The Great American Distillers Festival
Monday, August 27th, 2007
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Yesterday my co-pilot at El Vaquero, Scott, and I made our way up to Portland at nine in the morning for the Great American Distillers Festival - a feat not easily accomplished by two bartenders who had closed the bar the previous night.
The list of products available for tasting was short - this ain’t Vegas - but still fairly well-represented across the major categories. What was of particular interest to me, though, was the mixology competition located in the subterranean bunker several hundred feet below the Earth’s surface.
Siobhan Crosby of Imbibe Magazine emceed the event, with illustrious judges such as Lucy Brennan of Mint and 820, Tim Davey of Uptown Liquor, Anne Marie DiStefano, a writer for The Portland Tribune and Karen Foley of Imbibe Magazine. I had been emailing back and forth with Lance Mayhew of Meriwether’s Restaurant last week, and since he had shared his esoteric ingredient list with me prior to the competition, I knew were going to be in for a mixologist’s wet dream.
Lance competed in the whiskey category, which I assume meant he could do pretty much anything he wanted as long as it contained whiskey (presumably one of the whiskies featured at the festival). He arrived early with a large cardboard box full of his own grapefruit bitters, mesquite-grilled smoky lemon juice (say what?), Spanish-style chamomile liqueur (oh my God, was this stuff good), and two special garnish ingredients: dehydrated Licor 43 and Aperol to rim his cocktail glasses with. Holy crap, talk about dedication!
And, while Lance didn’t win the contest (sometimes a great drink just doesn’t), I liked his balance and exotic flavors the best of all the drinks I tried. Here’s his recipe:
The Raena Marie
2 oz Indio Snake River whiskey
1 oz smoked lemon juice
1 oz Turbinado simple syrup
3 dashes homemade grapefruit bitters
12 drops Spanish-style Chamomile Liqueur
Dried and powdered Licor 43
Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass, add ice, shake, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass rimmed with the powdered Licor 43.
I had read some great reviews of the Teardrop Lounge and have been excited to check out their space, but alas, they’re closed on my one day off. Fortunately for us, we were able to meet up with owner Daniel Shoemaker and bartender David Shenaut, who gave us a private tour of their enormous collection of housemade bitters, syrups and mixers after the festival.
Daniel made us an Adonis cocktail with SakeOne G-Joy sake in place of sherry, and their housemade pau d’arco bark bitters standing in for orange bitters. The flavors were complex, savory, and balanced - and opened up another mile by the addition of lemon zest.
Next we tried their Sazerac, made with Sazerac rye, Herbsainte and housemade cherry-vanilla bitters, on the rocks. It was lighter than a traditional Sazerac, with a balance that explored the savory side of the rye in a way that I’d never considered before.
By this point it was getting to be time to sober up for a few hours and make the long trek back to Eugene. All in all, it was a great experience, and I’m looking forward to getting back up to civilization again very soon.
Thanks, Portland!
Update: Phil over at Lamb Martini has a great little write-up here (I can’t believe I didn’t get to catch up with him) and Trader Tiki went all out. There’s also a pretty in-depth product review at Blotto.
27 Aug 2007 at 3:00 pm 1. Lance Mayhew
I’m completely flattered, thanks for the kind words. I can’t wait to get together and play around a little more.
27 Aug 2007 at 3:01 pm 2. Lance Mayhew
I meant play around with cocktails, not you. Damn submit button!
27 Aug 2007 at 6:42 pm 3. Jeffrey
Uh, you too, there, Lance. And I know what you meant… at least I think so, but thanks for the clarification!
29 Aug 2007 at 10:20 pm 4. Blair 'TraderTiki' Reynolds
Thanks for the link, trackback, ping, whatever the kids are calling it.
Next time you’re in PDX, send me an e-mail and drop by the Galley!