Punches, acai and absinthe: Rare triple-header evening

I remember how I used to get so excited when I could go to two different events back to back. I felt like such a big kid back when I broke that personal record. Well, those days are gone, now that I've tackled the threefer. Especially more daring-do considering you've actually had event nights back to back.

So after whiskey night on the 24, on Monday I left work early to visit the Pegu Club. Dave Wondrich was giving his seminar on punches for Bols Genever. Some of you might remember the bitters presentation I went to a while back, which is also part of this educational series that Bols has been putting on.

As much as I tried to leave the office early-ish, by the time I was speed walking west on Houston I knew I thought I'd missed all the interesting bits and was going to just be there for the mingling portion. So imagine how pleased I was when I could hear Mr. Wondrich's voice as I climbed the stairs up to Pegu Club.

As I squeezed into an empty seat trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, Dave was explaining the Meriton Latroon's Bantam Punch, dating from 1668, which lists as one of its ingredients ambergris. Yes, ambergris. When I thought about it, it made sense, not just because of the whole whaling industry, but because what was ambergris used for historically? With fragrances and scenting. So it made me wonder how much affect it had on the scent and flavor of the cocktail, and I kind of wish I could taste a punch both pre- and post- ambergris addition.

Meriton Latroon's Bantam Punch (1668)
- Ambergris
- 2 oz. Demerara sugar
- 2 bottles Batavia Arrack van Oosten
- 2 16-oz piece of Gula Jawa, or Indonesian palm sugar
- 12 oz lime juice
- nutmeg
- water

Method: In a mortar or small bowl, muddle a piece of ambergris the size of 2 grams of barley with 2 oz. of Demerara sugar until it has been incorporated. Add 4 oz. Batavia arrack and muddle again until sugar has dissolved. Break up 10 oz. of Gula Jawa, or Indonesian palm sugar, put it in a 4-quart bowl with 12 oz. lime juice and muddle together until sugar has (mostly) dissolved. Add the Ambergris-sugar-arrack mixture and stir. Add 2 750-ml. bottles of Batavia arrack (minus the 4 oz. you have already removed to mix with the ambergris), stir again, and finish with 6 to 8 cups cold water, according to taste. Grate nutmeg over the top.

Dave, also explained of the use of a mixture of sugar and oils, oleo saccharum, in old cocktails. Citrus wasn't always a common commodity, and to stretch the use of citrus, rather than relying on just the juice of a lemon or lime, the peel, or zest, along with sugar was used to get maximum citrus flavor out of each piece of fruit you used. For anyone who's read Dave's "Imbibe!" this should be familiar in the use of rough loaf sugar in the old punch recipes he featured. These gritty pieces of sugar would be rubbed all over a lemon or lime to sort of grate the zest, but also absorb the oils, infusing the sugar with flavor and scent.

The Hot Holland Punch that Dave introduced next used exactly this technique. This punch also highlighted a shift towards the use of gin in cocktails rather and is actually adapted from a whiskey punch recipe. A combination of historical factors, such as the advances in Dutch distilling and William of Orange coming to power with his wife Mary during the Glorious Revolution, increased the distribution, if not popularity of gin in England.

Hot Hollands Punch (circa 1750)
- Peel of 8 lemons
- 2 lemons, sliced
- 20 oz. lbs. (an archaic measurement) Florida Crystals or other fine-grained raw sugar
- 2 liters or 2 1/2 750-ml. bottles Bols Genever
- spice mix: 1 teaspoon fresh-ground nutmeg to 1/2 teaspoon each fresh-ground allspice and cloves.

Method: Muddle the lemon peels in the sugar. Let it sit for an hour to wick out the lemon oil and muddle again (the oleo saccharum that results from this process looks basically like an syrupy oil). Add 16 oz. boiling water. Stir to dissolve sugar. Fish or strain out the lemon peel and add the Genever. To serve, put in crock-pot with 2 quarts water and lemon slices. Add spice mix sparingly to taste. Ladle out also sparingly.

