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High Times Magazine May 2016!!
I’m honored to be mentioned in the May 2016 issue of the esteemed High Times Magazine! 
I’m honored to be mentioned in the May 2016 issue of the Esteemed High Times Magazine!
The mellowing of marijuana laws in places like Colorado, Oregon and Washington State has brought new meaning to the idea of plant-based cooking in America. But the funky green stuff has other applications, too, beyond the classic pot brownies or the more contemporary “herb butter” for your steak. Like cocktails, for instance.
“It adds very green tasting notes and aromas, and I find that to be quite beguiling,” Warren Bobrow, author of the forthcoming book Cannabis Cocktails, Mocktails, and Tonics, says in a videotaped interview with organizers of the annual liquor industry bacchanal, Tales Of The Cocktail.
Bobrow discusses the ancient history of weed-infused drinks, some helpful strategies for modern-day infusions — don’t forget to decarb first! — and even offers a remedy for those who mistakenly overdo it with these powerful potions: “chug a glass of freshly squeezed lemonade, and chew three or four black peppercorns. ‘I don’t know how it works,’ Warren admits, ‘but I will tell you: it works.’”
Check out the full video below:
Get ready to try my Cocktail Whisperer’s twisted take on the French 75, that classic combination of gin, champagne, lemon juice, and simple syrup. This version is actually a hybrid of the French 75 and the traditional champagne cocktail, which calls for a bitters-moistened sugar cube, brandy, and a heady top of champagne. Fuse the two together, add a healthy whack of tart, fruity Squire’s Shrub, and you’ve got a cocktail that’ll make your knees tremble. In the same way that alchemists of old strove to turn base metals into gold, champagne can turn a plain old Tuesday into a full-on, hat-waving celebration. Be sure to keep a bottle on hand so you can whip these up the next time you find yourself hosting an impromptu shindig. Make a few batches of the Squire’s, if you dare—just keep that bottle of Fernet Branca on hand for the morning after.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 brown sugar cube
- several dashes of lemon bitters
- 1⁄2 ounce (15 ml) botanical gin
- 2 ounces (60 ml) squire’s strawberry-rhubarb shrub (recipe follows)
- 1 1⁄2 ounces (45 ml) champagne or dry sparkling wine
- l long lemon zest twist
INSTRUCTIONS
Add the sugar cube to a champagne flute, and moisten with the lemon bitters. Then add the gin and the Squire’s Strawberry-Rhubarb Shrub, and top with champagne. Garnish with a long lemon zest twist. Note: To prepare this flute, combine very finely chopped lemon zest and sugar, wet the rim of the glass with lemon, and dip the glass into yellow-colored sugar. Voila!
– See more at: http://drinkwire.liquor.com/post/the-squires-shrub-cocktail#gs.NOg0Xtg
While the term “shrub” might call to mind a short, green plant in someone’s garden, it means something quite different in the mixology world.
A shrub is essentially an acidulated (read vinegar-based) beverage as old as history itself. In the days before refrigeration, it was pretty evident that without some means for food preservation, keeping items fresh was difficult at best. Food borne illnesses could be prevented or at least minimized by the use of an acid. In this case, the combination of vinegar and sugar when added to either fruit or vegetables contributed to a rudimentary food preservation system that has existed up to modern times. During the colonial era in particular, when daily labor was exhausting and folks needed something to cool off and reinvigorate themselves, shrubs were often drunk on their own. However, when a more festive mood took hold, shrubs were added to spirituous beverages, offering both a tart kick and a dose of healthy vinegar. Was the shrub the original health drink? Certainly it was used for good health, right up to the time when soda pop was invented, spelling the demise of the shrub. In recent years, however, a resurgence of old methods has taken the cocktail world by storm. In search of new and intriguing flavor profiles, bartenders have started making shrubs in house and, in doing so, creating a wealth of unique drinks. Shrubs are simply made with only three ingredients, a fruit (or a vegetable), sugar, and some type of vinegar. It does have to be aged after the mashing of fruit, sugar and vinegar, but that timing is really up to you. It can age quickly or over several weeks.
Below is a selection of shrub recipes and the drinks in which I’ve used them. You could easily customize your own beverage by adding a shrub to your favorite gin, vodka, and rum-based libations.
Photo Courtesy of Glenn Scott
Colonial Sour Cherry Shrub
Ingredients:
- 8 oz. Jar of Sour Cherry Preserves
- 1 cup Demerara Sugar
- 1 cup Apple Cider Vinegar
Preparation: Place the sour cherry preserves in a nonreactive bowl, and cover with the sugar. Let them steep together for at least overnight (or for a few days) at room temperature. Then strain the cherry mixture through a non-reactive sieve, crushing the tender fruits with a wooden spoon to extract as much flavor and sweet juice as possible. Combine with the vinegar; let the mixture sit for a few hours, and then strain into sterilized bottles.
