One advantage I have in my career – and believe me, I thank my lucky stars every day for my good fortune in this regard – is that I travel a lot. And when I do travel, I get to visit the greatest bars in the world and spend time picking the brains of the world’s greatest bartenders.
The most recent drink to grace our cocktail list is the result of my travels.
Taking inspiration from many sources, my initial interest in bitter, sour and sweet with a distinctly tropical bent was taken directly from the ever-brilliant Giuseppe Gonzalez and his now-famous Trinidad Sour.
While I, and the rest of the world, was taken by the combination of bitter, herbal, sweet flavors, it never really struck me as a an extensible sort of drink style until I came across Andrew Bohrer’s amaro-based Mai Tai variation called the “Elena’s Virtue”. Now here was a drink with legs, and a hint of what was to come in the world of cocktails, in my humble opinion.
But what New York and Seattle do well, San Francisco often does better, and usually with a lot more Fernet Branca, and that’s the conversation I had with Josh Harris while competing in the Domaine de Canton finals in St. Maarten this spring. And after tasting his simple concoction of ginger liqueur, pineapple and Fernet Branca I knew it was time for me to get my feet wet and try my hand at the herbal tropical sour.
The result has been a smash hit at the bar, as it very much follows in the style of our restaurant bar, a reflection of the crafted European style of cooking that emerges from the kitchen on a nightly basis. In other words, earthy, sour, herbal flavors do very, very well where we work.
Put all of this together, throw in a desire to explore the dusty, neglected bottle of Drambuie, and an early morning racking one’s brain to come up with a drink name (the original intent was Brixton Club) and a star was born:
Kingston Club
1½ oz Drambuie
1½ oz pineapple juice
¾ oz lime juice
1 tsp Fernet Branca
3 dashes Angostura bitters
Shake ingredients with ice and finish with 1 oz soda water. Strain mix over fresh ice into a chilled collins glass and garnish with an orange twist.
A side project, an experiment or just a simple curiosity that turned into a delicious phenomenon that we're still serving to much delight at our bar, barrel aged cocktails explore the gentle manipulation of a drink's flavors over time. This post details the inspiration, the history and the methods behind my barrel aged cocktails.
My problem with homemade tonic water has always been a flavor profile that was too esoteric for the general audience. This recipe takes some of the positive qualities people have come to understand from commercial tonic water and updated them with fresh ingredients.
Turned off by the glop you find in the grocery store, and unable to endure another long egg and cream whipping session, I set out to build an egg nog recipe from the ground up that retained the character of the orginal formula, was easy to make in a few minutes at home or at the bar, and tasted absolutely delicious. See if you agree with the result.
One question I'm often asked is "Do you have any drink-related book recommendations?" Well, funny you should ask, I've compiled a list of the ten books every professional bartender or home mixologist should own. I keep every one of these close at hand and have read most of them several times. I suggest you do the same.
The problem with living in Oregon is the absence of little wooden shacks by the sea that sell cases of fresh ginger beer stacked on back porches. But with some readily-available ingredients, a recipe I've been revising for several years - and a few free minutes - I can easily transport myself to a little fishing boat on the ocean as I sip a Dark and Stormy made with fresh, house-made ginger beer.
It's always mojito season somewhere, so this advice is timely in your area about half the year. Wether you're making them or simply enjoying them, this advice will help you look like a pro in no time at all.
The flavors of the Richmond Gimlet are imbued with sunshine. Fresh mint mingling with the herbaceousness of gin and the tartness of lime have made this drink a Eugene classic for many years now.
You'll get a lot of snarky advice on this site about how to make a proper drink, but if you ever need to know what not to do, this is the video for you.
Not to be confused with the Spanish wine-and-fruit-based alcoholic beverage sangria, sangrita (meaning "little blood") is a traditional accompaniment to a tequila served completo; a non-alcoholic sipper that cleanses the palate between fiery doses of agave.
The world of booze can be mystifying to people that don't work in bars or around alcohol all the time. I hear a lot of assumptions about the industry I'm in that are - much like 90% of what you hear in bars - completely false. Here are a few you've probably heard yourself.
The traditional garnish for a Pisco Sour is a couple of drops of bitters in the foam, but I've never been particularly impressed with the way these few paltry drops of bitters sat in their little egg-white mattress and didn't play along with the rest of the drink. I envisioned a Pisco Sour with a uniformly-distributed bitters-scorched foam: slightly crisp as the fire burnt the sugars, and slightly warm as the foam insulated the rest of the frosty cocktail from the heat. A pisco creme brulée in a glass!
I get so many visitors looking for tips on how to write a bartending resume that I thought I should finally post a tutorial on how to write your own. Click the headline to read more.
