On Thursday I dined at Bayona Restaurant as Junior Merino, The Liquid Chef, worked his liquid magic upon us all. The meal itself was fine, but the star of the evening wasn’t the food at Bayona or chef Susan Spicer, who wasn’t to be seen or even heard of all night, but Junior and his cocktails. I was lucky enough to sit at the table with Junior and his lovely wife Heidi. Also with us was David Suro-Pinera, restaurateur, tequila aficionado, and creator of Siembra Azul – a small batch, artisanally crafted tequila of the highest quality. I met David briefly at the airport as we got off the plane on our way to Tales, so it was a pleasant surprise to see him again at the dinner. It was the perfect time to have a nice conversation and enjoy his charming company. Interestingly enough half of the conversation at the table was in Spanish because one of David’s friends didn’t speak any English. This didn’t bother me much because while I can only speak a few words of Spanish, after growing up in NYC I can get the gist of a conversation, especially when the topic is food and drinks. Also at the table was Andrew Toplack, a psychotherapist from Toronto, Canada. This made the conversation around the table even more interesting since I used to be a psychotherapist myself, before switching to the Spirit World.

Dinner started off with a small appetizer of Ashley’s Pickled Shrimp with Deviled Eggs, the finest rendition of potted shrimp I have had, with a so, so, sweet and briny flavor, fresh from the sea; with just a hint of mild herbs. I thought that out of the hundreds of shrimp dishes I have had in my life, all over the world, that this was one of the nicest. The excellent deviled egg and lemon basil aioli complemented the shrimp perfectly. I enjoyed it so much that I actually slowed down, cut the shrimp into small bites, and savored every morsel, saving the tasty heads and tails for last.

Paired with the potted shrimp was the La Condesa cocktail, which was sweet and sour, and perfectly matched the dish.

La Condesa by Junior Merino
1 1/2 oz Siembra Azul Blanco
3/4 oz Guaycura Damiana Liqueur (This liqueur is considered to be an aphrodisiac for women, too bad I didn’t have a date.)
1/2 oz lime juice
1/2 oz pineapple juice
1/2 oz agave nectar

The nest dish was Eggplant Fritters with Spicy Chickpea Relish and Yogurt Sauce. I personally found the eggplant fritters boring, although others at the table disagreed. The star in this dish was the spicy chickpea relish, calmed down with the cooling yogurt sauce. With the dish came the Dragon Ahumado cocktail, a sexy, smoky, creation with a hint of tart and sweet, matched nicely to the rim salted with hot pepper, cinnamon, and Himalayan  salt. One of the new products that Junior has designed that will be available commercially in the near future.

Dragon Ahumado by Junior Merino
1 1/2 oz Del Maguey Minero Mezcal
3/4 oz St-Germain
1/2 oz Lime Juice
1/4 oz Lemon Grass Syrup
3/4 oz Pink Grapefruit Juice

The main course was Pan Roasted Baby Chicken with Polenta, Tomato-Arugula Salad. this was nice, but lack-luster until paired with the Cubico cocktail, which brought out some of the flavors in the somewhat tough baby chicken. (I never knew you could have a tough baby chicken until this meal.) The cocktail was a thing of beauty that made up for the chicken’s shortcomings. Tobacco infused reposado tequila, grilled pineapple juice, and a rim with saffron and volcanic saffron rose Hawaiian salt. this cocktail just came alive and danced above the food. A cocktail unlike any other I have had in quite awhile. If you get a chance to try this, don’t miss out. Go for it.

Cubico
2 oz Siembra Azul Reposado infused with tobacco
1/2 oz Navan
1/2 oz Agave nectar
1 oz lemon juice
3/4 oz grilled pineapple juice

The dessert was Summer Berry Pudding, which I found absolutely boring, but again, that is just my taste, because the rest of the table thought it wonderful. The Thyme Flor Agave cocktail became my dessert, joyfully so. In my notes, which by this time became hard to read, I call it a “Crazy Wild Cocktail!”

Thyme Flor Agave
3/4 oz Del Maguey Minero Mezcal
3/4 oz Siembra Azul Blanco Tequila
1/2 oz Matilde Peches
1/4 oz Alemany Thyme Honey
1/4 oz lime juice
1 oz Harrisons & Crosfield Jasmine Tea, Iced

All in all, I had a wonderful time. Good food, great cocktails, new friends; and the service was to be commended. Smooth, flawless, and unobtrusive.

Drinks in the 1600s? I saw this seminar title on the list for Tales of the Cocktail 2009 and said to myself, what the heck were they drinking back then? It sure wasn’t whiskey, when was gin invented? Rum? Brandy? More probably wine or beer was the drink of choice because this was centuries before cocktails came about. Modern stills hadn’t been invented yet and liquor was more likely medicine or tonics… than libations. Spirits were hard to make, hard to get your hands on, and much was unknown about them.

