The Bartenders Society Cocktail Competition brought bartenders from all over the nation together to compete for the title of Best Bartender. To enter each bartender created a unique cocktail inspired by the theme: Your Vision of the Latest Cocktail Trends. Finalists were asked to create a video reflecting why their creation fit a current cocktail trend of the moment.
Mariangela Urquizo won with her Sacre Verte cocktail and Lance Bowman with his Sense Memory cocktail. Both bartender finalists from each coast will battle it out in Paris, France at the global finals on October 17th and 18th for a chance to win an all-expense paid trip for two to Bordeaux, France.
For more information, or to view additional cocktail entries visit The Bartenders Society Cocktail Competition.
West Coast Finalist:
Mariangela Urquizo
Sacre Verte
The pandemic has changed certain trends in the cocktail world, and I see that we have moved back to the classics and riffs. On the other side of that coin, I have noticed a smaller growing trend again of cocktails that are no waste and culinary driven, with a focus on simplicity.
The cocktail inspiration here was to reduce the use of things that have a lower shelf-life expectancy or that do not have a dual use. The flavors are culinary driven, but also simple to replicate at home. With the shortage of staff in the industry, with recession and the cost of goods going up, and with the new shift to “no waste cocktails”, this is an attempt to find solutions to our new reality and accommodate the challenges.
The Sacre Verte is an easy to make drink with little waste; the olive oil is made from the cilantro incorporated into the drink. One has other uses for the items in this cocktail that would otherwise not be as shelf stable as other ingredients. The other ingredients, of course having a longer life expectancy and better control for flavor are citric and malic acid solution.
Each ingredient targeting being under four steps to make and short time infusions (Marie Brizard falernum with fennel pollen). This cocktail’s elements are something easy to produce at a bar with little staff, or for the home bartender who just needs to order a few ingredients that they can then use for their home cooking as well!
The flavor is complex, delicate, and elevated. Yet its simplicity allows anyone to make this and enjoy the Sacre Verte (sacred green)!
Ingredients:
- 2 oz. Saint James paille Rhum
- 1/2 oz. Marie Brizard Falernum, fennel pollen infusion*
- 8 dashes citric acid solution**
- 8 dashes malic acid solution***
- 9 well sized cilantro leaves
Interchangeable: three cilantro oil drops**** and a small fennel pollen rim (for garnish)
Preparation: Shake with ice, double strain in a Nick and Nora glass, garnish with fennel pollen on small section of glassware rim, a little goes a long way, and/or with three cilantro oil drops. **Citric Acid 10%: 1st step: 10 grams Citric Acid, 2nd step: 90 grams distilled water, Mix well, store in dasher bottle. ***Malic Acid 10%: 1st step: 10 grams Malic Acid, 2nd step: 90 grams distilled water. Mix well, store in dasher bottle.
*Marie Brizard Falernum Fennel pollen infusion:
2 oz Marie Brizard Falernum for 31 grams of fennel pollen. Let sit for a day. Because fennel pollen is very flavorful, potent, and can be expensive, you just want a light touch on the liqueur. I made the amount based on serving ratio, but you can scale up for this depending on serving amounts.
****Cilantro oil: Mainly just an optional garnish for an extra nose of cilantro on a delicate drink. But this oil can be stored in a dropper and used for other applications such as soups, in bigger production dressings, etc.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups packed cilantro
- 1/2 cup olive oil
Preparation: Liquify in blender, filter strain all large particles out to get the blended oil.
East Coast Finalist:
Lance Bowman
Sense Memory
My creative process for creating cocktails is something I first thought was odd, first I think of the cocktail experience and aromatics, with actual flavor and the cocktail itself coming after these ideas. As hospitality professionals one trend I love seeing come to the forefront is viewing what we provide as an experience, not just putting out a cocktail. Even the best cocktail can be an underwhelming experience if all the pieces don’t make for an immersive journey, or even worse if it is served under pretentious auspices. I’ve long been a proponent of putting the experience first. That’s not to say cocktails can’t be fancy, or esoteric, it’s the delivery and small details that can take a cocktail from being a self-indulgent ego stroke for the person behind the bar to something that makes the guest feel truly special. The trick is using the right techniques and creating the environment that can make even the most esoteric cocktail feel as comfortable as someone’s favorite pair of comfy shoes. My vision of cocktail trends is being able to embrace multiple trends and techniques to deliver this.
Setting the stage is an important piece for this, and this is why before making the cocktail we should burn some palo santo, its fragrant smoke setting the mood and backdrop for the journey that is about to commence.
In creating my cocktail “Sense Memory” a big part of it is just that, using a familiar aspect, in this case, a smell, to instantly take someone to a happy place, in this case, a toasted marshmallow. I know very few people who wouldn’t find the smell of a perfectly toasted marshmallow transportive, many people have lasting memories that are associated with it which helps set up the experience, both visually and aromatically, which hold massive value as those make their impression before our first taste, and imbues a serious drink with some much-needed whimsy.
Another cocktail trend is one I’ve utilized for over a decade and have even written entire menus around, which is the use of tea in cocktails. Tea offers us a huge flavor library to pull from, and can be manipulated in many ways, with different extraction techniques able to make the same tea present differently in different applications. In this case, I did a high-volume extended extraction to draw out some tea tannins that make a lasting impact on the mouthfeel of the drink. And the tea used is also meant to complement the aforementioned marshmallow: a lovely blend of smoky earl grey makes another tie-in to those campfire memories that are part of the toasted marshmallow experience but elevated and twisted a bit with the beautiful bergamot-tinged notes that are a hallmark of earl grey.
