We’re fortunate to have some great minds in absinthe here in the Pacific Northwest, and on Sunday a few of them came together to share their extensive knowledge with the attendees of the Great American Distiller’s Festival in a panel titled “Q&A on Northwest Absinthe”

The panel featured Gwydion Stone, founder of the educational organization The Wormwood Society and creator of the soon-to-be released Marteau absinthe, Marc Bernhard, creator of the soon-to-be released Pacifique absinthe, and Rich Phillips from Integrity Spirits, producers of the first Oregon absinthe, Trillium.

I’ve done a fair amount of reading about absinthe and tried to learn as much as possible on my own, but the panel was still informative and provided me with some great facts to fill in for the gaps in my knowledge. I’ll recap here:

Absinthe was banned in 1912 by Food Inspection Decision 147 of the USDA. It forbade the manufacture, sale or transportation of absinthe. Several events contributed to our rediscovery of absinthe:

• An understanding of the term “thujone-free”, which relies on a test that comes with a 10 ppm (parts per million) margin of error.
• The discovery that real, legitimate, pre-ban French and Swiss absinthes often contained less than 10 ppm.
• A greater amount of interest in classic cocktails and lost ingredients, which was certainly fostered by communication between enthusiasts on the internet.

I wasn’t aware that sagebrush is a member of the same plant family as wormwood (artemesia), and that culinary sage actually contains more thujone than wormwood.

I didn’t really know where the green color present in verte absinthes came from, and now I do: after the final distillation, hyssop, lemonbalm and Roman wormwood are macerated in the absinthe to provide additional flavor and a pale green color. There was no mention of what might produce a neon blue color.

This one I knew, but I’d like to reiterate it here: The ritual of lighting a sugar cube on fire and dropping it into absinthe is inauthentic, a recent invention, and a potentially dangerous ceremony centered around the consumption of illegitimate absinthes of inferior quality. As Marc so eloquently put it, “Friends don’t let friends burn absinthe.“

Post from: Jeffrey Morgenthaler. Follow me on Twitter.

The Great American Distiller’s Festival: Q&A on Northwest Absinthe

The first event was a seminar titled “The History of the Cocktail“, led by Robert Hess. Robert jumped right in there with a crash course on spirits, theories about the origins of mixed drinks in general, and some basic drink etymology. The team from the Teardrop Lounge mixed Old-Fashioned Whiskey Cocktails while Robert demonstrated the simplicity involved in creating this, the original cocktail and a surprisingly complex little number considering its spartan ingredient list.

Robert then jumped into a brief history of aromatized wines such as vermouth, and their popularity in cocktails in the late nineteenth century. The team whipped up a batch of very large Manhattans while the crowd braced themselves for a 1PM rye whoopin‘.

And in a perfectly logical move, Robert demonstrated how the Martini grew out of the Manhattan and proved it by passing around his interpretation of the original Martini, made with Dry Fly gin, Carpano Antica Formula vermouth, and Angostura orange bitters. The crowd swooned as they took another brunch-sized blast of 80 proof liquor.

Post from: Jeffrey Morgenthaler. Follow me on Twitter.

The Great American Distiller’s Festival: History of the Cocktail with Robert Hess

One interesting fact about nature is that there are hundreds of near-Earth asteroids hurtling through space right now as we sit here and play on our computers. What is of particular concern, though, is that if one of those asteroids had landed on the Teardrop Lounge on Saturday, Murray Stenson would have had to teach the entire Pacific Northwest how to tend bar again.

On Saturday, the Oregon Bartenders Guild presented A Tribute to Jerry Thomas at the Teardrop Lounge in Portland, featuring David Wondrich, author of Imbibe! and contributing editor for Esquire Magazine.

