing it out there.
   The watermelon is in the same family as the cucumber.  When choosing your melons, make sure they are pretty symmetrical and with a minimum or bruises and cracks.  (Insert your boob joke here;-)  You should also notice a melon fragrance along with a heavier than it looks feeling.  What’s funny about this post is that we are creating a “seeded” looking watermelon but the best varieties (of the 50+) are the seedless ones?  They are juicy, taste great, and of course have the added convenience of almost no seeds (okay, it’s not that funny.)
   Like I said earlier the watermelon is a very hard ingredient to conquer.  I started with something I felt would make sense; watermelon juice, some liquor, probably gin… maybe sake, and simple syrup or something.  This got me closer than I expected for a first run and with a little tweaking, came up with something that was drinkable.  The “look of seeds in the cocktail” idea is where I got carried away.  I just got done messing around with some gelatin for a future post and figured I could make gelatin seeds?  As I was experimenting though I toned down the gelatin a little bit so it doesn’t solidify all the way, just sort of gels.  The basic idea is to get the gel into a squeeze bottle and then after the watermelon drink is made, squeeze in the black watermelon gel into the cocktail to get the look of seeds!  Here’s the recipe and technique I came up with. 

       Watermelon Slushy
       3 oz watermelon juice (puree, strain)
       2 oz gin (I used Bombay dry)
       3/4 oz simple syrup
       1/2 oz nigori sake (nigori is unfiltered, milky white, and a touch of sweetness)
       1/2 oz lemon juice
       2 dashes peychouds bitters
       11/2 cup very small ice
       Combine all into a blender and puree, then pour into daiquiri glass and squeeze the “watermelon seed” gel into the glass creating a watermelon looking effect.

       Black “watermelon seed” Gel
       1 cup (8 oz) water melon juice
       1 cup (8oz) sugar
       1/8 teaspoon black food coloring (about 10-12 drops)
       1 teaspoon powered gelatin
       Combine all together into a pot and stir on low hear, put into squeeze bottle and refrigerate

   Some tips on this, don’t over-heat the mixture.  I found that getting the watermelon juice to hot will give it a kind of “dirt” flavor?  I tried to reduce the mixture thinking I could get a more potent watermelon flavor… it didn’t work.  When you are juicing your watermelon, I don’t know about a juicer, (mine broke, and I’m broke so I can’t get a new one yet) but when I put these chunks in a food processor then strained it I found that letting the juice sit in a container for an hour or two will settle any fine pulp.  Another tip, the black food coloring is very messy and does not come out of clothes; a little goes a long way.  Again I also fine strained this into the squeeze bottle using a metal small screen strainer just to get any extra pulp out and have a nice clean black gel to use in the drink.
   I think watermelon could be the perfect medium for this if you messed around with the ingredients a little.  I stopped trying to make a good drink and ended up spending my time messing with the gel.  The gel has huge potential, if you had a lemon drink you could make the gel lime and on and on!  It makes for more visual appealing drinks but there are drawbacks.  The drink itself has to be slightly gelatin or blended, if you put the gel in a cocktail it just sinks to the bottom.  The drink has to be a thick enough consistency to support the gel.  Let me know what you come up with at your bar and I can assure you, I will be posting more in the future about using flavored gels behind the bar.

Article and Drink By: Mark Sexauer

   I had a post not too long ago about a 1 liter barrel I ordered online and now as promised I’ll tell you what I put in it the other day.
   The directions say to prime the barrel for about 5 days with warm water, I’ve let the water sit for a month or so now as life has a way of slapping you around and making sure you can’t do what you want all the time.  Thinking ahead to what I’m going to age I went aisle shopping at the grocery store.  For about a buck I bought (among other fun things) a can of whole cranberry sauce.  When I got home I opened it up to see what I was dealing with.  The ingredients say: cranberries, high fructose corn syrup, and water.  Most of the can is the high fructose corn syrupy gel that the whole cranberries are in.  I ran cold water into the can and separated most of the whole cranberries.  I can hear some of you now thinking “I would have waited and used real cranberries…” well I don’t want to wait and everyone likes the canned cranberry sauce better anyway.  I measured about 4-5 oz and threw them in a food processor to be shredded.  Grabbing a bottle of Tanquery gin I emptied the barrel of the priming water, stuffed the shredded cranberries into the barrel and filled it with the bottle of gin.  My thinking is that when fall comes here before we all know it I’ll have a barrel aged cranberry gin that I can either make into bitters or use in a cocktail, or both.  I’ll keep you up to date and like the article says this doesn’t really have to be in the barrel for more than a month, month and a half so I can do multiple batches before the end of September hits.  Enjoy the weather, Prost. 

