Tag: apothecary cocktails

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Recipes

Cannabis Cocktails offers THC infused recipes for imbibers!

dish-spirits-July28Warren Bobrow is a brand ambassador, former bank executive and the author of four cocktail books. His latest is Cannabis Cocktails, Mocktails and Tonics: The Art of Spirited Drinks and Buzz-Worthy Libations.

And if there were any doubts as to the possible commercial success of a book on cannabis drinks—I’m in New Orleans this week—and it’s totally sold out.

One caveat Bobrow offers is that he cannot tell people the correct doses for the different strains or the risks inherent in using cannabis tinctures. He offers up the Thai food spice principal: Start low, as “you can always add more spice.” He suggests waiting an hour between drinks.

VUE spoke with the author about his training, his book, and reinventing himself at 50-years-old.

VUE WEEKLY: How did you get your start with cocktails?

WARREN BOBROW: I trained as a chef in the ’80s. I started in television, that didn’t work out so well. I always wanted to work in a kitchen so I got a job as a pot-scrubber. I worked my way up the line as an apprentice to become a saucier. Cocktails came easy to me after being trained in flavours.

VW: When did you know you wanted to write cocktail books?

WB: That came about after a Ministry of Rum event in 2010. The founder, Ed Hamilton, encouraged me into it. I left corporate banking in 2009, and there was a short window before I met Hamilton. I took classes with celebrated writers and instructors Andy Smith, at The New School, and with Alan Richman, at the International Culinary Center of New York. The writing came easy to me. There is good writing out there, but I truly felt I could do better. I was going to write about food and wine. I didn’t look at cocktails until I talked to Ed Hamilton.

The only ingredient missing from my last book Apothecary Cocktails: Restorative Drinks from Yesterday and Today was cannabis. Cannabis is a very dicey subject. I didn’t want to make the book a ‘get-high quick guide’.

VW: What’s been the hardest part of this journey?

WB: I’m 55 now and I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life until I was 50. I was 48 when I lost my banking job and I worked for two years without a pay cheque. When I left they gave me severance and I used that to reinvent myself. This has not been easy, financially.

VW: What’s your favourite cocktail to make from the Cannabis Cocktails book?

WB: It’s a well-made Absinthe Frappé. Good luck getting one in most places. The absinthe is usually terrible, the ice is even worse. I love to use Cuvée Edouard absinthe, and got permission to use it in the book. I infuse it with THC. I also love a Sazerac with the THC infused absinthe. 

http://www.vueweekly.com/cannabis-cocktails-offers-thc-infused-recipes-for-imbibers/

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Recipes

Cherry Popper!!

Capture“I’ve found that the deep cherry notes of both Luxardo and Heering are a great complement and substitute for almond, allspice and passion fruit syrups.” Warren Bobrow, author of books such as Apothecary Cocktails: Restorative Drinks from Yesterday and Today, also points to the sweet nature of tiki cocktails as working in cherry liqueur’s favour. “I’m from the mindset of dry, and sometimes over proof rum over sweet, caramel coloured and heavily sugared rum in a tiki drink,” he says. “It’s the sweet stuff that is so memorable the next morning.” So he layers cherry flavours at the bottom of the glass and serves it with a straw for guests to “pull the sweet liqueur up from the bottom through the drier elements of the rum”.

44.DRINKS.NEED TO KNOW.(HL)

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Tales of the Cocktail!

royal sonesta hotel

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Summer Rum Punch!!

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Welcome to rum, the libation understood by Buccaneers, Pirates, Sailors and “Armchair Sailors” the world over, throughout history.

Follow the Rhumb line on your sailing chart and let it take you around the globe.Here also is an intoxicating liquid in your hand.This liquid is as ancient as the early sailors who plied the relentless seas. It is called Rum.

Rum is usually available in almost every port where sailors gather after a long voyage or before embarking upon a longer one.

Rum has always been served as an inexpensive and potent form of relaxation for sailors and landlubbers alike.As a panacea against fear, rum always calmed a sailor’s beleaguered nerves while far out at sea, unable to tie up to the yacht club dock.Rum would take the edge off of weeks without even a tickle of wind, or in the face of the fiercest weather. Rum is the complete drink of sailors who took this tipple to sea as a cure-all against all known infirmities from being a sailor in the early days.And let me tell you from working for weeks aboard a modern boat, it’s really hard work!