And for four hours, one room contained some of the greatest minds and hands in Pacific Northwest bartending, mixology and cocktail writing: Paul Clarke (Cocktail Chronicles), Jamie Boudreau (Vessel, Spirits and Cocktails), Daniel Shoemaker and Ted Charak (Teardrop Lounge), Kevin Ludwig (Beaker and Flask), Charles and Ted Munat (Le Mixeur), Craig Hermann (Northwest Tiki), Blair Reynolds (Trader Tiki), Charlie Hodge (Clyde Common), Matt Mount (House Spirits), Neil Kopplin (Carlyle), and David Shenaut and Alyson Dykes (Teardrop Lounge).

I was there too, representing Southern Oregon, making drinks, taking notes, and filling my camera with photos.

Our guests arrived at noon and were greeted with a Rocky Mountain Punch, a light, zesty concoction of Jamaican rum, champagne, maraschino liqueur, sugar and lemons. While the ingredient list might seem bizarre considering the era and originating locale, Wondrich assured the crowd that saloon supplies were a priority well above schools and healthcare in the great American frontier. I think the crowd came to understand their appreciation for this decadent, yet perfectly-balanced drink.

Daniel Shoemaker and I originally bonded over two things: our interest in making rare and lost ingredients, and our adoration the Japanese Cocktail. So we collaborated on just that for the first official cocktail of the event. David spoke about the fact that the Japanese is probably one of the few drinks in Jerry Thomas’ Bartender’s Guide that he actually invented, possibly as a tribute to the Japanese delegation’s visit to New York in June of 1860. I’ve had many Japanese Cocktails in the past, but was looking forward to trying one with such exquisite ingredients as we had on hand.

Daniel was able to procure two bottles of Dudognon, a beautiful and rare 15 year-old Grande Champagne cognac, and he provided a house-made orgeat made from blanched almonds touched with sugar and orange blossom water.

I spent the two weeks leading up to the event recreating Boker’s Bitters based on a recipe by Ted “Dr. Cocktail” Haigh. Boker’s was used extensively in cocktails during Jerry Thomas’ era, but sadly hasn’t been made since then. Thanks to the good research and estimations and approximations by others, we now have a recipe that we believe comes close. I used a base of Wild Turkey 101-proof rye, and added quassia chips, cardamom, orange peel, black catechu and malva flowers (for color) and steeped the mixture for ten days before filtering it and watering it down for use as decanter-style bitters.

The result was a Japanese with a depth and sophistication that I’d never been able to experience with my Monin or Torani orgeats and two dashes of Angostura. The touch of orange blossom in the orgeat, the distinct lack of sweetness in the Boker’s, I think I – finally – fully understand this drink.

Next, David talked about one of his personal favorites, the Improved Whiskey Cocktail. Made with Buffalo Trace bourbon, absinthe, simple syrup, maraschino and bitters, I didn’t get a chance to listen to his entire speech for the sound of my shaker rustling ice cubes in my ear. However, the nose, texture and palate of this drink as it stands up next to, say, a proper Old-Fashioned is sublime.

After a well-earned break with a Stone Fence, made sissy-style with non-alcoholic cider in place of hard cider, I was confronted every couple of minutes by a guest examining their drink with a look of genuine surprise. “This is so much more than the sum of its parts!” was the most astute comment I received, and I was in complete agreement.

Alyson Dykes was greeted by the well-lubricated crowd with the enthusiasm of a prison work crew that hadn’t seen a female in months, but she quickly tamed them with the Buck and Breck, a brilliant selection and a wonderful drink comprised of Remy-Martin VSOP cognac, a dash of absinthe, two dashes Angostura and a top-up of Oregon’s own Argyle brut sparkling wine, all together in a sugar-frosted champagne coupe. Genius.

Kevin Ludwig came in and presented the penultimate drink of the day, the Coffee Cocktail, which Wondrich surmises came from New Orleans (I’ll buy that). Despite its name, the Coffee Cocktail contains no bitters and no coffee, but rather a bizarre blend of cognac, port wine, sugar, and a whole egg. And despite the recipe, Kevin’s version contained no port, but instead a wonderful Rancho de Philo California “triple cream” sherry that stood in perfectly for the port.