The Benjamin Gunn Mystery Cocktail
Ingredients:
- 2 tbsp. Colonial Sour Cherry Shrub
- 2 oz. Dark Rum (a Molasses-Based Rum that’s Been Aged in Ex-Bourbon Oak is Ideal)
- 1/4 oz. Dark Amber Maple Syrup
- Splash of Seltzer Water
- Lemon Twist
- Dash of Cherry Bitters
Preparation: Place an ice cube in a rocks glass, and add 2 tbsp. of the sour cherry shrub. Add the dark rum and the maple syrup, and then top with a splash of fizzy seltzer water. Garnish with a lemon twist, and dot with cherry bitters.
Ginger-Lime Shrub
Ingredients:
- 4 Limes, Zested and Quartered
- 1 cup Demerara Sugar
- 6 tbsp. Freshly Grated Ginger Root
- 1–2 cups Apple Cider Vinegar (Depending on the Height of the Ingredients when Placed in a Bowl)
Preparation: In a non-reactive bowl, combine the lime peels, lime quarters, sugar, and ginger. Stir to combine and coat all the fruit with sugar. Cover and leave at room temperature at least overnight or for 1 to 2 days. (Slow, cool fermentation gives a shrub its trademark bite.) Now prepare your shrub for aging. Set a strainer over another non-reactive bowl and pour the lime and ginger into the strainer. Use a stout wooden spoon to extract as much juice as possible from the limes and the softened ginger. Let the mixture sit for a few more hours.
Stir again, and discard the fruit chunks. Stir in the vinegar, and then use a funnel to transfer the shrub syrup to a sterilized bottle. Seal and then shake well to combine. Store the bottles in the refrigerator or at cellar temperature for 3 to 4weeks before using. Shake each bottle once or twice daily to help the sugar dissolve. When it’s mostly dissolved, your shrub is ready to use. Makes 1 1/2 cups. Keep refrigerated, and use within about 6 months.
Ginger-Lime Shrub with Rhum Agricole and Salty Lemonade
Ingredients:
- 2 tbsp. Ginger-Lime Shrub
- 2 oz. 100-proof Rhum Agricole Blanc
- 3 oz. Freshly Made Lemonade, Sweetened with Raw Honey or Simple Syrup
- 1/2 oz. Seltzer Water
- 1 pinch Fleur De Sel
- 2–3 drops Lime Bitters
Preparation: Add the Ginger-Lime Shrub to an old fashioned glass. Then add an ice spear. Top with the Rhum Agricole Blanc, the lemonade, and a splash of seltzer water. Sprinkle a pinch of fleur de sel into the drink, and finish with a couple drops of lime bitters.
Squire’s Strawberry-Rhubarb Shrub
Ingredients:
- 2 cups Roasted Strawberries and Rhubarb, Equal Parts
- 1 cup Demerara Sugar
- 1 cup Light Balsamic Vinegar
Preparation: Add the roasted strawberries and rhubarb to a non-reactive bowl. Cover with the sugar, stir to combine, and cover it with plastic wrap. Leave at cool room temperature for 24 hours. Stir frequently during this time to combine as the berries and rhubarb give off their liquid.
Place a non-reactive strainer above a second non-reactive bowl, pour the fruit-sugar mixture into the strainer, and use a wooden spoon to mash the mixture in order to release as much liquid as possible. (Reserve the mashed fruit to use in cooking or baking, if you like.) Add the balsamic vinegar to the liquid, stir, and let the mixture sit for a few hours. Funnel into sterilized bottles or jars, and age for 3–4 weeks in the refrigerator. This shrub will last nearly indefinitely, but if it begins to quiver, dance, or speak in foreign languages, throw it out.
Squire’s Shrub Cocktail
- 1 Brown Sugar Cube
- Several Dashes of Lemon Bitters
- 1/2 oz. Botanical Gin
- 2 oz. Squire’s Strawberry-Rhubarb Shrub
- 1 1/2 oz. Champagne, or Dry Sparkling Wine
- 1 Long Lemon Twist
Preparation: Add the sugar cube to a Champagne flute (see below), and moisten with the lemon bitters. Then add the gin and the Squire’s Strawberry-Rhubarb Shrub, and top with Champagne. Garnish with a long lemon twist.
Note: To prepare this flute, combine very finely chopped lemon zest and sugar, wet the rim of the glass with lemon, and dip the glass into yellow-colored sugar.
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Klaus & I are on Chasing NJ!!