The ocean has always held an allure for me.It’s unlike any other place that I’ve ever experienced.I’ve done more than just a bit of sailing.Mostly my sailing took place on a yacht belonging to my family.I can picture her now, about sixty feet in length, displacing 65 or so tons.She had all the modern conveniences of home along with a water maker- to turn seawater to a dense, brackish substance seemingly only good for washing dishes.But it also made decent, not clear: ice- but extremely helpful to the brain, when all about you is sticky: hot, humid and mosquito beleaguered. Being out at sea and having an iced rum cocktail housed in a clean glass is one of life’s simple pleasures. It connects you with every sailor who has ever sailed upon the ocean, even if they didn’t have your milky colored ice to cool their fevered brow.

The sea at night (and even in the daytime) can be a very scary place in a storm.As anyone who has been in a yacht away from the relative safety of the yacht club dock knows, the ocean is much larger than you are.Ships are not meant to be docked.They are meant to explore the globe. And to do this they need to go to sea.The waves will tower over your tiny vessel, threatening to smash you and your hard earned dollars into piles of shredded (read expensive) sailcloth, toothpicks of your fine teak decks and miles of razor sharp fiberglass where the bow decided to split open for no reason at all, exposing the interior of the vessel to the bottom of the sea in mere seconds.

That is why sailors kept rum on board their ship.Because that mug of rum somehow makes it easier to forget that such a horrible demise may await you with every uncontrollable gust of wind or steep wave that knocks you to the wooden deck. You’ll know it when it happens.

Rum is hand-held courage for the sailor.f1d5f6018cc91b03bdff752c52eff6f141a4d855

Maybe the thrill of being a sailor out at sea continues to make rum so beguiling to all kinds of drinkers, even today. After all, this allure and call to the sea is what took this drink through history.

A daily tot of rum punch might have been made with a preserved fruit shrub.Shrubs were made up of vinegar along with citrus fruit and molasses or raw honey.They were mixed with water for purification and also with rum in a rudimentary punch.The early shrubs were no more than citrus fruit, mixed with vinegar and sugar against decay.

Drinking what little water taken on board a ship could be fatal because the water was potentially deadly without purification systems like on modern vessels. The feeling of being soaked to the skin in cold weather with a steaming mug of grog filling your belly makes the going so much easier.Just like cooling punch made with rum and tropical fruit juices gave scurvy ravaged sailors deep relief.The modern day product, Rose’s Lime Juice, a potent curative in its own right dates back to the Colonial era when drinking lime and rum was not just a casual drink, it was a curative in your mug of more than good cheer.

Rum traditionally found its way around the world because it was easy to transport from place to place.And rum is sturdy stuff.It doesn’t sour like wine or beer in the motion of the ship or the heat of the hold.

There are many names for rum that flows clear from the still with a hiccup or bubbles forth with a belly laugh. Times are changing and this has made rum universally respected.

Rum is cheap to make, easy to store, it lasts nearly forever and it gets better over time when resting within a cask.It’s a win/win for the distiller and the casual drinker alike.

A Summer Rum Punch should always be made with freshly crushed juices. I cannot imagine making something that I may be serving to others with anything but the very best.After all, aren’t you worth it?

In my travels I always come across individuals who say that when they are entertaining, they use less than satisfactory ingredients because their guests won’t know any better.That’s a shame- because it doesn’t cost much more to ensure a unique experience.When you take short cuts- well, the overall understanding is cheap.I don’t know from cheap.That’s why my drinks are memorable.They evoke history, one sip at a time.