Unfortunately, Dave is pretty much an unquenchable fountain of historical tidbits, cocktail tips and recipes, which means that while I'm incredibly impressed with the amount of info I got even after being pretty unfashionably late, I can't write it all out without slamming you with a wall of text, so time for Awesome Dave Facts Quickfire:

- Serving punch hot: While probably nice and bracing on a cold day during older times when there wasn't really central air/heating, but is yet another way to boost lemon flavor and scent up another level without adding more of the ingredient. In fact, another practical by product of this "making citrus go as long as possible" technique is it kept people from ingesting too much acids when people would gather around a punch bowl and just drink.

- If you're going to serve punch hot, just make sure the spirit you're using is pot distilled. Dave said that pot-distilled spirits have a certain "oiliness" to them that works better when heated. So for example, if you're going to use Scotch whiskey, use a single malt and not something that's blended. Though there are exceptions, like bourbon. But just make sure it's not "too woody" but "You and rich and oily".

Oh, and one tip from me. Try some palm sugar. Dave had a jar open on the bar and invited some of us to try it. I popped a hunk in my mouth, and that stuff is mad delicious. It's like Mounds, except, no chocolate, or the weird flavorless sawdust of shredded coconuts that's left in your mouth long after you've chewed out all the tasty juices.

One thing interesting about the threefer is how easy it was to see how the different worlds of beverage events. Beverage events work sort of like a Venn diagram. Basically, where all the circles converge, the point is heightened awareness of a product. You can argue and label that as simply marketing, but there's a difference between an event meant for people in the industry, versus those geared towards consumers. And even with the former, you could break that down further to events aimed at those generally in the industry and at the microscopic level, events for those directly responsible with putting drinks in front of a guest. Nonetheless the resulting diagram is messy because at any point it can look like the result of a circus performer who twirls multiple hula hoops at once. All things are constantly in motion with overlaps of varying and dynamic sizes.

After the Bols event I trooped on over to Yerba Buena (the one on Perry Street) for a USBGNY mixer. In between being informed about changes made to the USBG by laws and memberships (a tiered system that differentiates between say enthusiasts or people who actually work behind a bar), and a talk from the folks from VeeV, the general mood of the mixer was, well, a mixer. So far, nothing out of the ordinary right? Drink geeks and all that getting together to get to know each other and just hang? Lay down some knowledge?

But then came my final stop of the evening for Pernod Absinthe. If the Bols event had the feel of studying for a test with a group of friends, and the mixer was more like a dorm hall meeting where everyone on the floor are sophomores and juniors (not a bad comparison, just setting up the mood to better convey how different these events are), the Pernod event was like walking into one of those crazy-cool parties you always see in alcohol commercials. Like people throwing guerilla parties in subways or attractive people dressed in ironically unattractive outfits writhing away to house music in a basement somewhere. Add a dollop of a gallery opening to that, and that was the party, because, really it was a party. No polite terminology like "mixer" here.



You could tell the event was making modern ties to the historic relationship between the arts and absinthe. The event was called "Histoire Vertes," and was described as "a version of a Cabaret Nouveaux." A lady downstairs posed with an elaborate outfit of scintillating red that flickered like flames, the work of stylist Cynthia Altoriso. Pretty cool stuff actually. Some more of her work, but NSFW for artsy nudity here and there. Photographer David White snapped images of Cynthia's work creating a series of absinthe posters, one of which came as image used for the invite. There was a DJ, pieces of artwork all over the place (both including the obvious kind, and the kind where you can't tell if that's a display or someone's hat hanging from the corner of a shelf). There was even a barber doing his thing independently of the event. That was his work space, the organizers of the absinthe party asked him if he wanted to stay open during the event, so he did. So the result was you felt like Alice in Wonderland. You tumbled up a narrow flight of stairs, only to find yourself in a dimly lit bar area with platters of food scattered about, people hunched around lavishly set up tables, absinthe fountains everywheeeeeere...then you're standing around in brightly lit space seeing people getting their haircut. So you back yourself back into the bar/lounge area, find a set of stairs, walk down, and all of the sudden I'm at a fashion/art party.

