Cocktail WhispererPlease join Klaus and I for an exciting tasting experience on May 23, 2016 at the Renaissance Albany Hotel 144 State St, Albany, NY 12207 (518) 992-2500
I’ll be making the Broad Reach Cocktail with the Award Winning Mezan Rum And a fabulous Bärenjäger Iced Tea !! 
Do please join me!
https://mountainx.com/food/high-spirits-a-guide-to-asheville-cocktail-week/
May 1-8 Best Bloody Mary Contest takes place at participating Asheville bars and restaurants
Wednesday, May 4 Cocktail Theatre with Rob Floyd
Thursday, May 5 Spirit Dinner at Rhubarb with Warren Bobrow and John Fleer, Cinco de Mayo tasting and bar crawl with Hornitos tequila at The Imperial Life
Friday, May 6 Book signing with Warren Bobrow at Malaprop’s, Southeastern Distilling Expo at the S&W Building (service industry only; free of charge), Industry seminars at the S&W (service industry only; free of charge), Fourth annual ELIXIR bar competition at the S&W
Saturday, May 7 Hangover Brunch at The Imperial Life with Cathead Vodka, Cocktail tours with Eating Asheville, Kentucky Derby Party at the Smoky Park Supper Club’s Boat House, with Maker’s Mark, Old Fashioned Nightcap with Knob Creek on the rooftop of the Social Lounge
Sunday, May 8 Best Bloody Mary Contest results released online
All events require either tickets or an RSVP. For ticketing, schedule details and more information, visit ashevillewineandfood.com.
Klaus and I will be at the California Rum Festival, showcasing Mezan and Stroh Rums. Join us and other trade and run aficionados for an amazing time!
511 Harrison Street. San Francisco CA Saturday, September 12, 2015 2:30 PM to 8:00 PM (PDT)
http://www.mezanrum.com/verification.php
http://www.californiarumfest.com/
Whiskey, writes Morristown cocktail expert Warren Bobrow, has long had a reputation as a spirit enjoyed straight out of the bottle “without the benefit of mixers, and often without tasting much of anything except the alcohol’s heat.” Bobrow’s new book seeks to show off how the best whiskeys can be made into phenomenal cocktails. In “Whiskey Cocktails,” (Fair Winds Press, $22.95) he presents 75 classic and modern recipes including a German Pavilion cocktail made with smoked American whiskey and a Late Summer Fizz with rye whiskey and sweet Italian vermouth.
– See more at: http://www.northjersey.com/news/whiskey-cocktails-new-from-morristown-writer-1.1118221#sthash.e5CVEqLs.dpuf
Well to be perfectly honest with you, so did I. I wasn’t aware that there are Craft Spirits in Kentucky. I know that some are working on getting the laws changed to permit Craft distilling, but I’m really not sure who they are, or if they’ve been successful.
But without that tainting my impression of the Craft Spirits industry and who makes what and where, I’d like to introduce you to Barrell Bourbon.
Barrell Bourbon is a true luxury product that you can get.
DrinkupNY has it! http://www.drinkupny.com/Barrell_Cask_Strength_Tennessee_Straight_Bourbon_p/s0185.htm
Sitting in front of me are two bottles .
Batch #001 and Batch #002.
I’ll try to be kind to you and your thirst. This isn’t going to be easy.
Writing about and tasting fine liquid is like describing Grand Cru wine. Most people cannot even fathom spending hundreds of dollars on a bottle of wine, much less ever given the chance to taste it.
Although Barrell Bourbon is not inexpensive, it’s not over 100 dollars per bottle either!
When a company sends me a bottle and it just isn’t available to the public, all I can do it hope that it makes you thirsty. I do my best to guide you and help you find a bottle.
I actually had someone reach out to me the other day, who read my review on Pappy 20 Year, assuming that I had a secret in with the company to get a bottle (or more) of this highly allocated liquid.
Nope!
But Barrell Bourbon is available. Extremely limited, but you can find it.
It’s not even noon and I’ve just taken a healthy slurp of Barrel #001. This is Cask Strength my friends. Rolling in at 121.6 Proof, it is straight out of the barrel. They don’t fine pad filter this whiskey. They only use a light mesh screen to keep the larger chunks from inside the barrel out of your glass. That’s not to say that this bourbon is crystal clear, far from, there is stuff in there. I love spirits with a soul and Barrell Bourbon has it!
Tasting Notes:
The bottle – no you don’t taste the bottle, but bear with me… is made of fine perfume grade glass. It’s gorgeous to the touch. Sumptuous and smooth. The cap is wood and real cork. A nice touch in the world of plastic almost everything. The label on each batch is very similar, with the only differences in the writing.