Klaus and I were interviewed for my upcoming fourth book, Cannabis Cocktails! It will be aired Friday at 10 pm on WWOR-TV 9, Friday at 12 am FOX 25 Philly and Friday at 1 am FOX 5 NYC!!
http://www.my9nj.com/chasing-news
From the author who brought us Apothecary Cocktails: Restorative Drinks from Yesterday and Today as well as Bitters and Shrub Syrup: Restorative Vintage Cocktails, Warren Bobrow is no stranger to cocktail writing. He is known as the cocktail whisperer so when we this soon-to-be released title we knew we were in good hands.
With the U.S. slowly progressing to ending another prohibition, Bobrow intellectually and scientifically digs into cocktails infused with cannabis. Whether this is the wave of the future or not, this has probably crossed your mind. Bobrow leads us into a world that had no guide and puts it all on paper. Expect this one to get a lot of attention! Pre-order here.
Spirited Miami’s 2016 Most Anticipated Cocktail Books! (PART I)
Certainly by the end of the year I’ve become a bit jaded on what I consider to be trends for the following year. Everyone wants to know what the “next best thing” is… Or what it’s going to be tomorrow, next week or in the coming months.
It is here that I want to start my list of what I think, as a taste-maker- will be hot in the coming months. I’ll give a list with some explanation- just in case.
Last September I was fortunate to attend the Moscow (Russia) Bar Show. It was enlightening, amazing and educational. I gave a master class on rum and traveled to the other side of the globe to find a country that for all intents and purposes is just like ours- except they speak Russian. They love us- we’d never know that from our press though. The Russians are passionate about American Whiskey.
Want to know where all the Bourbon Whiskey is? Russia. So, I’ll start my list in Moscow.
• Authenticity, Nostalgia, Simplicity. I was sent to the Moscow Bar Show by Mezan Rum. You would think that Russians would be preoccupied with vodka. Not so, they demand authenticity and that “Jerry Thomas” approach to history. Fine aged rum plays directly into this chess game. Rum that hasn’t been colorized, chill-filtered nor any added sugar, or saccharine allowed. Mezan fulfills this purpose and takes you further into the plethora of flavors that speak clearly to the métier of the rum distiller. Get some! I prefer the Jamaican version. There is a certain funk in each sip. Powerful stuff in a Planter’s Punch or even in a Rum-Manhattan. Make sure you use a Vermouth like Atsby, or Uncouth- even Carpano… But use the white one. The red is too sweet for these perfumed rums.
• Whiskey from actual distilleries! What a concept- is it me, or are there more made-up names than usual on the store shelves? I actually had a friend ask me about a Bourbon the other day from a distillery that has never existed outside of a Madison Avenue advertising agency desk. The label appeared to be hand attached and the closure had the look of a cork stuck in the top of a bottle of Moonshine. There may have been leather involved. All it said to me was, stay far away.
Authenticity in Bourbon takes guts these days. But should you find a true craft distillery- then by all means buy their stuff. They deserve your support. The big guys are ok, but cut out the fake-craft labeling. It’s confusing to the consumer! My favorites going forward, Barrell Bourbon, Few Spirits, Catoctin Creek, Hudson… They are my favorites for a reason. They speak the language of history.
• Scotch from Scotland and other places – Ok, so they call them smoked whiskies when they are from other places. I don’t want to raise the ire of Scotch drinkers. Pardon me. Amongst my favorites going forward- Virginia Highland Malt Whisky- yes Virginia, they distill absolutely gorgeous whisky in Virginia. I’ve been making Bee’s Knees with Old St. Andrews Scotch Whisky- lightly aromatic of cut grass and toasted peat. Not overpowering with smoke, but to my palate, just enough. And that bottle! Looks like a golf ball. Brenne from France continues to please and going forward I would say that any releases from this marvelous producer will challenge even the most snobbish of the Whisky drinkers. I had some beautiful Scotch Whisky in Russia that dated back to the mid 1960’s… If you can find any of these, save your pennies… They are worth every cent.
• Rhum Agricole. Certainly you should be drinking Rhum Agricole… Don’t just put a bottle on your bar and forget about it. I continue to wax poetic about the mysterious flavors that appear and disappear in each sip of Rhum Agricole. One of my favorite ways to drink this perfumed slice of Rhum history (yes they use an extra h in Rhum in the French West Indies) is with a chunk of lime (with the skin on) and a couple splashes of Cane Sugar Syrup… This is so simple! Anyone can choose their own demise by making this drink as strong or as weak as they desire. Thank you to Ed Hamilton for teaching me what I needed to know in the first place.