It was fun seeing the familiar bartenders, brand reps and other writers thrown into the mix with unfamiliar people from the creative industry. It was a whole different kind of energy. When I heard Pulp's "Common People," I decided I should finish my second Pommes Dilettantes (Pernod Absinthe, Absolut Kurant, St. Germain, peach bitters, unfiltered apple juice, fresh lemon juice) and start heading out the door.

Tangent: I don't know, as much as I like Pulp, hearing "Common People" at parties always makes me think I should be heading home. I think it's because Pulp played in public locations that are not bars, your friend's car in an almost empty parking lot with all the doors opened or, I don't know, an actual Pulp show or something conveys to me the feelings of the last dying couple of minutes of a house party.

Let me set the scene. The few people left are taking way too long to gather their crap and go home. Friends are trying to wake up passed out compatriots because the host is trying to clean up around the bodies draped over random bits of furniture. Meanwhile, you've been wanting to leave since an hour ago, but you can't because your friend is vaguely explaining his feelings to the girl he's had a crush on forever by hijacking the sound system and earnestly explaining the significance of some band that he just started listening to that summer. You're seriously contemplating that maybe you should just ditch him, however, experience tells you this will not end well, and he's going to need a shoulder to cry on on the way home. When you all finally rally and leave, you and your group of friends will end up driving around singing along badly and loudly to Blur's "Girls & Boys" to cheer him up until you all decide you want food and end up in a Denny's parking lot with all the doors wide open blaring Pulp.

Bols Genever hosts seminar about bitters

Feb. 17

The folks at Bols were holding a seminar of sorts on classic cocktails at Julie Reiner's Clover Club. I actually had the day off with a pretty long weekend, so the middle-of-the-day timing wasn't too worrisome for me. However, after a three-day run of sleeping in late and indulging in late night horror movie watching sessions, I was stumbling, bleary-eyed, up to Clover Club. Half-asleep, I almost did not recognizing Dave Wondrich when I got to the door until I was practically walking right into him.

I squinted like a mole creature in the natural light as I started to make out familiar faces like Jim Meehan, Naren Young and Giuseppe Gonzalez. It was nice seeing folks I usually see after dark during daylight hours. I even got to see some people I hadn't seen in a while, such as writer Chantal Martineau and Washington D.C. bartender Gina Chersevani.

After a bit of noshing and hobnobbing, Tal Nadari, vice president of marketing for Lucas Bols Spirits U.S.A., as well as a former member of The Fabulous Shaker Boys, urged everyone to grab a seat.

In a twist on a product event, Bols was hosting a themed seminar not exactly about their genever product, but on topics regarding classic cocktail making. It still worked, since genever, or Holland gin, is called for in old cocktail recipes.

In his introduction, Tal said that reaction the product, since its relaunch last year, has been great.

In a sense, this event seemed like Bols' nod not only to the classic cocktail recipes that effectively use genever, but also to the bartenders of today for their interest in the product. At the same time, helping to keep genever on everyone's mind as an ingredient that can be worked with in future creations. According to Tal, this was the first of four different seminars. Others would also highlight topics such as the difference between American and European classics.

As Tal said, "Do we know everything? No, or at least I hope not."

Stephan Berg, bartender, bar history buff/collector of bar miscellanea and one of the founders of The Bitter Truth, acted as guest speaker on the topic of bitters.

Tal Nadari encouraged those in attendance to ask questions throughout the talk, since it wasn't meant to be a stuffy lecture.

Armed with a slide show presentation, Stephan launched into the topic of bitters.

Bitters first came to the Americas with settlers who depended on the items to provide herbal and homeopathic treatment in a climate that wasn't necessarily rife with the best of medical care. Bitters didn't start out as something associated with alcohol. In fact, for those of you who know bitters or even cocktail history, Siegert's Aromatic Bitters was first created for medicinal use by Simon Bolivar's troops and Peychaud's was created by an apothecary.