Article By: Mark Sexauer

I was very surprised at how little we as bartenders know about the history and origins of grenadine! I came across this question while reading a number of cocktail recipes from the 1800’s. There is a prevalence of “raspberry syrup” and other fruit syrups in a large number of old cocktails which was used in a manner very similarly to what we call grenadine today. Although behind most modern American bars I doubt you would find a bottle of raspberry syrup but rather a bottle of grenadine with ingredients similar to a cherry jolly rancher. Are grenadine and raspberry syrup connected somehow? Where did grenadine come from? Grenadine is similar to the Spanish and French word for pomegranate, is it from one of those countries?
Said to have grown in the Garden of Eden, historians can trace the pomegranates originating to the area we currently know as Iran and Iraq with the fruit coming from the Punica Granatum tree. It is showed to have spread from Iran to the surrounding Mediterranean areas and through trading, made it way around the world. The Pomegranate was brought to North America by way of the Spanish colonists and made its way to the west coast by Spanish missionaries by the 1700’s.
That’s the pomegranate, now what about grenadine huh? Well there are a number of theories about where grenadine originated and some think there is a connection with either Grenada or St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Both islands are just north of Venezuela and were discovered by the Spanish and later occupied by the French. The word for pomegranate in Spanish is Granada, in French it is Le Grenade. Both of these are similar and the island names are likely to have remained with the French after the Spanish christened them. Grenada was likely named by Spanish sailors after the city of Granada and has nothing to do with pomegranate syrup which is not an export of the country. St. Vincent and the Grenadines, which I think would make a cool name for a punk band, are a cluster of 600 islands with a total area of only 17 square miles. Again, no record of pomegranate syrup or grenadine as an export, pomegranates of which don’t even grow well in tropical climates! I think we can safely assume the only things these islands have in common with grenadine are similar names.
The use of pomegranates we can show have been with us since biblical times. They have of course been used in cooking and have been made into syrups by many cultures throughout the years. The pomegranate does not have enough natural sugar to ferment on their own so I don’t think it had any relation to alcohol until the 1800’s. If I am wrong, show me proof!
We can show that they were introduced to North America and prevalent by the 1700’s. So Jerry Thomas definitely had access to pomegranates. The problem now comes from pin pointing where the pomegranate syrup became grenadine, and then furthermore produced as a product. This is a mystery that will have to be solved at a later date. I have emailed the MOTAC and who knows what will come of this. I think starting with the first grenadine company would be a good start?
In the mean time, here is a recipe for grenadine that you can make at the bar.
Grenadine Syrup
2 cups 100% pomegranate juice
2 cups sugar (about 1 pound)
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
Combine all in a medium pot covered then simmer for 30 minutes, cool and strain into bottle and attach pour spout.

Let’s be honest, pomegranates are expensive, I don’t think it makes sense to buy the fruit and juice it but you can find high quality juice for a reasonable price. Another idea to make it worth it in the register is to put a drink on the menu or on special that uses grenadine syrup. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has made homemade syrups and they have just sat at the bar because I didn’t push them.
Any information at all about grenadine and its history would be appreciated and I will follow up on this article in the future with facts.

Article and Recipe By: Mark Sexauer

Here’s a quick article about a distiller who is tring to jump start a Russian whisk(e)y market.