My bottle of Batch #001 reads Craft Distilled Barrel Stength.
Batch # 001, Bottle # 2384.
It goes on to read 121.6 Proof, 60.8 Alc/Vol.
Batch #002 reads Bottle # 429, 117.8 Proof, 58.9% Alc/Vol.
Batch #001 is made from a Mash bill of 70% corn, 25% rye and 5% malted barley. It’s distilled in Tennessee and aged in Kentucky for five years in freshly charred American oak barrels. It’s bottled at full barrel strength without any artificial colors or additives.
Flavors of Earl Grey Tea reveal themselves along with sweet vanilla, dark stone fruits, salted caramels and quince-slow cooked ones at that. The heat is ever present. You cannot escape it, even with a few drops of Branch Water sprinkled over the top to release the flavors and inner soul of this passionate product. The alcohol tingles on the tongue and wraps around your brain. This is serious stuff, worthy of your finest crystal glass. But don’t put anything other than water into it. This would be a waste of fine liquor!
Peanut brittle expands across my tongue along with long cooked apricots and white raisins. Pine nuts reveal themselves, enrobed in dark chocolate. The finish is tannic and dry. It goes on and on. Impressive and worthy of your hard earned money.
Batch # 002 is also made from a Mash bill of: 70% corn, 25% rye, 5% malted barley. The first thing you perceive is the flavor of a grilled Reuben Sandwich on Rye bread. Toasted rye has a very specific flavor and this is no exception. There is a sharp cinnamon bitterness, almost like a red hot candy that pokes a hole right in the middle of your memory. This is exceptionably memorable bourbon. There really is nothing like it on the market. Stone fruits and caramelized nuts reveal themselves after a few seconds along with deep flavors of Spanish Saddle leather and wet stones. But not wet from a fresh water stream, they are slicked with the flavors of the ocean.
The slightly less alcohol *117.8- is a welcome relief after the hit of nearly 122% alcohol in Batch #001.
Both versions are memorable. Orange marmalade and lemon curd fill your mind along with toasted rye bread and slabs of freshly smoked meats. There are bursts of fleur de sel (sea salt) and more chocolate, but not the sweet kind, I’m talking 75% bitter.
Take little sips and bite your Reuben Sandwich, let me know what you think!
This is bourbon on steroids! Definitely not for everyone! No fooling!
***********************
Warren Bobrow,is the widely published author of: Apothecary Cocktails-Restorative Drinks from Yesterday and Today- Fair Winds Press- Beverly, Massachusetts. Apothecary Cocktails was nominated for a Spirited Award, 2014 Tales of the Cocktail.
His forthcoming book, Whiskey Cocktails will be released October 2014. Bitters and Shrub Syrup Cocktails follow with publication in spring ’15.
Warren is a master mixologist for several craft liquor companies.
Warren consults about mixology and spirits, travel, organic wine and food. He’s written for web-blogs and magazines like: Williams-Sonoma, Whole Foods: Dark Rye, Distiller, Total Food Service Magazine, Beverage Media Group, DrinkupNY, Edible Publications, Foodista, Serious Eats, Mechanics of Style and Beekman1802. He was in the Saveur-100 in 2010.
Warren is a former, mostly self, trained cook from the pot sink on up. J&W and ACF were thrown in for good luck. Warren was the former owner/co-founder of Olde Charleston Pasta in South Carolina: *Dissolved his business after Hurricane Hugo in 1989* – to a career in private banking, (nearly 20 years; “a very grand mistake”) to this reinvention in 2009 as the Warren he’s finally become.
Warren is available to do highly personalized, interactive mixology events, local, national and international.
Contact: jockeyhollow@gmail.com
Icelandic craft distilled spirits like Reyka are famous for more than just their provenance. They are famous because of the quality of the water.
Is the water from Iceland alcoholic?
Nope, I’m sorry to tell you that it isn’t. But it certainly is pure. And unpolluted water is everything when blending the highest quality spirits.
The water from Iceland is perhaps the softest in the world because of the utter clarity of the ecosystem. The water for Reyka vodka is drawn from a 4000-year-old volcanic rock “field” that is, according to researchers, uncontaminated by the environmental ills of mankind.
Reyka (Ray-kuh) is an ancient Icelandic word for steam or smoke. This would make perfect sense because Iceland is a country filled with volcanoes and smoke. I’ve never been to Iceland, but in college I had a down comforter from Iceland. The down was gathered from puffins. You know, that impossibly cute bird that lives in subzero temperatures without any complaints? The same. But what does a down comforter in college have to do with vodka from Iceland?