Stephan explained that bitters were added to alcoholic beverages to provide depth and improve the taste of alcohol because good-quality spirits were not widely available in the 19th century. People also realized that these bitters added flavor and complexity. At the same time, the so-called medicinal properties assigned to bitters lent cocktails a healthy benefit, especially when you consider that cocktails back in the day were enjoyed more as a morning or daytime beverage.

Berg drew from his collection of old cocktail books and paraphernalia. His slideshow showed a listing of advertisements for numerous imported and domestic bitters bottles that came in a myriad of shapes and designs. Stephan explained that while most people nowadays would think of the shaker as a symbol for the bartender, in the past, it was the bitters bottle, showing the importance of bitters in classic cocktails.

Stephan highlighted nine different cocktails recipes out of the pages of history, and everyone attending got a chance to sample the cocktails. Holland's Pride, a recipe from William Schmidt's 1892 recipe collection, The Flowing Bowl, is a recipe that not only calls for bitters, but for Holland gni as well ("A mixing glass 2/3 full of ice, 3 dashes of gum, 2 dashes of bitters, 1 dash of absinthe, 2/3 of Holland gin, 1/3 of vino vermouth. stir well, strain and serve.").

Stephan said that in the past, he didn't understand the appeal of some of the old recipes because he used the more dry gin of today which is hotter, and juniper-heavy when compared to the sweet and more malty flavors of genever. This Dutch style of gin once ruled the world, but as people's tastes changed, the drier English gni started gaining ground.

And it was true, you could taste the difference in these older cocktails. Even though they were boozy, stirred elixirs, it had a murky, cryptic sweetness to it different from the type of almost bright sweet you see in cocktails that have citrus or fruit. The shift in flavor profile was particularly evident in the series of cocktails we got to try that showed the evolution of the martini.

We looked at and tried an early Manhattan Cocktail, as well as the Martinez Cocktail. It was the total exact opposite of dry. It was totally wet. Like splash into your mouth wet. It was sweet and spicy in an almost tactile way.

Manhattan Cocktail, No. 1
1 pony French vermouth
1/2 pony whisky
3 or 4 dashes Angostura bitters
3 dashes gum syrup

Manhattan Cocktail, No. 2
2 dashes Curacoa
2 " Angostura bitters
1/2 wine-glass whisky
1/2 " Italian vermouth
Fine ice,; stir well and strain into a cocktail
from "Modern Bartenders' Guide", OH Byron, 1884

The Martinez Cocktail is made the same way as the Manhattan, but with gin substituting whisky.

While some folks look at the Martini as that sort of quintessential dry cocktail, looking at an early Martini recipe from Harry Johnson's 1900 "Bartenders' Manual," the recipe isn't so cut and, ahem, dry.

Fill the glass up with ice;
2 or 3 dashes of gum syrup (be careful in not using too much);
2 or 3 dashes of bitters (Boker's genuine only);
1 dash of curacao or absinthe, if required;
1/2 wine glass of old Tom gin;
1/2 wine glass of vermouth
Stir up well with a spoon; strain it into a fancy cocktail glass; put in a cherry or a medium-sized olive, if required; and squeeze a piece of lemon peel on top, and serve.

Even in a formula that might seem more familiar to today's dry martini fans, bitters still played a part:

Marguerite Cocktail
1 dash of orange bitter
2/3 Plymouth gin
1/2 French vermouth
"Stuart's Fancy Drinks and how to mix them", 1896

Interestingly enough, Stephan pointed out that the Pure Food & Drug Act of 1906 served a heavy blow to the bitters market. Before 1906, any sort of remedies were sold under the generic term of "patent medicine", regardless of how dubious or questionable the product's medicinal properties were. However, post Pure Food and Drug Act, companies could no longer falsely advertise. Unfortunately, bitter had also been marketed as medicinal products, causing trouble for a lot of brands. And of course, Prohibition also played a part in dampening the bitters market.

