Aphrodisiacs, with a Twist! is designed for both home and professional bartenders, foodies, cocktail enthusiasts, couples, entertainers and theme parties.  Fruits, vegetables, spices and herbs that are historical aphrodisiacs are used in making over 100 original “craft” style cocktail recipes that are creatively approachable to home bartenders while keeping the attention of the professionals.  Today, people are drinking in ways never seen before in recorded history.  Alcoholic foams, mists, gelatins, exotic fruits and vegetables are being married with homemade liqueurs, bitters and complex syrups.  The world of the “craft cocktail” is vast and growing exponentially along with spirits like mezcal, cachaca and shochu.  Home bartending is and has been a popular hobby throughout the 20^th century and with more people opting to entertain at home the hobby bartender has more tools and passion at their disposal then ever thought imaginable.

Some of the more interesting sections of the book are carrots, mustard, damiana and even cheese.  Yes, there will be a couple cheese cocktails.

Check out some of the people involved in the project:

Photographer: Charity Lynne, you can check out her website here.

Food Stylist: Kimberly Swedelius, she maintains her site here.

Book Design: Kate Basart, Union Page Works is here.

The Studio: In the old Bemis building in Seattle’s SoDo district, their website is here.

Follow me on my brand new twitter feed here.  I will be updating my twitter weekly with shots and comments about the photo-shoots and general progress about the book.  A facebook page will be coming soon!  For those of you with Instagram accounts you can search me by name.  I’ll leave you with a teaser drink picture from the carrot section!

By: Mark Sexauer

DAY 1

The flight to Guadalajara felt surprisingly short from Seattle.  The feeling of finely landing was overwhelming.  I’ve been working so much that this time away has been badly needed.  I was hoping to get a little more weather out of Guadalajara, which is known for being nearly perfect, but it was rainy season.

Herradura was kind enough to bring our Director of Operations, Jason, and myself to the distillery for a full tour and tasting of a barrel we bought just for the restaurant.  It’s a barrel program that was started by Brown/Foreman and we are lucky enough to be the first account in Washington State to sign on.  The program involves Herradura taking their reposado and aging it in a second barrel for a short period of time on top of their average aging process.  This barrel is then bottled with custom labels and both the barrel and bottles are sold to the restaurant or bar.

Guadalajara is a beautiful city with a deep history which seems to be woven into the tequila world in one way or another.  It’s location in Jalisco, and size, makes it the hub before starting any tequila adventure.  Jalisco is not the only state that Tequila can come from but it is the most famous and well known.  Tomorrow will be spent out on agave fields and in the distillery seeing how the tequila making process was done in the past as well as the modern techniques they use today.

DAY 2

Today was a day that I will remember for the rest of my life.  My passion for Tequila has stuck with for many years now and I’m thankful to have this experience under my belt.  Waking up in Guadalajara we meet back up with Ruben Aceves Vidrio, global brand ambassador for Herradura Tequila.  We got in his car and headed to the Herradura distillery in Amatitan.  The complex is massive in size and keeps you silent, in awe, from the minute you enter the gate.  Rock and stone roads stretch around the property with very detailed stone designs and all of it showing it’s age.  Grass and trees are everywhere (more on the trees later).  Old buildings and houses with small decorative details and bright colors greet you at the gate and turn into larger building housing the fermentation tanks, pot still and ovens.  Beyond all the stone streets and brick buildings are sprawling fields with agaves growing in various stages of life.

Starting the tour was a walk through of some of the homes that are still in use today.  There are about 30 families that still live and work at the distillery in some fashion.  The family that used to own Herradura is no longer a part of the company but they hold a small property that is used as a weekend home.  The entire complex is self-sufficient including a large library and small church.  Moving down from the houses we walk past some of the large brick buildings into a lower open area.  In the middle is a huge stone and brick hanger that is the roof for all the ovens used to cook the agaves.  They still use ovens and slow cook for 26 hours or so to slowly convert (breakdown) all the starches into sugars and turn the agave a golden to dark brown.