The Sea Cook
(the cook is the most important person aboard your ship, don’t ever forget that)

Ingredients:

  • 4 oz. Mezan XO Rum (no chill filtering, nor glycerin, nor added sugar, nor caramel coloring added)
  • 2 oz. juice: Take 2 pineapples- cut into rings, placed on a silicone tray, with Angostura Bitters (for good gastric health) and roasted for 20 minutes at 400 degrees or until caramelized.Cool and set aside
  • 2 oz. juice in each cocktail-
    Do the same with a couple splashes of Angostura Bitters upon 2 large grapefruits- cut in half, also sprinkled with Demerara Sugar and broiled until bubbly.Cool and set aside
  • ½ oz. Freshly squeezed orange juice
  • ¼ oz. Freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1 oz. White Balsamic Vinegar
  • Angostura Bitters
  • Fresh Nutmeg and scraper
  • 1 oz. Oloroso Sherry (dark in color, rich and smoky in taste)
  • Lime chunk garnish
  • Fresh ice- not stinking of last month’s garlic pasta

    Prep:

  1. Take the pineapples, skin them well, no bitter crust allowed! Roast them with the Angostura Bitters.
  2. Juice them and add 2 oz. of this juice to a Boston Shaker filled ¾ with ice
  3. Do the same with the broiled grapefruits- no pith (it’s bitter!) just juice them and add 2 oz. of this broiled grapefruit juice to the Boston Shaker
  4. Add the Mezan XO Rum and the vinegar
  5. Finally, add the Orange juice and the Lemon juice
  6. Cap and Shake hard for 15 seconds
  7. Pour into two Collins Glasses filled with ice
  8. Float the Oloroso Sherry over the top
  9. Scrape some nutmeg over the top to finish
  10. Garnish with a lime chunk and serve

 

– See more at: http://drinkwire.liquor.com/post/summer-rum-punch#gs.lqKmswQ – Read more at: http://scl.io/0qw7YBH7#gs.MwcUd3k

Categories
Recipes

Summer Rum Punch!!

Welcome to rum, the libation understood by Buccaneers, Pirates, Sailors and “Armchair Sailors” the world over, throughout history.

Follow the Rhumb line on your sailing chart and let it take you around the globe.  Here also is an intoxicating liquid in your hand.  This liquid is as ancient as the early sailors who plied the relentless seas.   It is called Rum.   

Rum is usually available in almost every port where sailors gather after a long voyage or before embarking upon a longer one.

Rum has always been served as an inexpensive and potent form of relaxation for sailors and landlubbers alike.  As a panacea against fear, rum always calmed a sailor’s beleaguered nerves while far out at sea, unable to tie up to the yacht club dock.  Rum would take the edge off of weeks without even a tickle of wind, or in the face of the fiercest weather.   Rum is the complete drink of sailors who took this tipple to sea as a cure-all against all known infirmities from being a sailor in the early days.  And let me tell you from working for weeks aboard a modern boat, it’s really hard work!    

The ocean has always held an allure for me.  It’s unlike any other place that I’ve ever experienced.  I’ve done more than just a bit of sailing.  Mostly my sailing took place on a yacht belonging to my family.  I can picture her now, about sixty feet in length, displacing 65 or so tons.  She had all the modern conveniences of home along with a water maker- to turn seawater to a dense, brackish substance seemingly only good for washing dishes.  But it also made decent, not clear: ice- but extremely helpful to the brain, when all about you is sticky: hot, humid and mosquito beleaguered. Being out at sea and having an iced rum cocktail housed in a clean glass is one of life’s simple pleasures.  It connects you with every sailor who has ever sailed upon the ocean, even if they didn’t have your milky colored ice to cool their fevered brow.

The sea at night (and even in the daytime) can be a very scary place in a storm.  As anyone who has been in a yacht away from the relative safety of the yacht club dock knows, the ocean is much larger than you are.  Ships are not meant to be docked.  They are meant to explore the globe. And to do this they need to go to sea.  The waves will tower over your tiny vessel, threatening to smash you and your hard earned dollars into piles of shredded (read expensive) sailcloth, toothpicks of your fine teak decks and miles of razor sharp fiberglass where the bow decided to split open for no reason at all, exposing the interior of the vessel to the bottom of the sea in mere seconds.

That is why sailors kept rum on board their ship.  Because that mug of rum somehow makes it easier to forget that such a horrible demise may await you with every uncontrollable gust of wind or steep wave that knocks you to the wooden deck.   You’ll know it when it happens.   