• Flavored Syrups and Shrubs. What is a shrub? My third book, Bitters and Shrub Syrup Cocktails defines a Shrub as an acidulated beverage, historically used as a method of aiding digestion and for refreshment- as an energy drink. In the days prior to soda, a touch of vinegar, sugar and fruit along with cool water would satisfy most thirsts. Flavored syrups make our jobs as bartenders and mixologists much easier. Amongst the very best that you can buy are: Royal Rose… Fruitations (I’m just blown away by their Cranberry), Pickett’s from Brooklyn (yes, that’s a place and their hot ginger syrup is world class) Shrub and Company, Shrub Drinks, Liber and Company. All delicious and lip-smacking. Powell & Mahoney is my go/to for Pomegranate Mixer- yes- even I use a pre-mix for some events.
• Craft Soda… With too many names to mention, but I’ll mention a couple. Q-Drinks- they’re magnificent. The Club Soda has a pinch of sea salt- keeps you thirsty! I’m thrilled by some of the Root Beers that come down from Bar Harbor in Maine… I love to drink Boylan’s and Bruce Cost sodas when I want something even more authentic. Dry Soda is just amazing stuff- the cucumber variety is crisp and refreshing.
• Hard Cider. Possmann’s from Germany is my go/to. This lightly sparkling cider is all apple and just the right amount of fizz and alcohol rolling in at 5% abv. I’ve had it on tap in the New York/Metro area and if you see it, get some… immediately! Farnum Hill from up in New England continues to charm my palate as well. There are some Spanish Ciders that are just so assertive- Burgundy wine comes to mind. Barnyard notes and crushed stones come into view, sip by sip, if you dare! They are just different styles from Spain. I much prefer the German ciders, at least for my palate.
• Tequila. I don’t know what happened to Tequila, but I’m tired of Tequila that tastes like Bourbon. Maybe it’s because they age the distillate in used Bourbon casks? Absolutely, this is why your Tequila tastes sweet. It’s in the cask! I much prefer the rare and usually a bit more expensive versions like Casa Noble- aged in French White Oak. This is a much more expensive method, but worthwhile in my opinion.
• Mezcal… It’s mysterious like a high fever in the middle of Summer. There’s smoke in there- lots of stuff going on in your imagination. If you want to really challenge your palate, in a good way… Taste Mezcal. Of course if it has a worm in the bottle, throw it out immediately. This is not the real thing. It was invented, yes again… by one of those ad agencies. No one eats the darned thing!
• Gin. Stick to what you like and I love Barr Hill from Vermont. The Tom Cat, aged in American Oak is my preference in a snifter- for a perfectly marvelous gin and juice – use nothing more than the raw honey and grain distilled Barr Hill Gin with freshly squeezed- broiled grapefruit in a muddle. A splash of Q-Tonic water and a couple dashes of Angostura to finish… All good. Happy New Year!
My fourth book, Cannabis Cocktails (the first book on the topic!) is in pre-sell now: www.quartoknows.com/books/9781592337347/Cannabis-Cocktails-Mocktails-and-Tonics.html
- See more at: http://totalfood.com/articles/these-are-the-drinks-youve-been-looking-for#sthash.PKUMRV7J.dpuf
It’s true, the Squire’s Shrub does require a couple of extra steps, but I promise it’s worth your while: Your patience will be rewarded with a lush, crimson colored syrup that’s straight out of the eighteenth century, when America was in its infancy and early pharmacists would have relied on their gardens to supply the basis for their healing tonics. (Rhubarb has been used as a digestive aid for thousands of years.) There’s nothing difficult to it, though, beyond a little extra mixing, and roasting your fruit before making the shrub. The vinegar’s high acidity cuts through the sumptuous, charred, caramelized flavor of the roasted strawberries and rhubarb, making it a seductive addition to gin, vodka, and rum-based libations.
2 cups (340 g)
Roasted Strawberries and Rhubarb
1 cup (200 g) Demerara sugar
1 cup (235 ml) light balsamic vinegar
Time: 3–4 weeks. Add the roasted strawberries and rhubarb to a nonreactive bowl. Cover with the sugar, stir to combine, and cover it with plastic wrap. Leave at cool room temperature for 24 hours. Stir frequently during this time to combine as the berries and rhubarb give off their liquid. Place a nonreactive strainer above a second nonreactive bowl, pour the fruit-sugar mixture into the strainer, and use a wooden spoon to mash the mixture in order to release as much liquid as possible.
(Reserve the mashed fruit to use in cooking or baking, if you like.) Add the balsamic vinegar to the liquid, stir, and let the mixture sit for a few hours. Funnel into sterilized bottles or jars, and age for 3–4 weeks in the refrigerator. This shrub will last nearly indefinitely, but if it begins to quiver, dance, or speak in foreign languages, throw it out.
Excerpted from Bitters and Shrub Syrup Cocktails Restorative Vintage Cocktails, Mocktails, and Elixirs by Warren Bobrow (Fair Winds Press, 2015).