It means absolutely nothing at all.
But I suppose the correlation is more of the quality of the products that I’ve seen coming out of this country. They tend to be of the highest eminence. They are the very best items that money can buy.
The same holds true to fact about their spirits. Reyka is one of the best vodkas I’ve ever passed through my lips. It is produced on a pot still in very small batches. There is a gorgeous sweetness that follows each drop, one of caramel and then another of sweet corn still glistening in the morning sunlight.
It’s bursting with flavors and I want to drink more.
Reyka is bottled in a handsome light blue tinted bottle with a long neck (easy to grab in your hand) with a real cork, instead of synthetic cork. It’s bottled at 80 Proof, 40% ALC/VOL but you’d never think that this vodka could be so smooth at this proof level.
The label reads something in Icelandic and we are also told that the vodka is a “Small Batch Vodka, Hand Crafted in Iceland. In smaller writing it goes on to read Traditionally Distilled & Filtered through Ancient Artic Lava Rocks. Lava rocks? Ah, that would make sense. Most of Iceland was formed from the eruption of volcanoes. Pure water is filtered through layer upon layer of the finest filter known to distillers. This makes the water from distillation sing with Terroir. I’ve tasted Icelandic water at the Fancy Food Show and can attest to its softness across the palate.
Reyka is distilled from grain and they carefully prepare each batch to emulate the exuberance that the head distiller feels. This is translated into each batch.
I don’t usually find myself drinking vodka. It just doesn’t do it for me on a flavor profile, but I am impressed by Reyka Vodka. It’s the anti-Vodka. There is flavor in there as deep as the depths of the volcanoes in Iceland. This vodka is the voyage to the center of the earth of Vodka.
Didn’t that take place in Iceland?
This week’s cocktail is derived from Voyage to the Center of the Earth.
In fact it is named just that.
I’ve included that masterfully prepared Fruitations Tangerine Soda and Cocktail Syrup to be combined with Reyka Vodka and a nice dose of Arkansas’s own Mountain Valley Spring (pure sparkling) water- because I think this combination of sweet to crisp is the perfect foil against this gorgeous Icelandic vodka.
Bitter Truth makes Creole Bitters that bring this very international cocktail back down to the Caribbean Sea through the luscious Creole Bitters. Tinted the color red- of a late summer sunset. These bitters complement the Reyka Vodka, the Mountain Valley sparkling water, the Fruitations Tangerine Syrup and your own favorite glass.
Journey to the Center of the Earth (a trip for two)
Ingredients:
2 oz. Reyka Vodka
1 oz. Fruitations Tangerine Soda and Cocktail Syrup
4 oz. Mountain Valley Sparkling Water
Lemon zest
Bitter Truth Creole Bitters
Preparation:
To a Boston Shaker, fill ¾ with ice
Chill two coupe glasses with ice and water
Pour out just before service…
Add the Reyka Vodka to the Fruitations Tangerine Syrup
Cover and Shake hard for 10-20 seconds
Strain into coupe glasses and top with the Mountain Valley Sparkling Water
Drip 4-5 drops of the Bitter Truth Creole Bitters over
Garnish with a lemon zest
Cheers from DrinkUpNY!
About Warren Bobrow
Author of: Apothecary Cocktails-Restorative Drinks from Yesterday and Today- Fair Winds Press- Beverly, Massachusetts. Apothecary Cocktails was nominated for a Spirited Award, 2014 Tales of the Cocktail. His forthcoming book, Whiskey Cocktails will be released October 14. Bitters and Shrub Syrup Cocktails follow with publication in spring ’15. Warren is a master mixologist for several craft liquor companies.
Warren consults about mixology and spirits, travel, organic wine and food. He’s written for web-blogs and magazines like: Williams-Sonoma, Whole Foods: Dark Rye, Distiller, Total Food Service Magazine, Beverage Media Group, DrinkupNY, Edible Publications, Foodista, Serious Eats, Mechanics of Style and Beekman1802. He was in the Saveur-100 in 2010.
Warren is a former, mostly self, trained cook from the pot sink on up. J&W and ACF were thrown in for good luck. Warren was the former owner/co-founder of Olde Charleston Pasta in South Carolina: *Dissolved his business after Hurricane Hugo in 1989* – to a career in private banking, (nearly 20 years; “a very grand mistake”) to this reinvention in 2009 as the Warren he’s finally become.
Warren is available to do highly personalized, interactive mixology events, local, national and international.
Contact: jockeyhollow@gmail.com
October is the month when you can peruse my second book, Whiskey Cocktails. This is really exciting for me to write a second book- much less a book at all! I’m lucky to be able to follow my dreams, because dreams really do come true.