These are unloaded from the other side of the ovens and put into shredders that rip apart and “juice” the agave.  The juice is pumped into large open tanks with holes between them to help with consistency.  This juice is in turn pumped to another warehouse that hold two story high open topped tanks used for open fermentation.  The warehouse has huge openings all around the building to allow it be exposed to all the airborne yeast.  I had said that there are trees everywhere, there are fruit trees mostly, lime and pomegranate but lots of other kinds of trees and bushes, all have been on the property since it’s beginnings.  There is such a high concentration of natural yeasts in the air that the agave juice is almost boiling with yeast activity in just a day or so.  Fermentation lasts about 4 days.  We went up top to the fermentation tanks and tasted the tequila (technically not tequila yet) in it’s various fermentation stages.  Agave wine is essentially what is pumped into the pot stills in the building next door.

There is not a column still on the property, all pot stills, and although very automated there is quiet a bit of hands on labor that goes into such a large operation.  We were able to taste the tequila in its first distillation and second.  The slightly warm blanco was a burst of flavor and agave notes on the palette.  We moved from the distillation warehouse into the storage warehouse.  Herradura gets their new American white oak from a cooperage in bourbon country.  They use each barrel 9 times then shred them or make planters.  They are never sold.

Leaving the aging warehouse we move past the bottling operation.  Very automated of course but very impressive.  Ruben walked us through the old distillery which is of course not in use and used as a sort of museum.  All stone with deep wells which were the old open fermentation tanks.  This followed through like a cave into the old pot stills which where of course heated by a wood fire underneath.  This room followed into another stone room which housed all the barrels for the program.  A nice display with signed barrels along one wall towards the back in the middle in a small opening in the stone were our three barrels waiting to be tasted.  Each one was sealed and labeled with details about the distillation batch.  We were given glasses and ripped the seal out of barrel one to start the tasting.  I will say that it was not easy to choose and there was lots of back and forth as to which one to buy.  We ended up deciding on barrel number one.

After the barrel was chosen and the tour coming to an end we had lunch in a field and drank through all kinds of tequila including a new favorite.  Herradura’s Blanco 92 proof.  It pains me that this tequila is not available in the United States.  So much so that I had to buy a couple bottles (case) to bring back.  After lunch we walked through some of the agave fields.  Walking through hundreds of agave taking in the smells and putting my hand in the dirt I couldn’t help but feel an attachment to my surroundings.

Amatitan is the birthplace of tequila but the marketing center is easily Tequila, just 15 minutes away.  Driving around and seeing the small four walled distilleries and closed in warehouse’s just solidified the difference of Herradura with its open, beautiful campus.  I drove by Partida, Jose Cuervo and Casa Noble to name a few which broke my heart to see dismal operations in tequila’s I typically like to drink.  It was a very bumpy drive back into Guadalajara were we finished the evening with Argentinian style steaks and watching Mexico beat Camarun in penalty shots.  Then we went to bed…. Yep… just went to bed… nothing else happened (that I remember)!

Come swing by Milagro Cantina in Kirkland and try a one of a kind reposado that when gone will never be replicated because the barrel it was finished in is sitting by the host desk.  Salud!

Article and Pictures by: Mark Sexauer

The Forager

Pinch (around 25) whole cumin seeds

2 tablespoons (or so) of zested carrot

2 oz Bombay Sapphire Gin

1 oz Lillet Blanc

.75 oz fresh squeezed lemon juice

.75 oz simple syrup 1:1

2 teaspoons egg white

Garnish:

1 sprig of Italian parsley

1 pinch of orange zest

Preparation Instructions:

Muddle whole cumin seeds in a mixing glass until broken.  Combine the rest of the ingredients and shake very hard to incorporate the carrot flavor and emulsify the egg white.  Double stain into a cocktail glass of choice.

Garnish with a large Italian parsley sprig and a pinch of orange zest.