Rum is hand-held courage for the sailor.Bobrow_July2016

Maybe the thrill of being a sailor out at sea continues to make rum so beguiling to all kinds of drinkers, even today. After all, this allure and call to the sea is what took this drink through history.

A daily tot of rum punch might have been made with a preserved fruit shrub.  Shrubs were made up of vinegar along with citrus fruit and molasses or raw honey.  They were mixed with water for purification and also with rum in a rudimentary punch.  The early shrubs were no more than citrus fruit, mixed with vinegar and sugar against decay.

Drinking what little water taken on board a ship could be fatal because the water was potentially deadly without purification systems like on modern vessels. The feeling of being soaked to the skin in cold weather with a steaming mug of grog filling your belly makes the going so much easier.  Just like cooling punch made with rum and tropical fruit juices gave scurvy ravaged sailors deep relief.  The modern day product Rose’s Lime Juice, a potent curative in its own right dates back to the Colonial era when drinking lime and rum was not just a casual drink, it was a curative in your mug of more than good cheer.

Rum traditionally found its way around the world because it was easy to transport from place to place.  And rum is sturdy stuff.  It doesn’t sour like wine or beer in the motion of the ship or the heat of the hold.

There are many names for rum that flows clear from the still with a hiccup or bubbles forth with a belly laugh. Times are changing and this has made rum universally respected.

Rum is cheap to make, easy to store, it lasts nearly forever and it gets better over time when resting within a cask.  It’s a win/win for the distiller and the casual drinker alike.

A Summer Rum Punch should always be made with freshly crushed juices. I cannot imagine making something that I may be serving to others with anything but the very best.  After all, aren’t you worth it?

In my travels I always come across individuals who say that when they are entertaining, they use less than satisfactory ingredients because their guests won’t know any better. That’s a shame- because it doesn’t cost much more to ensure a unique experience.  When you take short cuts- well, the overall understanding is cheap.  I don’t know from cheap. That’s why my drinks are memorable.  They evoke history, one sip at a time.

The Sea Cook

(the cook is the most important person aboard your ship, don’t ever forget that)

Ingredients:

  • 4 oz. Mezan XO Rum (no chill filtering, nor glycerin, nor added sugar, nor caramel coloring added)
  • 2 oz. juice: Take 2 pineapples- cut into rings, placed on a silicone tray, with Angostura Bitters (for good gastric health) and roasted for 20 minutes at 400 degrees or until caramelized.  Cool and set aside
  • 2 oz. juice in each cocktail-
    Do the same with a couple splashes of Angostura Bitters upon 2 large grapefruits- cut in half, also sprinkled with Demerara Sugar and broiled until bubbly.  Cool and set aside
  • ½ oz. Freshly squeezed orange juice
  • ¼ oz. Freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1 oz. White Balsamic Vinegar
  • Angostura Bitters
  • Fresh Nutmeg and scraper
  • 1 oz. Oloroso Sherry (dark in color, rich and smoky in taste)
  • Lime chunk garnish
  • Fresh ice- not stinking of last month’s garlic pasta

Prep:

  1. Take the pineapples, skin them well, no bitter crust allowed! Roast them with the Angostura Bitters.
  2. Juice them and add 2 oz. of this juice to a Boston Shaker filled ¾ with ice
  3. Do the same with the broiled grapefruits- no pith (it’s bitter!) just juice them and add 2 oz. of this broiled grapefruit juice to the Boston Shaker
  4. Add the Mezan XO Rum and the vinegar
  5. Finally, add the Orange juice and the Lemon juice
  6. Cap and Shake hard for 15 seconds
  7. Pour into two Collins Glasses filled with ice
  8. Float the Oloroso Sherry over the top
  9. Scrape some nutmeg over the top to finish
  10. Garnish with a lime chunk and serve
Categories
Recipes

GREENISH COCKTAIL CHERRIES!

I’m a bit of an evangelist when it comes to homemade cocktail cherries. They’re far, far superior to those red things that come in jars.

Text reprinted with permission, c/o Fair Winds Press, an imprint of Quarto Publishing Group.