I know the “bar chef” and the culinary cocktail trend is entrenched, and maybe an overused trope in some regards, but it gives us access to another flavor library to utilize in our work, and in “Sense Memory” some stunning bourbon barrel aged truffle maple syrup adds not just richness, but a little bit of that slightly damp forest floor sense memory that plays into marshmallows and campfires.
Two more trends I love utilizing are alternative acids, and the use of acids in stirred cocktails. Stirred cocktails can be notoriously difficult to balance since the general rule has been that only shaken drinks should use acid. But in this drink a few drops of acid solution lighten the cocktail and tighten up the flavors, making a cocktail that otherwise would be a bit heavy into something with a tinge of liveliness.
Visual theater is also a part of the experience, and this drink, while simple in its execution, has some unique techniques involved, from the sound of a big cube being spun into the glass, to the aesthetic of carefully measured liquid ingredients being poured over crystal clear ice, to the stir in glass with the cube making perfect rotations leans into the cocktail being a show, while at the same time giving us perfect control over the amount of dilution in the cocktail, speeding up service and using less ice, and therefore less water in our programs.
Trends are also cyclical, and one that a bunch of craft cocktail bartenders have shunned for a long time is the oft-maligned banana liqueur, which isn’t completely unfounded. Cheap banana spirits are awful, but a well-made one, like Marie Brizard Banana, can add nuance, depth, and whimsy to a drink. Instead of being a one-note banana bomb the addition of vanilla, pineapple, and spices makes for a great costar in creating the “Sense Memory” experience.
Finally, we get to the focus of our drink, and a trend that should be at the front of everyone’s priorities, treating the base ingredient with respect. The rhum I chose to showcase, that is the key driver in the cocktail is Rhum Saint James exquisite Cellar Reserve. It’s been a piece of my back bar and my menu for nearly a year now, highlighting a standout single batch from the huge stores of aged rhum held in the Saint James warehouses in Sainte Marie. Aged for 5 years in first fill ex-bourbon cask it gains depth and intrigue, with the hallmark character of Saint James Agricole picking up a healthy dose of wood, vanilla, baking spice, and citrus that stands out, yet at the same time blends in with the other ingredients, and its 51.3% ABV giving the cocktail a certain heft that would be lost with a lower proof spirit. It makes the drink definitively not just a rhum cocktail, but a Saint James cocktail, showcasing the pride and passion of Sainte Marie.
Is this a lot of trends in one drink? Of course, but with a deft hand, and not using a trend just for the sake of being trendy we create a true cocktail experience, part serious, part whimsical, and exceedingly immersive. The experience is something rooted in “Sense Memory” but something that epitomizes the experience coming first and that serious cocktails don’t have to be completely serious.
Ingredients:
- 1 3/4 oz Saint James Cellar Reserve
- 1/2 oz Marie Brizard Banana
- 3/4 oz Light Smoky Earl Grey Orange Oleo Syrup*
- 1 barspon Truffle Maple Syrup (I used the Burton’s x Rare Tea Cellar Collaboration)
- 3 dashes Bitter Truth Bogarts Bitters
- 1 dash Bittermen’s Mole BItters
- 5 drops 10% Acid Solution*
Garnish: Toasted Marshmallow Dusted with Graham Cracker and Abuelita Cocoa
Glassware: Double Old Fashioned
Preparation: Before making the cocktail burn some palo santo to help set the tone for the experience. Place a 2×2 tempered ice cube in a double old-fashioned glass, build ingredients in glass and stir 15 seconds to chill, no additional dilution is needed as the light syrup provides the main dilution component. Toast a skewered marshmallow and dust with crushed graham cracker and Abuelita cocoa powder, place over rim of glass. Serve on a leather cocktail coaster.
Side Serve with a cup of tea (same as used in syrup production) sweetened with .5 ounces of the tea syrup to 4 ounces tea. *Homemade or hard to source ingredients can be sent to judges for ease of replication if desired. *Light Smoked Earl Grey Orange Oleo Syrup: In a bag combine 350 grams orange peel and 1 liter of sugar, vacuum seal and store in refrigerator for at least 48 hours. Brew 2 liters of smoked earl grey tea (I used rare tea cellars Smoky Regal Earl Grey, if necessary you can use a 50/50 blend of high quality lapsang suchong and earl grey, but the specific tea yields the best results) by steeping 30 grams tea in 2.25 liters of 180 degree water for 8 minutes, strain tea, and add hot water to return to 2 liters of volume if needed, add sugar and peels stirring to dissolve, fine strain final product through a fine strainer and paper filter.
*10% Acid Solution: Combine 1 liter water, 60 grams citric acid and 40 grams malic acid, stir to dissolve.
East Coast Runners Up:
Elena Johnson with Summer Spirit, 2nd Place, $500 prize
Lauren Pellecchia with La Belle Nuit, 3rd Place, $250 prize
West Coast Runners Up:
Dallas Juanes with One Night in Yuzu, 2nd Place, $500 prize
Juyoung Kang with Duel Life, 3rd Place $250 prize