Recipe By: Mark Sexauer

For those of you who have followed the blog for a bit you may know that I have experimented with carrot in the past.  I love the flavor and love how well it mixes with gin and tequila.  I figured that this was a great opportunity to spread the good word of using carrots behind the bar.  Bartenders are reaching for ingredients that sound unique on cocktail menus or trying to find textures and flavors that will wow people.  There are still many ingredients out there that work amazing with spirits but are still considered to be unusual.

The drink I will be taking with me to Vegas is called The Forager and combines carrot, cumin and gin.  I will be taking lots of pictures while I am down there and will post as soon as possible.  I would post the recipe but then I don’t want to give my peers a heads up… I’m there to win baby!!!!  Stay tuned….

For those of you who do not live in Seattle, it, like most city’s has a large outlying area.  Seattle’s population count from the 2010 Census is 608,660.  I always feel like it seems larger, and it is, just not within the city limits.  The U.S. Census Bureau defines the metropolitan area as the Seattle–Tacoma–Bellevue, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area, with an estimated population of 3,344,813 making it the 15^th largest United States Metropolitan Statistical Area.

I have been working on the “eastside” of Seattle for the last two years.  This area is growing so fast that it’s hard to keep up with what’s new!  Which is kind of the reason for staying out here, lots of opportunity.  Seattle itself will always be the hub and have the most well known bars but there is a growing group of bartenders on the eastside that are looking around and hoping the future of new bars and restaurants are still helping to break molds and running fun, functional bars that are worth the visit.

Enter the Eastside Bartenders Association.  A newly formed group to give identity to the growing community of bartenders who all work on the other side of Lake Washington.  The Washington State Bartenders Guild does a good job of getting bartenders together and running events and other industry topics and the E.B.A. is not trying to replace the WSBG.  It will just focus on eastside restaurants/bars hosting tastings, small events and classes.  Bookmark the new website at eastsideba@gmail.com and check back often as updates are coming almost daily.  While on the website make sure to add our twitter feed and sign up for our facebook group.  Being a newly formed group we are going to have a kickoff event to create some buzz for us.  If you are interested, book your calendar for:

Monday, June 27^th at 6pm, free

Lot no.3

460 106^th AVE NE

Bellevue, Wa 98004

Not required, but appreciated is an RSVP email to eastsideba@gmail.com

Some of the spirit brands and local distilleries that will be attending are:

Project V, Soft Tail Spirits, Woodinville Whiskey Co, Pacific Distilleries, Sound Spirits and Novo Fogo

Feel free to bring friends and co-workers.  Lot no.3 is open late so plan accordingly.

It’s exciting to me to get this moving and see how far this goes…

Napoleon the third brought together the undefended French army and a prince named Maximilian to invade Mexico.  Not concerned with interference from the United States, which was caught up in the civil war, the French proceeded toward Mexico City.  The Mexican Army was waiting under the command of General Zaragosa.  On May 5^th, 1862 the Battle of Puebla was a turning point for the Mexicans as they won a very unlikely victory against the very well equipt French Army that was over twice the size.  Union forces rushed ammunition and weapons to the border to ensure a victory and expel the French.  This in turn kept the French from supplying the Confederates, helping the Union forces to win.  Some Americans even fought side by side with the Mexicans to fight a common enemy.  Cinco de Mayo has slowly been embraced by Americans to celebrate the brother hood of our two countries that have such an intertwined history.  If drinking Mexican beer and margaritas is your way of celebrating this incredibly momentous occasion of our countries history’s (it is for me) then find a good bar that makes a good margarita and enjoy celebrating Mexican history.  If you’re staying home, try my recipe:

Tequila Daisy, Old School

1.5 oz Reposado, try Don Julio

.5-.75 oz Orange Cordial, I use Cointreau

.5 oz lime juice, fresh squeezed

.5 oz lemon juice, fresh squeezed

.25 oz agave syrup 1:1

Combine all into a shaker and shake like a Maraca.  Strain into a double old fashioned or highball filled with ice.

Garnish with a lime wedge so people can add acidity if they desire.