I always love showing up to a party with a gallon jug of pre-mixed margaritas, so I've decided to share my recipe. This margarita recipe is the perfect blend of strong, sweet, and sour. But be warned: this recipe packs a serious punch.
There isn't much I can say about this video that hasn't been said already. If you've read anything I've written about cocktails, you'll understand why this video symbolizes everything wrong with the state of bartending in America today. Watch and learn, but be warned: this one isn't for the feint of heart.
About Me
My name is Jeff Morgenthaler and I'm the head bartender at Clyde Common in Portland, Oregon.
I've been tending bar since 1996 and writing about it since 2004. Mixing drinks has become something of a passion for me in recent years, and I strive to elevate the experience of having a drink from something mundane to something more culinary.
The writing I do here is intended as a work in progress. My recipes are like my opinions: they are constantly being revised and refined as I work them through my mind and my fingers. Comments and participation are encouraged, so please don't feel the need to tread lightly here.
Scott and I put a lot of care into our cocktails: we use all fresh ingredients, we measure absolutely everything, and we’re passionate about every drink we put out. We’re proud of the fact that our drinks rarely get sent back, so when one of our servers came back to the bar with a half-consumed margarita, we were naturally concerned.
“And he wanted to know what took you so long”, she said, “He asked if you were growing the tequila yourself.”
We tasted the rejected drink, and it was perfect. And believe me, I’m harder on my drinks than most of the people drinking them. So what was this guy’s problem? And how do you grow tequila?
“Who sent this back?”, I asked.
“Jared from Subway“, the server growled as she stormed off.
Oh, ha ha ha. We all play this game, it’s a fun way to relieve the tension at work. You know how it’s played: some dude that looks like Matlock is sitting on table 9. Lisa Bonet just walked in the side door. Check out Eddie Munster on 7. But this guy, this guy looked exactly like Jared from Subway! She’d really nailed him, and I couldn’t stop staring at the poor guy.
But then I realized she might not be kidding when I looked over and saw some prom kids posing for pictures with him. Wait a minute, I thought, why would these people want their picture taken with holy shit, Scott, that’s really Jared from Subway!
“I was wondering how long it would take you, do you ever pay attention to anyone?”
“You’ve got to be kidding me, Jared from Subway is really on 3?!”
“The one and only, boss.”
“What the hell is he doing in Eugene?”
“He’s probably here for the marathon tomorrow, like as a spokesman for Subway or something.”
“So, what, the guy eats fast food every day and this margarita doesn’t measure up to his strict standard of quality?”
“I guess not. He just switched to Corona.”
“Yuck. And what is he doing drinking margaritas anyway? I thought he was a health nut or something.”
“I dunno,” Scott said, “Maybe he walked here.”
Comments
16 Responses to “El Vaquero: Drink Fresh. Or, Don’t.”
29 Apr 2007 at 4:33 PM 1. Dan
Says something about his tastebuds if he can scarf down Subway and Corona…
Wow, that’s hilarious. Thank you for confirming my long-held suspicions that Jared is a giant douche.
29 Apr 2007 at 6:16 PM 3. Kathy
Let me guess, he ordered a steak, well-done, formed into meatballs, covered with canned marinara sauce on a 12-inch Wonder bread loaf with melted processed cheese for dinner?
People used to mistake me for Jared back when I had the same glasses AND the same haircut as him. It was quite embarrassing because, let’s face it, he looks kinda doofy.
I had no idea he was a douche! Maybe he just doesn’t know what a margarita that doesn’t contain premade sour mix tastes like.
Hrmmm… I wonder if he ran it (looking up all results for someone named Jared) :)
30 Apr 2007 at 12:21 AM 6. your hot lover
The guy shows up for a marathon but claims he can merely walk for half an hour.
30 Apr 2007 at 8:59 AM 7. LCam
Good God this is hilarious! So does mean he didn’t get his “buy 10 get the 11th one for free” card punched?
30 Apr 2007 at 10:39 AM 8. Nicky
What nerve. Jared isn’t THAT big of a celebrity to make those types of demands. And if he is such a health nut, he should know the calories in a margarita. I hope gains the weight back from that margarita you served him.
30 Apr 2007 at 10:53 AM 9. :) Karina :)
I’ve waited on hundreds of celebritys (not that the Subway guy is a celebrity) and nobody has the right to act like an asshole.
Robert DeNiro was an absolute doll every time, though. ;)
30 Apr 2007 at 12:30 PM 10. Dan
That Forbes article is bogus. A Long Island Iced Tea at 780 calories? I don’t buy it.
30 Apr 2007 at 6:24 PM 11. Tek
That seems like a lot to me to. Does crappy sour mix really have that many calories?
01 May 2007 at 5:26 AM 12. Dan
The liquor and cointreau would amount to around 200 calories I’d say, if you’re using a half ounce of each. The calories from lemon juice are negligible, and a splash of simple syrup and an ounce or two of coke isn’t exactly going to rack up the calories either…
BUSTED.