Mr. Wondrich closed the event with a demonstration of the Blue Blazer, and as everyone piled into the darkened hallway to watch, I found myself not thinking about the flammability of the curtains or wondering if David had consumed as many drinks as I had, but rather thinking about Jerry Thomas and imagining that this little group of Pacific Northwest cocktail enthusiasts, his stalwart followers, would make the old man proud.

Later that evening, there was much jocularity and celebration of the day’s event. And as we crossed from place to place, I realized that while in the thick of things I had forgotten to give thanks for being given the opportunity to help execute – and consume – some of the best drinks made in Portland that day.

And as much as I enjoyed the look of horror on Paul Clarke’s face after being served a Sazerac, shaken and strained into a warm cocktail glass, pale orange with a single drop of Peychaud’s and garnished with a limp, dribbly lemon peel, I came to understand the power of the event we had just come from and had the unnerving realization that not everyone was familiar with Jerry Thomas or David Wondrich. It was enough to make me exclaim, “Hey, Paul, you’re not going to actually drink that, are you!?”

David told the crowd on Saturday that his goal when embarking on this path of his was to be able to walk into any bar in America and be able, once again, to get a good drink. And after hopping around a mid-sized American city on a Saturday night, it looks like we’ve only just begun.

Post from: Jeffrey Morgenthaler. Follow me on Twitter.

A Tribute to Jerry Thomas

Last month, I followed seven other bartenders into the Teardrop Lounge on a cold December afternoon in Portland, Oregon. The eight of us had previously spent a lot of time talking online about our common interest in craft bartending, advanced techniques, housemade ingredients and specialty spirits, but this was going to be a different sort of conversation.

We sat around a table and worked out the details of a unique concept in this country: a standalone bartender’s guild, the Oregon Bartenders Guild. Our mission is focused and simple:

1. To establish a collaborative community of bartenders within the state of Oregon.
2. Increase the overall knowledge of beer, wine, spirits and cocktail production for the betterment of their craft.
3. To promote awareness of the craft within the public community, through both a developed relationship with the media and an educational platform to the general populace.
4. To secure a congenial relationship with the OLCC, its agents and liquor companies to advance the procurement of more specialized and artisanal spirits in their portfolios.
5. To promote a wider, i.e., national and international recognition of Oregon’s premier mixology.

The other item on our agenda was the organization of our first event: Gin Class. And so on Sunday, January 27th, against all odds (such as a group of bartenders being able to organize anything whatsoever), we presented our first in what will become a regular series of events.

We started with a blind tasting of the four gins we were going to be working with.

First, Lee Medoff of House Spirits Distillery introduced the crowd to Oregon’s own beautiful Aviation Gin, and provided some valuable information about the process they take to produce the product. Then the Guild presented Kevin Ludwig, who talked about the history of gin and the use of gin in cocktails, while Kelley Swenson mixed up a batch of early-recipe Martinis with Plymouth gin, Carpano Antica Formula sweet vermouth, Regan’s Orange Bitters and Luxardo maraschino liqueur. Everyone sipped while Bend Distillery talked about the very unique process that defines their gins.

Next up was newcomer Twelve Bridges gin, presenting a unique Oregon product in that they infuse cucumber into the vapor stream during distillation (not unlike Hendricks gin out of Scotland). The gin smacks you across with face with a strong cucumber/melon nose, with a big, creamy mouthfeel to match. Dave Shenaut cranked out a big batch of Paul Harrington’s Jasmine cocktail while the crowd socialized.

To bring it all home, we brought out heavy-hitter Kevin Ludwig to present an original gin creation, the OBG #1, featuring Aviation gin, St. Germain elderflower liqueur, and Kevin’s own green walnut nocino, which was rich and oily, with heavy cardamom and cumin notes.

Many thanks to everyone who helped out and attended our inaugural event. You can visit the Oregon Bartender’s Guild website here, or pop in at our new forum here.

Post from: Jeffrey Morgenthaler. Follow me on Twitter.

Introducing… The Oregon Bartenders Guild