Then simply changes in tastes and trends also pushed bitters further away from cocktails. Though with classic cocktails coming back, people are once again going back to bitters as well as recreating those long lost in the mists of time. That's how Stephan got into the bitters business. As a bartender in Germany, there was a lack of bitters, as well as other cocktail ingredients such as orange flower water, necessary to recreate recipes.

Stephan said that now, Ramos Gin Fizzes were very popular in Germany. As soon as those words left his mouth, a groan went up from the bartenders in the room. Though the Ramos Gin Fizz is quite delicious, to create perfectly takes some amount of energy, nevermind having to make several.

"Remind me never to go to Germany," I heard Joaquin Simo quip next to me.

"You mean, never to go work in Germany," Alex Day added.

But Stephan assured everyone that it's not as bad as it sounds. With the volume of orders made for the Ramos Gin Fizz, shakers of the stuff could be made and handed off to different bartenders for additional shaking, making the process not too painful.

Afterwards, I officially met Erik Ellestad. I only kinda e-knew him up until that point, so it was cool to say hi. I also asked Thomas Waugh about brunch service at Clover Club, since he's the lone barman during those hours. Thomas mentioned his sort of Asian twist on the Bloody Mary that calls for ingredients like fish sauce, soy sauce and wasabi. I've decided to make March Brunch Month, so I think I should stop by there for some of that.

Genever and cognac

Sept. 29

Despite early warnings this weekend from my body about my seasonally affected lack of immunity, I found that I'd managed to finish coding the Weekly e-Newsletter quickly enough on Monday to head out to the Bols Genever event. I was a little late and missed out a bit on the presentation, but hung around to bug some of the bartenders who had come out.

I'd only seen the words "genever" and "Holland gin" in older cocktail recipes, so my understanding of it was purely academic. I understood that it was a gin predecessor, with flavors of juniper. Bols was relaunching the product in the U.S., in some part, thanks to increased interest in "lost" spirits from bartenders who study classic cocktail recipes. I was told that Bols intends to have it available stateside in a week or so.

"So you never tried it?" Alex Day asked me during a recent Death and Company visit prior to the event.

I shook my head. He poured me a bit of the stuff. The first thing that struck me was how the thing smelled. It was so...malty. The juniper and botanicals were there of course and it was a very aromatic spirit, but I couldn't get over that almost cereal and the salty and cooked sugary smell of malt. When I had to describe it to someone later on I had to think really hard for a bit before finally saying, "It's kind of like a...hm...a really light rye, you know? Does that make sense? But if they got really heavy with the malt and made it with juniper."

Jim Meehan was making some Very Old-Fashioneds at the event, and I made a bit of small talk with him about using genever in the Old-Fashioned formula.

"So is genever considered a brown spirit?" I asked mildly confused. Jim answered that, no, it was a white spirit, but I'm guessing the fact that genever is made with maltwine and has a pretty complex flavor balance allows it to straddle the flavor profile fence.

I hung around a little bit to chat with some folks. I was shocked to learn that not only had Don Lee of PDT injured his wrist, but his foot as well.

"Didn't you hear? I had the foot replaced with a muddler," he joked.

The wrist is on the path to healing and that day he wasn't wearing a cast but some sort of brace type thing, but he said the doctor told him to keep from doing any sort of high-volume bartending until the wrist fully healed. The foot was also in some sort of orthopedic contraption, but he wasn't on a crutches nor rocking a cane "House"-style.

I also got introduced to Brian Miller. I'd seen him around and knew his name, but I'd never personally met him. A fact that some found positively scandalous for some reason or other. You'd think I would've just walked up and introduced myself, but to be honest, I was scared of him a little. Why? I don't know. I really wish I could explain the exact particulars except that the few times I'd seen him in person he really intimidated me. My mistake was telling Don this, because he decided to call Brian over.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no," I thought.

"Have you met Sonya?" Don asked.

"No, I don't think I have. Nice to meet you," Brian said with a smile as he held out his hand.

"Hi, nice to meet you," I said shaking his hand. Whew, well at least now we're introduced and he seems really ni...

"She's afraid of you," Don said.