   If you enjoy Makers Mark as much as I do you can sign up at their website to become an “Ambassador.”  It’s mostly a marketing strategy but you get in line to have your name on a plaque which they put on a barrel.  When it’s ready years later they call you up and you make your way down to the distillery to buy your own personal barrel of bourbon, pretty cool!
   I cringe every time someone comes into the bar and orders a Makers & Coke.  I’ve seen worse… 14 year Oban and Coke (I can’t make this stuff up!!!)  I used to think that people wanted to cover up the taste of the bourbon, rum, whisk(e)y, or any other spirit but I don’t think that is true.  It’s obvious they just want to dilute the spirit and it’s possible they are just creatures of habit and don’t want to venture out into other drinks.  I finally conceded to the fact that people like the taste or they wouldn’t order five in a row, so the issue then is the Coke (or Pepsi) itself.
   That is where the problem lies, like tonic water, these commercial syrups and sodas are made with High Fructose Corn Syrup.  I’m far from a health guy but a lot of scientists think it is the root of all evil.  Even if you forget the health issues, it is such a strong sugary taste that it excessively covers up the taste of the spirit.  There are numerous web resources on homemade cola and I have to say that I feel my version is better than Coke!  Like anything, it is a matter of taste and you can adjust the recipe as needed.  I cooked up a batch that I tried with Makers and thought it would be perfect to submit to this month’s MixMo.  Notice the amounts are similar to my tonic water recipe.  This makes creating a Makers & Coke at the bar easy to remember by using the same amounts of spirit, syrup, and soda water as the tonic syrup, or close to it.

 
       Anti-Cola Recipe

       4 cups water
       4 cups sugar
       2 Tablespoons citric acid
       Zest and juice of 1 lime
       Zest and juice of 1 lemon
       Zest and juice of 1 orange
       2 teaspoon ground dark coffee beans (about 15 beans)
       1 teaspoon fresh ground cinnamon
       1 teaspoon coriander
       1 teaspoon cream of tartar
       1 teaspoon unsweetened chocolate powder
       1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
       2 cloves

       Mix all ingredients except sugar and cream of tartar together into a large pot.  Simmer for about 30 minutes covered to infuse flavors and then let cool about 10 minutes.  Strain (rinse pot) and then put back onto heat.  Add the sugar and cream of tartar heat on medium heat covered for another 20 minutes.  Strain into bottle and refrigerate.

 
       Makers and Anti-Cola
       
       11/2 oz Makers Mark Bourbon
       2 oz soda water
       3/4 oz anti-cola syrup

       Build in an Old-Fashioned filled with Ice

 
   You can taste the sugar and there is a good deal of it in this syrup but the clean fresh taste you get from this is unmatched from any soda you can buy at the store.  This is relatively easy to make and intrigues your average customer.  A quick note on the color, it’s not a deep dark brown like most sodas but most people like it without comment on the color.  I think this can help bring soda out from being somewhat of a filler ingredient to a useful tool behind the bar.  Make sure you taste this with all the spirits in your bar and try upping the lime juice when used with good rum.  Mess with the recipe as much as you would like, but not before trying a Makers Mark and Anti-Cola.

Article and Drink By: Mark Sexauer

Here is an interesting article on Campari, or specifically the business machine behind it.

And Here!

   Here in the northwest it is starting get a little less overcast and with it comes a new sense of life.  I have lived in the Midwest, East Coast, and So cal; all three have great summers.  The difference though is that in Seattle, we appreciate the hell out of summer.  We have two seasons, the rainy one and August!  The more we get of August, the better everyone feels about being here.  My last post was a chartreuse ice cream for the hot weather and I have another summer drink that is sure to please.  It has an unusual ingredient though… a Gastrique?
   Gastrique is a fancy French word for vinegar simple syrup.  You can make them a million ways but a good base recipe was in the Jan/Feb 2008 of Imbibe.  One of the most common vinegars people have in their shelves would be red or white wine vinegar.  They are very popular in Europe and their Mediterranean neighbors; wine vinegar is a huge “untapped” resource for the cocktail enthusiast.  You can of course use any vinegar, or wine for that matter but there are countless varieties of vinegar that you can experiment with to cater to your specific customer base.  To name a few that you can buy online or at a hippie grocery store are; Beer, Rice, Fruit, Infused, All sorts of colors, Malt, Cider, Balsamic, Coconut, Palm, Raisin, Cane, Honey, and Kittens.  The last one I hope is fake but the point is that the list is huge.  With a little experimentation, you can create a very sweet, very unique tasting syrup to add to anything you would like.
   I am sharing with you my recipe for Lemon (hint of pepper) Gastrique, here goes:

 
       The Possibilities cocktail

       13/4 oz gin
       1 oz lemon Gastrique
       1/2 oz simple syrup
       1/2 oz sweet vermouth
       2 dashes lemon bitters
       Put all in a shaker with ice and shake well, double strain into cocktail glass.