I had to know more so I got in touch with the presenter, Darcy O’Neil and asked. He said he would will talk about how, back in the 1600’s, herbal liqueurs and cordials, tonics and bitters, were being created to help cure ailments and diseases. Plague Waters were the early forms of Absinthe, and these and other tonics and waters were distilled with wormwood, anise, hyssop and fennel. Some of the ingredients have real, medicinal uses, like the above mentioned, (and the last three are still used effectively in homeopathic cough medicines today.) But most were useless for medical purposes. One of the passages Darcy came across in some early pharmacopoeia books was “that early doctors thought they could distill the essence out of something and give it to people as a cure. If they could catch it, they’d try to distill it. Things like spices, herbs, flowers, storks (yes the bird), frogs, dirt, mummies and even human brain were distilled.” (Gag! Sounds like a scene from a movie. Brainsss, give me brains.)

So this seminar will be looking back to the 1600s and how they were the beginning of the age of distilling, where spirits were becoming more than a way to make medicine, instead they became a way to make one feel better. But wait, isn’t that what medicine is all about? When I asked Darcy about that he told me, “the core of the session is about how alcohol transitioned through the 1600’s from medicine to hedonistic intoxicant.” Medicine to hedonistic intoxicant? Sounds interesting to me, especially the “hedonistic intoxicant part.”

The focus is on early distillation, mixed drinks like the Syllabub, and liqueurs. Many of these old tonics and waters developed through the years into cordials and liqueurs. Trappist monks created sweetened, herbal tonics which developed into Benedictine and Trappistine, of which some are still made today. Of course now they are drunk straight, as an aperitif or digestif, or as an ingredient in a fine cocktail. (One of the cocktails at the seminar is based on a recipe for Trappistine liqueur.)

So, if you’re as curious as I to find out how medicines developed into fine libations, which ones made the cut and which did not, how they came into popular use as “hedonistic intoxicants” and why, and about the development of drinks leading to cocktails; join us at Drink’s in the 1600’s at Tales of the Cocktail 2009.

Jonathan Forester is a brewer and distiller in Maine. He writes about spirits and cocktails at Slashfood.

Tales of the Cocktail: Judgment Day was first published on Slashfood.com.

They call New Orleans the Big Easy, but Tuesday was big, but not easy, as I spent my first full day here, prior to the start of Tales of the Cocktail. I am one of the 24 judges for the 2008 Ministry of Rum Tasting Competition, a strict rum judging event coordinated by the Ministry of Rum at Tales. There was a long list of people who were considered as judges for this event and Ed Hamilton, the head of the Ministry, spent several weeks winnowing down the list to some of the top rummies around.

We met at the famous Arnauds restaurant for the event. As we chatted before the judging began it soon became evident just how knowledgeable this crew was. Rum distillers, importers, writers and bloggers, and of course rum collectors. I thought I had a nice collection of spirits with over 500 bottles, of which around 100 of them are exceptional rums. I’ve given away more than that of mediocre rums over the past year or three, saving just the best. One of my fellow judges has over 800 top of the line rums in his collection. The least of which makes my best look like a cheap $1.99 pint of generic white rumbullion. When you have pre-embargo Cuban rums and rums over 100 years old in your collection you’re on a different level of connoisseurship than I. I just want to try some little 1/4 ounce sips of a few dozen of his collection one day and I’ll be happy. Just the thought has me drooling like a drunk.

Speaking of drunk, I had drunk quite a few rums during the judging. If you can call it drinking when you have to spit out each sip so that you retain a semblance of sobriety. The first session was focused on flavored and spiced rums, 19 to be exact. I knew it wouldn’t be easy to judge a battery of rums in a blind taste test, and I was proved right. In some ways it was simpler than I originally thought, in others more difficult. Simpler since in this category one can’t even begin to compare one to another. each has a remarkably different flavor profile and you just have to judge each one on its individual merits, or lack thereof. Aroma, Taste, Body, Finish. these are the categories you look at and rate from 1-25. Then add up the four to come out with a 1-100 point score. Plus remarks on what you like, dislike, or notice about the spirit. usually in this category I found them to be mostly “lack thereof” and so my job was more difficult than anticipated. Many had the comment, “GAG!” as a suffix.

After the first sessions notes were turned in we were allowed to see which were which and compare to our secondary notes which many of us had kept for our own research. Then my fellow judges from our table set off for a leisurely lunch of raw oysters and assorted fried shrimp, fried oyster, and hot sausage Po’ Boy sandwiches at the Acme Oyster House. Then we waddled off to the Carousel Bar at the Hotel Monteleone to sit and spin for awhile as we digested our repast. Then back to Arnauds for the second session, which was of premium, or aged rums.