Their margarita recipe sucks, too. They use four ounces of tequila and some crappy pre-made lime/sour mix.
Crappy sour mix, from what I remember staring at the bottles at the liquor store, have about 200 calories (basically 50 g sugar) in a 4 oz. serving. That’s nasty.
Simple syrup, on the other hand, if my knowledge of Fancy Science and Basic Arithmetic aren’t failing me, contains 24 g of sugar per ounce (about 100 calories). It has more calories per ounce, but if there’s a drink that calls for 4 oz. of simple syrup, I’m not drinking it.
I think I remember the article saying something about assuming an ounce of liquor each, so they were probably starting out at 400-500 calories. I’d bet they put 4oz mixer in there, which would make for a huuuge Long Island, much stronger than any bartender I know would ever serve a customer.
Wait a minute, why are we debating Long Islands again? Yuck.
01 May 2007 at 9:43 AM 15. Dan
I’d really like to know why Long Islands are so popular.
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29 Apr 2007 at 4:33 PM 1. Dan
Says something about his tastebuds if he can scarf down Subway and Corona…
*rolls eyes*
29 Apr 2007 at 6:08 PM 2. Darryl
Wow, that’s hilarious. Thank you for confirming my long-held suspicions that Jared is a giant douche.
29 Apr 2007 at 6:16 PM 3. Kathy
Let me guess, he ordered a steak, well-done, formed into meatballs, covered with canned marinara sauce on a 12-inch Wonder bread loaf with melted processed cheese for dinner?
29 Apr 2007 at 6:47 PM 4. Steve
Kathy, that sounds delicious!
People used to mistake me for Jared back when I had the same glasses AND the same haircut as him. It was quite embarrassing because, let’s face it, he looks kinda doofy.
I had no idea he was a douche! Maybe he just doesn’t know what a margarita that doesn’t contain premade sour mix tastes like.
29 Apr 2007 at 11:36 PM 5. McAuliflower
Hrmmm… I wonder if he ran it (looking up all results for someone named Jared) :)
30 Apr 2007 at 12:21 AM 6. your hot lover
The guy shows up for a marathon but claims he can merely walk for half an hour.
30 Apr 2007 at 8:59 AM 7. LCam
Good God this is hilarious! So does mean he didn’t get his “buy 10 get the 11th one for free” card punched?
30 Apr 2007 at 10:39 AM 8. Nicky
What nerve. Jared isn’t THAT big of a celebrity to make those types of demands. And if he is such a health nut, he should know the calories in a margarita. I hope gains the weight back from that margarita you served him.
30 Apr 2007 at 10:53 AM 9. :) Karina :)
I’ve waited on hundreds of celebritys (not that the Subway guy is a celebrity) and nobody has the right to act like an asshole.
Robert DeNiro was an absolute doll every time, though. ;)
30 Apr 2007 at 12:30 PM 10. Dan
That Forbes article is bogus. A Long Island Iced Tea at 780 calories? I don’t buy it.
30 Apr 2007 at 6:24 PM 11. Tek
That seems like a lot to me to. Does crappy sour mix really have that many calories?
01 May 2007 at 5:26 AM 12. Dan
The liquor and cointreau would amount to around 200 calories I’d say, if you’re using a half ounce of each. The calories from lemon juice are negligible, and a splash of simple syrup and an ounce or two of coke isn’t exactly going to rack up the calories either…
BUSTED.
Their margarita recipe sucks, too. They use four ounces of tequila and some crappy pre-made lime/sour mix.
01 May 2007 at 6:07 AM 13. Steve
Crappy sour mix, from what I remember staring at the bottles at the liquor store, have about 200 calories (basically 50 g sugar) in a 4 oz. serving. That’s nasty.
Simple syrup, on the other hand, if my knowledge of Fancy Science and Basic Arithmetic aren’t failing me, contains 24 g of sugar per ounce (about 100 calories). It has more calories per ounce, but if there’s a drink that calls for 4 oz. of simple syrup, I’m not drinking it.
01 May 2007 at 7:59 AM 14. Jeffrey
I think I remember the article saying something about assuming an ounce of liquor each, so they were probably starting out at 400-500 calories. I’d bet they put 4oz mixer in there, which would make for a huuuge Long Island, much stronger than any bartender I know would ever serve a customer.
Wait a minute, why are we debating Long Islands again? Yuck.
01 May 2007 at 9:43 AM 15. Dan
I’d really like to know why Long Islands are so popular.
Yuck, indeed.
11 May 2007 at 10:38 PM 16. Boy Named Sous
For one simple reason: They mask the taste of the alcohol, so people can get themselves ambush drunk. Has nothing to do with quality.