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There's a restaurant on Southeast Division Street in Portland, Oregon called The Woodsman Tavern. The charcoal-fired local fare as well as the decor pays homage to Pacific Northwest traditions and the rich logging history of the region. The place has a sort of rustic elegance that is part drinking tavern part fancy restaurant. The experience is punctuated with a bar program created by Evan Zimmerman, the local mixology genius responsible for the success of more than a few cocktail menus around Portland. We featured another one of Zimmerman's creations, the Saw Tooth last summer.
This time around, we have a signature cocktail that features a simple but unusual ingredient: charred cedar-infused Campari. The drink is called the Hunting Vest and it has been written up by a couple local publications since The Woodsman Tavern opened. It's no longer on the menu, but that's where we come in. Charred Cedar
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This cocktail appears on the cover of the Jan/Feb 2013 issue of Imbibe Magazine. It represents a delicious collection of ingredients and techniques that come together in a drink that looks incredible and tastes even better. We decided to feature this drink because it covers so many aspects of the craft that are worth investigating.
First, let's give credit where credit is due—this is a drink that was created by Troy Sidle for Pouring Ribbons, a New York bar and another successful Alchemy Consulting venture. The menu lists each drink with a unique double-sliding scale. One measurement reveals whether a selection is "Refreshing" or "Spiritous" while the other scale indicates "Comforting" vs. "Adventurous". We love this approach to recipes because of how it allows even the most unfamiliar list of ingredients to represent some idea of what you can expect in the glass. Although the definitions are
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Every so often, we have an opportunity to review new products to see how well they might work for the home mixologist. Recently, we had the pleasure of trying the NewAir AI-215SS Portable Ice Maker. For several years now, we have seen similar devices in catalogs and gadget advertisements and and we always wondered how these miraculous machines actually work. It's never obvious just looking at a picture, and even in a store you may not know what to expect. We thought Summit Sips readers would appreciate an honest assessment after some hands-on experience with one of these.
The Shipment It only took a few days once confirmed by NewAir for the shipment to arrive. The unit came nicely packed and very well protected for the journey to our door. Ours is a top-of-the-line stainless steel model, although the top lid is black. The exterior surfaces came with
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A few months ago we picked up another set of ice molds. In one of our first posts ever we explored the virtues of a diverse ice program followed by an early exploration of ice spheres. Later, we posted a followup and wrote about making ice shards for taller drinks. Since it has been a while, we thought we could revisit this topic. We still can't afford to spend thousands of dollars on a Taisin solid metal "melting" mold (at least not one big enough), so we are always looking for new and better designs that use the slow process of freezing shapes.
There are several options available today—many more than when we first explored the idea. We still love the molds from Muji.com but we recently expanded our collection with Click here and take a bigger gulp of this article. . .
Sometimes, it's all about the lady in your life. That statement means different things to different people, of course, but let's face it: not everyone wants to drink the latest Manhattan variation. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, not because it leaves more rye whiskey for the rest of us, but because plenty of people either don't like whiskey or don't yet have an affinity for spirit-forward cocktails.
We're not saying that ladies don't like Manhattans. We're not saying that at all. We simply recognize that every so often, it's fun to put what we've learned into a drink that is accessible to everyone. That's not to say we think this is a "girl drink"—or that there is such a thing—but you could do a lot worse than the Pink Panther. We'll even go a step further and say that if you (or your lady friend) doesn't like our
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It's is a special time of the year when trees burst into life, flowers bloom and early produce pokes its way up from the soil. There is a promise of transformation as winter moves into summer, and the sun's warmth allows May blossoms to forgive the cold, teasing showers of April. This year, spring came early to Minnesota, and although we don't officially get started for another month, Farmer's Market in St. Paul was already busy with excited vendors and shoppers. One of the items that often appears early in this part of the country is asparagus, so in honor of the early spring, we decided to take the opportunity to use some early fresh produce to kickoff the month with a cocktail we call the Malodor Shoots.
Almost everybody is familiar with the sweet scent of sulfur that graces the bathroom after consuming a plateful of asparagus and plenty
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Click here for Part 1 to find out how this started.
Several weeks ago we featured a technique involving oak barrels and batched cocktails. In that post we described some of the details to help anyone get started aging their own cocktails in barrels. After many weeks of anxious anticipation (and a few sips along the way) we are finally able to share our results. Was it worth the wait? Are the cocktails really that good after sitting in charred oak barrels for over a month? Should you try this yourself? In a word, absolutely positively beyond-a-doubt YES.
You can see from the images that we reused empty bottles from the original base spirits and decorated them with the taped-on paper labels we made for the barrels while they were aging. We probably should grab a marker and write the dates that the barrels were opened
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Over the past couple of years we’ve discussed recipes, spirits, commercial and homemade ingredients, technique and even our favorite tools—but a subject we haven’t spent a lot of time on is the cocktail garnish. We’ve shared a few details as recipes required, but we thought it might be helpful to compile a list of terms and techniques so our readers have a place to go for reference and suggestions. After all, the garnish is part the cocktail. Sometimes there’s flexibility and other times skipping or changing it can make or break the recipe. Why Garnish? It’s important to understand the reasons for a garnish because it will help you recognize when you might be able to get away with an adjustment versus those times when it’s absolutely crucial to nailing a recipe’s intended flavor profile. You may decide you cannot make a particular
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All the cool kids are doing it, so Summit Sips couldn't wait any longer. We just had to try our hand at barrel-aged cocktails. It sounds like a lot more work than it is, but of all the things we've tried, plenty of homemade ingredients and ice experiments have been a lot harder than putting cocktails into barrels. There's absolutely no reason you can't do this yourself, and that's part of the appeal. Using simple techniques that anyone can master to create amazing, original results is exactly why we write this blog.
You may remember a post from way back when we first visited Portland, Oregon. A couple of drinks at Clyde Common were aged in oak barrels, a technique being pioneered at that time by Jeffrey Morgenthaler. A few months prior to our visit, he posted a short
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Scan the liquor cabinet for base spirits and you might find a sad bottle of pisco that always seems to squeeze itself into the darkest corner. That's a shame because there's nothing actually wrong with pisco—it's just that there are only a handful of cocktails you can find that use it. Of course there is the Pisco Sour plus old references to Pisco Punch, but aside from a few recipes that pair this clear brandy with Galliano, you just don't see folks using it much. Just because recipes don't exist in abundance doesn't mean it's not popular. The Pisco Sour is a fantastic drink and depending on what part of the world you are in, it can even be the most important cocktail on the menu. Having already covered it some time ago, we decided there's no reason it can't be used as
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