Cocktail Whisperer
“What’s in the bottle is not what’s on the label,” says Warren Bobrow, handing me a small apothecary jar of amber-colored fluid. Inside is a top-shelf rum, he says, infused with high-grade marijuana — specifically, a strong indica-dominant hybrid known as Granddaddy Purple.
420 means a lot of things to a lot of people in the cannabis community— activism, education, celebration, normalization, advocacy, policy and tradition. This Friday, while you’re out there blazing for all those reasons and more, take a moment to reflect on all the hard work and sacrifice that’s gone into the movement.
MAGNETIC asked twelve industry experts and influencers to share their thoughts on the high holiday. Check out what they have to say!
With 4/20 just around the corner, it seems the perfect opportunity to discuss the merits of stirring cannabis cocktails. I’m usually hard pressed to find bartenders who really know the physical differences between stirring and shaking a cocktail—any cocktail. Now, add to that equation fragile ingredients that you may not want to pulverize and turn into overly green (read: botanical) flavors like cannabis, and those differences become even more important.
One of the most unpleasant of all overly-green flavors is mint. When it is excessively manipulated, the aromatics and essences resemble that of mud. And no one wants to drink mud. You may have witnessed this yourself in batched up Kentucky Derby cocktails, where the mint is added to the ice the day before, frozen, and then topped with bourbon just prior to serving. The end result is a muddy mess that screams for a fresh glass, new mint, and clean ice.
The Dramatis Personae Cocktail, via Cannabis Cocktails, Mocktails, and Tonics / Fair Winds Press.
Courtesy: Emma ChasenEmma Chasen
I love the magic of the inter-webs. Instagram, the darling of the moment has led me down many paths to enlightenment in my newest career. I’m fortunate to meet some amazing people along the path to enlightenment- at least in my own direction in life. One of these paths led me to one Cannabis Entrepreneur in particular, and this person is weaving her magic in the modern, Pacific Northwest Cannabis Industry. As an introduction to this dialogue, I’m lucky to have been accepted by a deeply spiritual world of healers -an entrepreneurial path based on our overall desire to be well and to heal. Wellness bubbles over in the universe and it encourages us to do better by others. I’m satisfied to say that through the use of Cannabis as a medicinal methodology, it has become something that explains much, without shouting or being overtly antagonistic in the methodology of altruism and smoking anywhere and everywhere. I don’t do that. I usually let my book, Cannabis Cocktails speak for itself as a life form and a method of medicating without being too overt. What I’m fortunate to do is not for everybody- but those who get it find the science beguiling and intriguing- all at the same time. Then there are the recipes of course, delightful, inspirational and candidly delicious. They get people’s attention- like my salubrious Vietnamese Iced Coffee with THC infused Condensed Milk. Yum. That one is a good intro to my craft. But I digress. Emma Chasen is doing what I wish I could do, had I the bulk of educational research and razor sharp intellectual curiosity that brims from each word in her myriad of descriptors about what makes her different that the others. Emma has the hard work, the empirical science down pat and she makes it easy to understand- and better yet, to enjoy what she has to say. So few people make words that resonate, rather than just talk to a ‘talking head.’ Emma is not that person. As usual I want to shake things up a bit and make it exciting for my readers to find out something a bit deeper about their favorite person. And in this case I wanted to know more about Emma Chasen, a disruptor and bud-tender educator, eater. In short, curious and intriguing. Thank you, Emma for being so forthright in your answers and showing your pure smile in your hunger producing words.
I’ve made my living for the better part of seven years in the liquor space. With that said, I’ve noticed some real changes in that traditional world of intoxicants over the past year or so. After being tolerated for a few years, the large liquor companies are having serious misgivings about being too friendly with the cannabis family. Perhaps this is because the ongoing stigma that hovers just over the periphery in every illicit transaction outside of the “three tier system.” You see, the liquor industry has been permitted to print their own tickets since Prohibition, under the watchful gaze of the government. Taxation is a powerful determinate with broad reaching implications.
He’s written five books about mixology and is published in numerous periodicals. Bobrow completed his bachelor’s degree at Emerson College and from there, went on to work as a pot scrubber at York Harbor and worked as a television engineer, cameraman and editor at two New York television stations. Not quite feeling like he was the Warren he aspired to be, Bobrow studied culinary arts at Johnson and Wales University, then moved to Charleston South Carolina where he opened his own restaurant Olde Charleston Pasta. The company prospered until being devastated by Hurricane Hugo in 1989.
I know a lot of people love the green beer on St. Patty’s but why not drink some green beer with some actual green cannabis infused into it. Warren Bobrow, writer of Cannabis Cocktails, Mocktails, & Tonics…, has many recipes in his extensive book for infusing simple syrups and other common cocktail ingredients. For the more newbie bartenders, tinctures are the most turnkey way to add a cannabis kick to any beverage. Glycerin tinctures can easily be added to a beverage, but alcohol tinctures won’t emulsify into a water based drink.
This is our fool-proof plan for helping a cannabis-infused St. Patrick’s Day feel just as fun as a drunken one.
Warren Bobrow
Warren Bobrow, the Cocktail Whisperer, is the 5x Author of Apothecary Cocktails: Restorative Drinks from Yesterday and Today, Whiskey Cocktails: Rediscovered Classics and Contemporary Craft Drinks, Bitters and Shrub Syrup Cocktails: Restorative Vintage Cocktails, Mocktails & Elixirs, Cannabis Cocktails, Mocktails & Tonics: The Art of Spirited Drinks & Buzz-Worthy Libations and his celebrated, 2017 release, The Craft Cocktail Compendium. Bobrow will be presenting at the 2018 SXSW on Cannabis Cocktails and Cannabis Alchemy.
Bobrow taught a Master Class on Rum at the 2015 Moscow Bar Show in Russia. Warren has been both a Ministry of Rum Judge and a Rum XP Guest Judge. Bobrow was nominated for a Spirited Award at the 2013 Tales of the Cocktails in New Orleans.