  • 1 bottle (750 ml) of bourbon whiskey
  •  8 grams of decarbed cannabis
  •  2 pounds (910 g) pitted fresh cherries
Mason Jar
PREPARATION
  1. Infuse the whiskey with the cannabis following the instructions on page 34.
  2. Place the pitted cherries in a large mason jar, then cover with the infused whiskey.
  3. Store the jar in a cool, dark place, such as a cellar or refrigerator, for 1 month, shaking the jar daily.
  4. Don’t be afraid to store these outside the fridge at cellar temperature: nothing bad will happen if you do.
  5. Use as called for in cocktails and mocktails.
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Events Interviews

Klaus & I were on Heritage Radio!!

http://heritageradionetwork.org/podcast/cannabis-cocktails-with-warren-bobrow-and-ryan-sutton-of-eater/

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Miscellaneous Recipes

Tips for Substituting Ingredients Behind the Bar

https://talesofthecocktail.com/techniques/tips-substituting-ingredients-behind-bar

Mark Vierthaler (@Cocktails_365)
Bottles on a shelf.
Photo via iStock/Lisa-Blue.
When you reach for a bottle to find that it’s empty, it’s important to be ready to improvise.

Whether it’s fruit that’s out of season, that bottle of super rare aperitif that you’re dying to mix up, or you’ve simply run out of one of your bar staples in the middle of a rush, it’s important to have effective substitutions ready to take center stage.

Below you’ll find some handy suggestions on substitutions that could easily bail you out the next time you’re in a pinch.

1. Substitute fresh juices

Warren Bobrow, author of “Apothecary Cocktails, Bitters and Shrub Syrup Cocktails, Whiskey Cocktails,” and “Cannabis Cocktails, Mocktails, and Tonics” relies on Fruitations Craft Soda and Cocktail Mixers when you need a quick — but still flavorful — stand in for fresh fruit juices.

Fruitations is currently available in three varieties — cranberry, grapefruit, and tangerine.

“It’s brilliant stuff,” Bobrow said.

2. Make your own liqueurs

Sometimes it’s harder than it should be to get your hands on a specific liqueur. Sometimes, it’s just cheaper to make them yourself.

Mike McSorley, Head Distiller and Brand Ambassador at Island Distillers, has a handful of quick fixes when behind the bar.

Cointreau substitute

  • 750 ml 100 proof vodka
  • Zest of 2 oranges
  • Steep for 24 hours
  • 187 ml rich simple syrup

St. Germain substitute

  • D’arbo elderflower syrup
  • 100 proof vodka
  • Small pinch citric acid

3. When you need to MacGyver it

Sometimes it’s simply a matter of being put in a tough spot in the middle of a rushed service.

Izzy Ramos Foster, owner of Mixotica Cocktail Design, has had to make a handful of fast decisions in her time.

“For a Sidecar, using Tuaca and/or Licor 43 as a substitute when your orange liqueur unexpectedly runs out has worked every time,” Foster said. “Sometimes it works in a Margarita, depending the tequila. I’ve never had a complaint!”

Other off-the-cuff substitutions have been a bit more unique.

“I’ve also had to resort to using crushed Altoid breath mint powder (diluted in a bit water and strained) a couple of times when a sudden Mojito craze hit, fresh mint ran very low, but the cocktails needed to go out stat,” she said. “It’s not my proudest ‘professional bartending’ moments but it worked and the party went on!

4. All in the family

When it comes to replacing ingredients, remember that like replaces like.

For example, if you’re short on Cynar, you could easily swap out with a similar potable bitters like Campari (although it’s much fruitier than Cynar), Fernet Branca or Punt è Mes — a dark, bitter Italian vermouth produced by Carpano.

Consider the balance of your drink and its key features, and you can even create some unique cocktails by switching out key ingredients. For example, if you’re short on vodka when dying for a Moscow Mule but happen to have a silver rum in the house, replacing the vodka with rum leads to the heavier, richer Jamaican Mule.

5. Knowledge is your best substitute

Finally, have a working knowledge of how flavors relate to each other — and an even better understanding of what you actually have access to behind your own individual bar.