I shot Don a stricken look.

"What? Why??" Brian asked me.

I stammered a rambling explanation that it was nothing personal, and I'm just a neurotic person who is easily intimidated with social situation type things.

The place was chock full o' bartenders and cocktail persons. As I snuck in for the latter part of the presentation, I spotted Allen Katz, Dave Wondrich and LeNell Smothers. A good chunk of the Death and Co. crew was there, with Joaquin Simo, Alex Day, Thomas Waugh and the above-mentioned Brian Miller. Don, Jim and Daniel Eun were representing PDT. Audrey Saunders also showed up with her posse of Pegu Club Boys. I got to say hi to people who I hadn't seen since Tales, like Jonathan Pogash and Jim Kearns. Even San Francisco's H. Ehrmann attended since he was in town and would be hosting the Bols Genever event out there.

Then I started getting asked repeatedly if I was going to the Hennessy event. What Hennessy event?

It turns out it was some sort of, mildly hush-hush, "industry only" thing that required pass codes inputted into websites and the like. Luckily, some of the very people asking me if I would be attending had the pass code on hand. High-five. So yea, I guess *now* I was attending the Hennessy event.

I had to stay at work late to make up for the two hours I skipped out for the genever event anyway, so I did my work thing then showed up at the Brandy Library later that evening.

The event was in conjunction with Hennessy's Artistry Series. On the consumer side, this meant a concert series featuring Ne-Yo, but for those in the industry, this meant an evening hosted by Junior Merino and Tony Abou-Ganim. People got a chance for to sample some Hennessy's products; specifically the X.O., Paradis, and Richard Hennessy. I asked John Deragon to explain to me the economics of pricing a glass of the (very expensive) stuff. He threw a bunch of really complicated math at me starting with how many servings you tried to get out of a bottle based on ounces in the bottle and ounces in the glass. Then you needed to try and recoup at least 25% of the bottle price or some such to make a profit. I furrowed my brow listening, and while it made all kinds of sense while I was listening, afterward I remembered why I became a journalism major.

Those in attendance got to vote on drinks created by Don Lee, Elba Giron and Gen Yamamoto to determine who won the New York title and would go on to compete in Las Vegas to win a trip to Cognac, France. Elba Giron won. Don was at a close second with a 12 vote difference.

I thought the evening was over with. As I was loitering outside saying my good-byes and getting ready to leave Don yelled at me and Daniel Eun to "GET IN THE CAR."

"OK, OK!" I thought. "Is there a lion or something??"

A cab ride later I found myself at Little Branch, so I nursed a daiquiri and hung out a bit. I was glad I did since I got to see Vito, Richie B. and Mickey.

Jeff Grdinich, a New Hampshire-based bartender I first met in Vail, Colo., who I seem to run into pretty frequently, was also there. He was in town for the Bar Alcohol Resource training and I'd been bumping into him at various events throughout the day. He was disturbingly intent on getting everyone to do shots of Fernet Branca and I eventually got suckered into doing one. (NO.)

This all resulted in my body deciding it quite honestly had had enough of my BS and was going to yank the emergency brake. I got laid up with what I think was some kind of version of an ear infection; an ailment I thought people didn't really get past the age of 1. Initially I misdiagnosed it as me feeling crummy over something I ate until my ear decided to blow up with a "OW OW WAIT STOP TOUCHING THAT KIND OF HURTS AND ITCHES A LOT AND IS HIGHLY UNCOMFORTABLE. I'M NOT SURE HOW TO RESPOND TO THAT SO HERE'S A HEADACHE AND SOME DIZZINESS FOR ADDED MEASURE. WOULD YOU LIKE TO TRY OUR SAMPLE PLATE OF VARIOUS BODY DISCOMFORTS? IT COMES WITH A NICE 'WHINE' PAIRING." I wound up spending most of a day I was out sick with my left ear nestled in a heating pad looking like some kind of Victorian plate illustration of people who have toothaches and have that bit of cloth tied around their jaw.

Kids, be good to your body.