By Warren Bobrow, Cocktail Whisperer
When I contemplate a refreshing cocktail for the hot weather there should be a cooling element that is included. Sweat is one of those cooling elements that come to mind, that veneer of moisture on your skin and a bit a air blowing over it gives the impression of coolness. Or so it should be when it’s hot without air conditioning.
I suppose I don’t like to be overly hot. That’s why the summer months are a drag for me- but don’t despair! This drink has some spiciness to it, leading to that sweat on your skin and the final element is so refreshing that you’ll want another one, right after the first one.
I’ve always been fond of day drinking and this hand held cooling system works because it doesn’t contain that much alcohol. That makes for a few drinks before lunch and a few more in the afternoon. Of course you can bring up the rear by having them all in the evening, but then you wouldn’t understand why this drink is so pleasurable during the daytime hours. It requires the sun over your toes to understand why.
Byejoe is a relatively new product from China made from Sorghum. Sorghum accounts for most of the ingredients in the Dragon Fire version, along with tropical fruits and hot chili peppers for a sweat inducing finish. That’s good for cooling your body from the inside out. In typical fashion, I’ve concocted a sort of Shandy for the Byejoe and Doc’s Hard Pear Cider. They just mix well together, especially with an ounce or two of Royal Rose Saffron Syrup. I like the exotic element of Saffron along with sparkling cider and the potent finish of the Byejoe Dragon Fire- made of Dragon Fruit and hot chilies.
Combined together, shaken hard and served over crushed ice, this is your new go/to for day-drinking. Of course you’ll need some freshly squeezed lemon and orange juice to bring this drink a fever pitch of amusement as it slides down your gullet. And if it isn’t too many steps, may I suggest freezing some of the Pear Cider into your ice cube tray?
This adds a concentration that water ice alone can never do alone. It needs awareness. Another way to increase this sense of potency is to add Grapefruit Bitters from The Bitter Truth directly into the ice cube trays made with 50% hard pear cider and 50% water. I’d use about 10 drops for a standard ice cube tray- more or less as desired. As the ice melts the drink expands in cooling and strength.
The first time I tasted Byejoe with the Dragon Fruit and hot chilies the depth of flavor more than took me. This is not your typical flavored vodka nor ill-tempered Moonshine. What Byejoe is escapes reason because you have never tasted anything like it? Lucky you! DrinkupNY carries both varieties of Byejoe, the plain- yet highly flavor driven and the Dragon Fire, redolent of exotic spices and fruit.
Now there are no more excuses to not taste this extremely cooling beverage. While it’s true that Byejoe is strongly flavored, there are reasons why you’ll fall in love with Byejoe. First of all it’s different than vodka or gin. There is nothing like it on the market. Secondly, Byejoe is extremely well made. Sorghum, as the main ingredient produces a smoothly textured liquor that rolls over your tongue and makes for a perfectly potent beginning or invigorating end to your day.
The Doc’s Pear Cider is the essential foil against the fire of Byejoe. The pear element is crisp and thirst quenching. It makes you thirsty for more! Saffron lends a sweet and sultry element to the cocktail and the cane sugar syrup base melts across your tongue. The fizz of the pear cider weaves its way into your dreams and the Byejoe makes it a memory you won’t soon forget. Tangerine is the last element in this cocktail and perhaps the most essential. There is something indescribable about Fruitations and the deft hand shown in the citrus world. Tangerine and Saffron along with hot peppers and dragon fruit with a fizzy pear laced finish?
Say it isn’t so?
Are you ordering a bottle yet? Yes? The bitters and the cider too, absolutely.
To Charles Baxter
Ingredients:
2 oz. Byejoe Dragon Fire
3 oz. Doc’s Pear Cider
½ oz. Royal Rose Simple Syrup of Saffron
½ oz. Fruitations Tangerine Soda and Cocktail Syrup
Pear/Grapefruit Bitter Truth Bitters ice… freeze 50/50 with about 10 shakes of Bitter Truth Grapefruit Bitters over the top
Freshly picked spearmint
Lime pinwheel
Preparation:
Fill a large Old Fashioned glass with ice made from Pear Cider and filtered water frozen together 50/50 blend
To a Boston Shaker, fill ¾ with regular bar ice
Add the Dragon Fire and the Pear Cider (yes it’s sparkling, so shake softly)
Add the Saffron syrup and the Tangerine syrup
Cap and shake gently to combine and cool
Pour over the infused ice and garnish with fresh mint and a lime pinwheel.
Cheers from DrinkUpNY!
My second book, Whiskey Cocktails is now in pre-sale! click for more information! Thank You!