 
       Lemon Gastrique

       1 cup (cheap) red wine vinegar
       1 cup sugar
       Zest and juice of 1 large lemon
       10 crushed peppercorns (about 1/4 teaspoon)
       1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (what for?)
       1/8 teaspoon coarse (sea) salt
       Add all together in a pot and bring to medium heat and a very light boil.  Bring heat down just a little and reduce by one third (1/3).  Take off of heat and let sit to cool and continue to infuse flavor for about 10 minutes or so.  Put into squeeze bottle, add a little vodka, and use for the next week or two.  Makes a little over 1 cup, so if you like this as much as I do, double and triple the recipe as needed.

   Once you taste the possibilities of this you will understand why I love Gastriques so much.  Enjoy this drink and any others you come up with, Prost!

Article and Drink By: Mark Sexauer

   Introduced in the early 1600’s by Charthusian Monks, Chartreuse is a very complex liqueur.  Only two people alive today know the 130 herbs and plants and the technique to create the natural green (or yellow) color.  Chartreuse is a liqueur that is so high in alcohol (110 proof) and flavor that you must tread carefully when developing new cocktails using Chartreuse.  If you do a Google search you will find countless recipes, how many are actually good, who knows.  I’m scared to try a lot of them, (a major drink recipe site had one with coca cola and sweet and sour mix?)
   Browsing through a book on Vodka the other day (Vodka, by Von Goeben) I came across a recipe for Vodka ice cream using Glucose.  I have seen many “Liquor” ice creams, mostly using gelatin or making ice cream and very small amounts of some alcohol.  When I saw this base recipe I tried it right away and was a little disappointed.  It tasted pretty bland?  But, the color and texture were great, I needed to do more.  Chartreuse came to my mind instantly because its strong flavor will cut through the filler. 
   I didn’t want to go down the route of a strictly ice cream cocktail, I like messing around and making liquids into anything but liquids but a truly enjoyable and refreshing cocktail just needs to be sipped!  So I played around and made a good, slightly strong Chartreuse ice cream and will use a single scoop in a cocktail to help keep the drink cool in these hot months as well as slowly release more and more Chartreuse into the cocktail converting everyone into die hard Chartreuse drinkers… (Insert evil laugh here.)
   The cocktail recipe I came up with to use the ice cream in is built upon one of my favorite drinks, a Sidecar.  I added the pineapple to help bring this from a brandy heavy drink to a lighter more summery drink.  The ice cream lasts about 5 minutes in the drink, but looks great when served.  As the ice cream melts, the more Chartreuse is released.  Give it a try, even without the ice cream; the cocktail holds its own.

 
       The Lost Soul

       11/4 oz brandy
       1/2 oz cointreau
       1/2 oz pineapple juice
       1/2 oz lemon juice
       1/4 oz chartreuse
       1/4 oz simple syrup
       Combine all into a mixing glass with ice and stir until glass is frosty.  Strain into small cocktail glass and garnish with a scoop of Chartreuse Ice Cream ( I used about a 1 oz scoop?) 

       Chartreuse Ice Cream

       1 cup water
       1/4 cup chartreuse
       1/3 cup lemon juice
       1/3 cup cane sugar
       1 oz corn syrup
       1/4 teaspoon cream of tarter
       Bring water, sugar, tarter, and corn syrup to a boil.  Let boil for a minute or two then remove from heat and let cool for 5 minutes.  Add lemon juice and Chartreuse, stir and put in a ice cream machine or pour into a bowl and whisk every 20 minutes for about 3 hours.

   Of course if this is something that you mess around with or want to put on a menu you will need an ice machine.  You can pick up a small one for about 50 bucks.  If you come up with something good enough maybe the bar will buy one for you?  Email me with any cool ice cream concoctions you come up with you like, cheers.

Article and Drink By: Mark Sexauer