Advanced Cocktails in Virtual Classes
Virtual Cocktail Classes at Sunshine Consulting has been a project of giving great basic cocktail advice to the average at-home bartender. “How do I make the best Old Fashioned?” or, “How do I make a perfect Manhattan?” are common questions I hear during class. As I grew up in Minnesota cocktail bars and restaurants, I both learned and taught the fundamentals of making cocktails. Many bartenders don’t have an understanding of balance in libations and are dumbstruck when I would tell them about Mother Recipes in cocktails. This opened my eyes to the glaring and gaping hole that existed in lifelong bartenders. As well, I could be comforted in the fact that if bartenders didn’t know these recipes, for sure the average consumer didn’t either. This knowledge gave me a great script for most of my cocktail classes.
As more classes come about, however, and competition develops there is beginning to be a desire for a diversity of flavors in our cocktails. Lime, lemon, orange, cinnamon, sugar, salt, and baking spice are slowly taking a back seat to what I call the 3 V’s of contemporary flavors: Vegetal, vinegar, and viscosity.
Vegetal in the sense that, now that we have juicers readily available and there is an overwhelming desire to have a cocktail list that NO ONE else has, bartenders are looking for every technique possible to insert a new flavor into a cocktail. As well, photography of cocktails is so ungodly out of hand, that many cocktails are made purely for aesthetic purposes, rather than personal enjoyment. Developing an amazing cocktail that looks interesting but also hits the notes of both fun and humility at the same time is the Goldylocks of cocktail lists.
Vinegar in the sense that the “flavored simple syrup” seems to have run its course as well as the consumption of acidic ingredients like lemon and lime juice. By adding vinegar into you cocktail, you can; give it a new flavor, make the cocktail “speak” to you more while consuming it, and lower the amount of citrus you need to use during service. As well, a shrub has a longer shelf life than a syrup purely due to pH levels.
Viscosity matters so much when you consume a beverage. And this is where adding salt into cocktails does both enhance flavors but also it makes the beverage “coat” you mouth more. A pinch of salt in a Gimlet or an Old Fashioned can change the cocktail from just average to thoroughly enjoyable.
Taking all of this knowledge into my Virtual Cocktail Classes is a balancing act. Where as, if someone didn’t have a lime and only have a lemon, the substitution is easy. If you don’t have simple syrup but instead only have maple syrup, as well these are easy things to deal with. Not only are they easy, however, they are also secrets that local and new craft cocktail bars and bartenders use to differentiate their cocktail programs. But if I develop a recipe with basil and the guest only brings a bay leaf to class, the substitution is definitely not the same.
I look forward to this new journey in teaching secrets in advanced flavors to guests. These cocktails will be fun projects where staff of companies can have their virtual happy-hour or their late-night mixology class with friends and do little projects as well as make amazing drinks as a group. We’ll see you in class!
Cheers,
Dr. Sunshine