Article and Picture by: Mark Sexauer

Wine making is a tool that can be used behind the bar to open up new doors in your cocktail menu.  I like the idea of isolating a single ingredient and making a wine out it, making a cocktail more complex.  It’s easy to pull ideas, how about a cosmopolitan with cranberry wine instead of juice?  Maybe a Bee’s Knees using homemade mead instead of honey syrup?  The drawback, like making bitters, is the time until you have a finished product because of the waiting period.  I’ve tried elderflower wine, falernum wine, gin wine (more like juniper wine…more on that in a distant post) but the most successful has been my allspice.

My allspice wine recipe was inspired by a clove wine recipe from the book “Making Wild Wines & Meads: 125 Unusual Recipes Using Herbs, Fruits, Flowers & More”.  I’ve yet to find another allspice wine recipe but in reality you could substitute any spice with the clove and come up with something drinkable or good for cooking.

Wine making can sometimes seem easier then it is.  It takes a couple tries to get a good product and understand the process.  Some advice in wine making:  keep everything that touches the wine sterilized.  Another tip, start your first wine with something easy and common, like a dandelion wine of which there are hundreds of recipes available.  Most summer fruits are made into wines by the gallons from like-minded wine makers.  Plum wine is a favorite of my father-in-laws.  Assuming a basic knowledge of wine making I’m not going to get into the fine details of racking and fermenting.  There is more then enough information online if you would like to learn more.

Allspice Wine Batch #5, Sparkling

58g Whole Allspice Berries, dumped into a large pan, already heated to med-high for just a couple minutes until they are browning and a couple pops are heard.  Then add 2 cups of distilled water.   Bring the water to about med heat, do not boil.  Combine into a container and refrigerate for 2 days.

Bring 8 cups of water to a boil, remove from heat and add the allspice “liquor” straining the allspice berries plus 8g of whole coriander, 570g of light brown sugar, one teaspoon acid blend and 6 oz 100% orange juice.  Stir until sugar is dissolved then cool down to room temperature, stirring every so often.

S.G. was 1.08 while still warm (I know it should be room temperature, it was close) Sugar = 20% P.A. =19% and Ph was 3.5.

For a yeast starter I combined my yeast, Lalvin EC-1118 and ½ cup orange juice, 1 teaspoon yeast nutrient, 1 cup warm water and 1 teaspoon pecin into a jar.  Shake the jar and let sit for 30 minutes give or take and you’ll have a jump started yeast to pitch.

Ferment and rack wine as standard and remember to make sure that your starting gravity is between 1.070 and 1.080, no higher.  After fermentation, do not add any finings, bentonite or potassium sorbate.

At the end of fermentation siphon the wine into a food safe clear bucket.  The wine should be a little cloudy, if not, suck up a couple tablespoons of yeast sediment with your racking tube.  We want the yeast to ferment again, although just a little.

Use a 2:1 sugar to water simple syrup and the formula of 2.5 ounces of simple per gallon.  We are adding the simple syrup to restart the fermentation process and create pressure which will make our sparkling wine.  Have a half gallon batch?  Use 1.25 ounces of simple.  Couldn’t be easier.

Stir the sugar syrup gently into the wine.

Siphon the wine immediately into champagne bottles and cap them with crown caps and twistys.

Store the wine for 3-6 months.

If this is your first try at this I would wrap the bottles in plastic and/or keep them in a tub of some kind.  Then I would store them in a very out of the way place.  The technique here is to jump start the fermentation again and create some pressure.  If any of the above is off, especially sugar ratios you are risking the pressure to build up so much that the bottle will explode.  This happened to me.  I was lucky nobody was around because it was like a small bomb going off sending glass in every direction and even impregnating shards into the walls.  Not funny and something to take very seriously.

The Sparkling Allspice Wine turned so well it’s really got my brain working.  The color was a light but see through brown.  The nose, as pointed out by John who happened to be at the bar while I opened up the first bottle, is really nice.  I had two bottles with me.  One regular allspice wine and one sparkling.  I ended up dumping the regular out.  It didn’t even come close to the quality of the sparkling.  Now for a cocktail already.