This proved both simpler and more difficult than I imagined.This time it was simpler because the great majority of the rums were excellent. More difficult because even though you wanted to judge each one on its own merits, many had similar flavor profiles, or else in a few cases one knew almost exactly which rum it was from prior experience. We all tried our best to focus on the job at hand and remain neutral as we sipped and spat, nibbling on crackers and cheese to cleanse our palates. After the session we chatted about our likes and dislikes, and many of us enjoyably sipped the remains of our samples as we milled around in a mob talking rum, and viewing the bottles as they were revealed. I don’t know the results yet, but as soon as they are tabulated you will be able to see them at the Ministry of Rum on Friday July 18th. Today there are two more judging sessions, I hope to be able to make one or both, but my schedule is so full I may miss out. If so I’ll have to check the results and see if there are any new and special rums for me to add to my collection. Well, I am off to Tales of the Cocktail to spend the day sipping fine and spirited creations by the best mixologists in the world, Cheers!

Drink and ride in Vieux Carré? was first published on Slashfood.com.

So I’m guilty of impaired riding. Carousel riding that is. Like many fans of the Cocktail, I’m down in New Orleans for Tales of the Cocktail for the next week and having a blast. Within a few minutes of getting to my hotel in the French Quarter, the Hotel Monteleone, I was sitting on a carousel and bellied up to the bar all at the same time. The famous carousel bar in the hotel turns at a leisurely four times per hour, which is negligible at first, but seems to speed up as the drinks slide down. I ordered one of my favorite cocktails, a Vieux Carré, which was invented here by Walter Bergeron in 1938, and sat back to enjoy the ride. Every now and then a friend would stop by for a chat, having to do a side step shuffle every few moments to keep up with the stately procession of the Carousel. I came to call this the Vieux Carré Strut, and soon it became one of the most popular dances at Tales.

Vieux Carré is another name for the French Quarter, meaning “The Old Square,” and this fabulous drink fits right in, no wonder Bergeron called it such. The decor in the Carousel Bar is a mix of a fine lounge and antique amusement park, with an elegant feel. That is until the whole crew descended upon the establishment. Then it became more like a cross between the Midway, and the Fun House. Now if only they had the carousel horses like in Mary Poppins. I can imagine my fine friends from Tales gallumphing off the Carousel and taking a turn ’round the Monteleone, refreshing themselves along the way as we stop hither and yon for fine cocktails. Then after making our way through all the laudatory libations, a few circuits of the Queen Anne Ballroom to the tune of a waltz, zig zagging among the masked dancers; before heading out onto the streets of Vieux Carré showing the world how to do Tales in style.

Just to refresh your memory… Vieux Carré.

The Vieux Carré Cocktail

1/2 oz rye whiskey
1/2 oz cognac
1/2 oz dry vermouth
1/2 tsp Benedictine
dash Peychaud bitters
dash Angostura bitters

Stir well with ice, strain into a cocktail glass, garnish with a lemon twist, and enjoy!

Oh, to have had the chance to have attended a seminar like this a few years ago!

Mike McGraw will be giving what I think may be a very well attended and exciting, interactive session, Artisan Still Design and Construction on July 17th, and I plan to be there. All of us out there, the hidden hobbyist’s, the tens of thousands of home distillers who frequent the distilling forums on the Internet, know who Mike is and hang on his every word about home distilling.

For most of these folks, home distilling is a fun past time, similar to home brewing or wine making, just a little more involved. Or maybe evolved as well, since distilling is the next logical step to the brewing and fermenting process. It’s like the evolutionary difference between apes and humans. Just a tiny little change, that makes all the difference.

For a small minority of us, it was how we learned about the commercial aspects of distilling. I’m currently building a commercial, artisanal distillery on Penobscot Bay on the Coast of Maine, and learning the process was a lot more difficult that I thought it would be. To save time and effort I had a craftsman who specializes in copper stills make mine for me. Knowing what I do now, I wish I had bit the bullet and built mine myself. I could have taken a few courses in metal working and built my still for much less than having someone else do it for me. For fanatics, ummm… I mean people like me, building the still yourself is more than half the fun. I look forward eagerly to hearing Mike’s advice and words of wisdom on how to, and not to, build an artisanal still. I hope to see all of you interested in home distilling joining Mike at the Artisan Still Design and Construction interactive session at Tales of the Cocktail.

Of course, it’s not all just about building the still that I’m learning about. There is the whole, involved, time consuming, and even maddening process, of building the whole artisanal distilling facility. If you want to learn more about what it’s like, read the online book/journal “Diary of a Distiller” on AOL Food/Drinks at AOL.com and Slashfood.com, with a new chapter posted every Friday. And if you want to know even more, just offer me a cocktail at Tales and I’m sure to talk your ears off.

I just want to add that, as you may have read in fellow Tales contributor, Michael Dietsch’s post about the seminar Hausegemacht, home distilling varies as to its legality in many parts of the world. Its best to know the risks before you start to build, let alone use your still.

One important piece of information to consider is that in the US there is legislation afloat to allow for the distillation of alcohol on residential property for personal use and commercial sale as long as taxes are collected on the product. While this bill has been killed in other forms in the past, it seems to be much stronger now, so who knows? American home distilling may be legal soon enough!

Artisan Still Design and Construction takes place Thursday, July 17, from 2:30 to 4:00 at the Hotel Monteleone. Tickets may be purchased here.