“Knowledge is key here,” said Matthew Biancaniello, owner of Eat Your Drink, LLC.

Specifically, while behind the bar one night Biancaniello noticed he had suddenly run out of fresh lime juice. What he did have, however, was fresh passion fruit juice.

“Instead of 2 ounces of lime juice, I did 3/4 ounce of passion fruit juice,” he said. “The passion fruit became the citrus in place of the lime juice. By reducing the amount I was able to keep the citrus there without making it painfully obvious that I wasn’t using the usual ingredient.”

The key to quick substitutions behind the bar is a deep knowledge and appreciation of similar flavors, a willingness to play around with different ingredients, and the ability to think on your feet.

Substitution quick tips:

Substitute liquors and liqueurs from the same family. In a pinch, rye can stand in for bourbon.

Take the time to play around with different flavors before you really need to punt. Having a knowledge of parallel flavors will keep your flavors relatively consistent.

Don’t be afraid to play around with different flavor combinations to create something new (so long as your patron knows that you’re being creative).

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Events

Malaprop’s Bookstore 5:30 PM today![Asheville, NC]

May 6, 2016 Book signing with Warren Bobrow at Malaprop’s

Asheville’s own Malaprop’s Bookstore will host a reading and signing at 5:30 PM on May 6th with this well-known cocktail author. Bobrow, known as the “Cocktail Whisperer” among being a notable writer featured in Saveur and many other publications, is the author of three books:Apothecary Cocktails: Restorative Drinks from Yesterday and Today (2013), Whiskey Cocktails: Rediscovered Classics and Contemporary Craft Drinks (2014) and Bitters and Shrub Syrup Cocktails: Restorative Vintage Cocktails, Mocktails & Elixirs (2015).https://cocktailwhisperer.com

Warren Bobrow_Author Photo

Warren Bobrow is the celebrated author/bar man and mixologist responsible for the forthcoming book, Cannabis Cocktails. This book which takes the tack of healing over being just another stoner book is certain to make some waves in the formerly stoic liquor world.

Warren is a published food writer as well as a mixologist. A long strange trip it’s been. He writes for the “Fabulous Beekman 1802 Boys” as their cocktail writer. (Klaus, The Soused Gnome)Warren has recently written for Whole Foods/Dark Rye, Eater.com, Distiller Magazine, Edible East End, Total Food Service, Tabletop Journal, Beverage Media Group, Leite’s Culinaria and Foodista.

 

 

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Events

Rochester Cocktail Revival May 9-15, 2016!!

http://www.rochestercocktailrevival.com/

Countdown 6 days and events are selling out fast, got tickets to your favorite upcoming seminars and parties for the 2016 Rochester Cocktail Revival? While perhaps you should attend all of RCR’s events next week, definitely score tickets to the top picks!

https://vimeo.com/160114555

Stirred, Not Shaken

Friday, May 13th, a new perspective is shown on the cocktails and art inspired by the James Bond series of films. Join Absolut vodka brand ambassador Josh Pearson and George Eastman curator Lisa Hostetler for a presentation and guided tour showcasing cocktails such as the vesper as well as the photographic works of Taryn Simon.

Secrets of the Mint Julep & Sazerac

Few cocktails are as important in American history as the Mint Julep and Sazerac. Join author Robert Moss at the Little Theatre on Sunday, May 15th as he dispels rumors and illustrates the legends that reveal the secretive origins of these inimitable drinks.

Bar Room Battle Royale

The third-annual ULTIMATE BATTLE for Rochester Bartender SUPREMACY!

“Iron Shaker” team competition & “Bar Ninja” speed competition will establish bragging rights and glory for the bar team and bartenders that prove victorious against immeasurable odds.

Ticket includes entry, three cocktails, a spirit tasting and the chance to see this BATTLE ROYALE up close and personal.

M A R K E T  Site A L L   A C C E S S  Pass

Whether you’re attending for “professional” reasons or just ready to tipple, go for the whole shebang & grab a Market Site All Access Pass. The “party-pack” gets you into 4 parties held over the course of 3 days – spirit and cocktail samples from the folks leading the Hospitality Industry with innovate techniques & locally made Craft Spirits.