If it was September I would probably be more motivated to come up with a couple drinks but in the mean time you’ll have to ponder the Jamaican 75.

Jamaican 75

1.5 oz rum of choice, I used Flor de Cana 12

.5 oz lime juice

.5 oz simple syrup 1:1

shake and strain into a champagne glass

fill with sparkling allspice wine

garnish with lime orange zest

Article and Recipe by: Mark Sexauer

The break down of making your own olive brine is simple.  You must still have olives though, to infuse into the water mixture.  Vinegar helps curb saltiness, which is why it is in the recipe, as a balancer of sorts.

Olive Brine

2 cups medium sized olives

4 cups warm water

½ cup kosher large grain salt

1 Tablespoon white wine vinegar

Combine salt and vinegar with the water and mix until clear.  Add the olives and let sit together in a container for at least 48 hours, the longer the better, refrigerated of course.

This isn’t something that most people care about but as a bar manager, costs are something you are always looking at.  Olives are not the cheapest thing behind your bar and this recipe has saved me before when getting into an olive brine situation.  At my current bar olive brine goes fast.  I keep a batch of the above recipe in a separate container then the olives I buy.  When I pour olive brine from the olive I purchased I replace that amount with my homemade brine.

Article and Recipe by: Mark Sexauer

This is an updated post from an incomplete experiment with Abbott’s of which I have recently been re-experimenting.  Abbott’s bitters were used in many cocktails from 1865 to around 1950 and is said to be (very arguably) the original bitters in the Manhattan.  For not being produced in 70 years there are no “fresh” bottles to compare flavor profile with.  Adding to the puzzle, we have yet to find a written recipe.  With enough digging online you might come across this recipe for Abbott’s that Robert Hess posted sometime ago on a MSN forum.

5g Star Anise (crushed)

40g Benzoin Resin

20g Bay – Pimenta Racemosa

40g Cardamom Pods (crushed)

470g Clove Buds (whole)

16 Sticks of Cassia (Cinnamon)

6g Spearmint

3g Lavender Flowers

3 tsp Dried Gentian

11/2 cup Ginger (chopped)

14g Nutmeg (ground)

8g Allspice Berries (crushed)

225g Tonka Beans (cracked)

2L Rye Whisky (100 Proof)

A process called “Gas Chromatography Analysis” from an unopened bottle has given us a rough draft of the historic bitters.  I understand not wanting to change anything because this is the closest thing we have to a recipe but gas chromatography is not perfect as ingredients break down over time.  A little common sense and I think you will get within Abbott’s reach.  For instance, I would say that adding over a pound of whole cloves to 2 liters of rye would get you clove rye, no matter what else you put in it!  The amounts of tonka beans are also high in my option.  Tonka beans were cheap vanilla bean alternatives that have long been off the market for causing intestinal bleeding.  Not only can I not afford a half pound of vanilla beans but I think it would take away from some of the more subtle ingredients.

My first crack at Abbott’s was about a year ago.  I started by getting all the ingredients together.  A much easier task then I first thought as Tenzing Momo had everything I needed.  After some recipe tweaking I threw everything into a jar and filled it with fighting cock bourbon.  I waited, and waited some more.  Tasted…. then waited some more.  After a couple months I then threw everything into a 1 liter barrel that I had ordered online.  I waited some more.  After another couple months in a barrel I emptied the contents into a jar and tasted one of the worst bitters concoctions I could imagine.  It was grossly perfumey and strong, no predominant flavor stood out except for the one triggering my gag reflex.  I had gone wrong somewhere and with the complexity and strength of the ingredients in mind I went to work again, only this time I had a plan.

I used all the same ingredients from Robert Hess’s printing but I separated them into individual tinctures.  I used Wild Turkey Rye, I felt it was a much better choice to use as a base.  Then I waited again.   After about a month and half all of my tinctures had infused.  I let them sit for another month to fully “sit”, which is not necessary but there was a noticeably stronger, balanced flavor in a couple of them.  Since I am using tinctures I needed to play with the recipe in a different way.  I needed the “original” to be broken down by percentage to get a better idea of the structure.

