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.
I never really venture too far outside of my comfort zone when it comes to cocktails. Sure, I’ve tried some strange combinations before, but when all is said and done I usually tend to stick to the classics.
Until this evening.
Maybe it was all the late-summer sun I got at the pool this afternoon before work. Maybe it was crawling around inside the keg cooler looking for a leak in the beer gas line.
Or maybe it was the f*cking iSi whipper that I’ve had sitting next to the cash register for several weeks now, staring at me and asking (not literally, at least I hope not) when I was going to actually try something new.
Well, I went out on a limb and tried something I’d wanted to do for a while: a deconstructed cocktail.
Being a Latin-American restaurant, we tend to make a lot of margaritas. Like, a lot of margaritas, so naturally I wanted to start there. I grabbed my iSi whipper, filled it with the ingredients I thought would make for a decent Cadillac foam, and set it to chill while I put together our basic margarita:
2 oz tequila
1 oz triple sec
1 oz lime juice
1 oz lemon juice
1 oz simple syrup
Shake ingredients together over cracked ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Then I grabbed my whipper, which I had already filled with…
2 egg whites, lightly beaten
2 oz Grand Marnier
4 oz orange juice, finely strained
4 dashes peach bitters
…and double-charged with CO2.
I then laid down a nice, thick foam on top of the margarita I had just made. You can see how well they stay separated.
Running back to the kitchen, I grabbed some black Hawaiian sea salt for contrast and grated it into the foam.
Voila! The sweetness of the foam is wonderfully complemented by a tart, bracing blast of tequila and lime with each sip. And the presentation ain’t half bad, either, if I do say so myself.
Hey, you know what? That was really easy! I’m going to try to venture outside of my comfort zone more often.
Comments
13 Responses to “Margarita with Cadillac Foam and Sea Salt”
I’ve got a bit of foam fear as it seems to be used a lot these days without reason, but you’ve given me a lot of reasons to renew my faith. That looks awesome. I know nothing of foaming, but have you thought of using it to add savory flavors like basil or ginger to a drink?
My lip can practically feel the foam. The salt is a nice touch.
12 Sep 2007 at 10:55 PM 6. Kappa
Wow, for real, is this cooking, or bartending? Looks pretty amazing, thanks for the recipe I’m going to have to try this one out. Do you know any good places to buy the canister to make the foams?
Boozemonkey, now that I’ve done my first successful foam I’ve certainly thought of savory foams. Something I’ve wanted to do for a while is take apart a Bloody Mary into its constituent pieces and tweak them – suspend the vodka in gelatin, turn the Worchestershire into a dust, foam the tomato, etc.
Great to see you deconastructing cocktails. There are a lot of advantages of creating layered effects to hit the palate at differnt times. I have found foams and powders the most practical without comprimising quality. Have you tried using lecithin as a solidifier? It does a great job of staying stable and eliminates the flavor of egg whites. There is a great lady name Fany Setiyo that owns LeSanctuaire in the LA area. She sells quality lecithin as well as a wide aray of stabilizers.
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12 Sep 2007 at 9:10 AM 1. Anita
the thought of double-charging foam never occurred to me. cool!
12 Sep 2007 at 10:41 AM 2. Jeffrey
I found the consistency to be a lot more… consistent? The foam was richer and thicker than when I used just the one cartridge.
Unfortunately I couldn’t find nitrous oxide cartridges yesterday, but I think that if I could, the texture would have been even silkier.
12 Sep 2007 at 3:15 PM 3. Boozemonkey
I’ve got a bit of foam fear as it seems to be used a lot these days without reason, but you’ve given me a lot of reasons to renew my faith. That looks awesome. I know nothing of foaming, but have you thought of using it to add savory flavors like basil or ginger to a drink?
12 Sep 2007 at 8:13 PM 4. Phil
Very nice.
12 Sep 2007 at 8:23 PM 5. McAuliflower
My lip can practically feel the foam. The salt is a nice touch.
12 Sep 2007 at 10:55 PM 6. Kappa
Wow, for real, is this cooking, or bartending? Looks pretty amazing, thanks for the recipe I’m going to have to try this one out. Do you know any good places to buy the canister to make the foams?
13 Sep 2007 at 8:17 AM 7. Jimmy
nice one!
13 Sep 2007 at 8:36 AM 8. Jeffrey
Boozemonkey, now that I’ve done my first successful foam I’ve certainly thought of savory foams. Something I’ve wanted to do for a while is take apart a Bloody Mary into its constituent pieces and tweak them – suspend the vodka in gelatin, turn the Worchestershire into a dust, foam the tomato, etc.
I’ll let you know if I come up with anything!
13 Sep 2007 at 3:21 PM 9. Cameron Bogue
Great to see you deconastructing cocktails. There are a lot of advantages of creating layered effects to hit the palate at differnt times. I have found foams and powders the most practical without comprimising quality. Have you tried using lecithin as a solidifier? It does a great job of staying stable and eliminates the flavor of egg whites. There is a great lady name Fany Setiyo that owns LeSanctuaire in the LA area. She sells quality lecithin as well as a wide aray of stabilizers.
2710 Main Street
Santa Monica, CA 90405
tel. 310.581.8999
fax. 310.581.8991
13 Sep 2007 at 9:44 PM 10. keith waldbauer
well done brother. i’m not a big fan of foam in drinks, but this looks mighty tasty. gonna have to get down to eugene now.
14 Sep 2007 at 9:45 AM 11. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
Cameron, I haven’t tried lecithin yet, but it’s now on my to-do list. Thanks for the contact info!
And Keith, it’s only a five-hour sprint down I-5!
14 Sep 2007 at 1:53 PM 12. keith waldbauer
ok, ok, I got you the first time, ha ha.
Oh, and Jeffrey, it’s only a 5 hour sprint UP I-5…. come hang out… maybe you’ll be able to drag Paul out… I’ve never even met the dude.
Maybe we’ll meet halfway, which will put us where. . .somewhere around Kelso or Longview.. ok, bad idea.
Oh yeah, but I gotta try this Margarita.
Allright, twist my arm. I’ll see you soon…
14 Sep 2007 at 2:09 PM 13. pete
if you can show me a video of you taking the blow torch to that thing, i’ll take one!