0%                  5g Star Anise (crushed)

4%                  40g Benzoin Resin

2%                  20g Bay – Pimenta Racemosa

4%                  40g Cardamom Pods (crushed)

43%                470g Clove Buds (whole)

14%                150g (16 sticks) of Cassia (Cinnamon)

1%                  6g Spearmint

0%                  3g Lavender Flowers

1%                  6g Dried Gentian

10%                110g Ginger (chopped)

1%                  14g Nutmeg (ground)

1%                  8g Allspice Berries (crushed)

21%                225g Tonka Beans (cracked)

2L Rye Whisky (100 Proof)

I just replaced the percent sign with a teaspoon and I’ve got my measurements.  Now it was easy to play around and see what works by blending the tintures together.  Here’s what I got after countless trys.

.5 teaspoon star anise tincture

2 drops benzoin resin extract

1 teaspoon cardamom pod tincture

3 teaspoons clove tincture

1.5 teaspoons cassia tincture

.5 teaspoon spearmint tincture

.25 teaspoon lavender tincture

.5 teaspoon gentian tincture

1.5 teaspoon dried ginger tincture

1 teaspoon nutmeg tincture

.5 teaspoon allspice tincture

1.5 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

3 teaspoon 2:1 ratio simple syrup

Combine together into a dropper jar and label as desired.

You’ll notice I don’t include the bay rum in my recipe.  I kept ruining batches with it.  The extract has a very distinct flavor of dish soap mixed with strong herbal hippie hand soap.  Even a half drop of it completely took over the bitters masking any nuances with soap.  If there is some other way to use this ingredient in another form I will try again, but until further research, it stays out.

You’ll also notice some of my measurements are grossly different then the “original”.  This is simply were my tastes have led me.

Another note, it is generally accepted that the bitters were barrel aged to smooth out the flavor.  I don’t doubt that this recipe would benefit from barrel aging although I would argue the practicality of it.  These bitters are complex and strong but still are being used a dash at a time, usually.  Down the road I will throw a batch into a barrel if I ever make this in bulk, but in the mean time use this as a blueprint in making your own Abbott’s bitter’s at home.  I couldn’t be happier with how these turned out.

Article and Recipe by: Mark Sexauer

Although available, stay away from bottled commercial versions.  Most of them look like you threw up into a stoli bottle after eating 8 or 9 bananas.  There are hundreds, if not thousands of recipes for rompope on the internet (and in books).  On top of that there are hundreds if not thousands of variations.  According to our all knowing information overlord, Wikipedia, “Several ingredients are sometimes added to the drink, including pecans, almonds, walnuts, cinnamon, pine nuts, vanilla, strawberry and other local ingredients.”  I’m actually not a big fan of variations in this drink because I love the basic idea so much.  Being a bartender, this drink is fun to mess with and gets lots of fan fare (the use of the whole egg).  Being a bartender also means asking yourself… “If this drink were to print up 8 times in a row, then 4 times, then a large party orders 20 of these… would I want to kill myself?

The answer is no if you K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid).  My recipe is leaning on some Mexican versions I’ve come across but if you take a closer look it is much lighter, using milk instead of cream, and could be practical behind the bar.  With an entire egg in the recipe I use an electric emulsifier to get things started.  The pure vanilla and almond extract could easily be put into a dasher or bitters bottle.  Have fun this winter season and enjoy a little rompope tonight.

Rompope

1 egg

3 oz whole milk

.75 oz agave

1.5 oz el presidente brandy

dash cinnamon

dash vanilla extract

dash almond extract

pinch of powdered cinnamon

Combine all into a shaker and shake very very hard to emulsify the egg.  Strain into a glass of your choice (double old fashioned and small wine glasses work well) and top with bitters and or orange zest.

You can substitute the brandy out for pretty much anything.  A hit of smoky mezcal gives this drink a little depth.  Salud!

Article and Drink by: Mark Sexauer