MIXOLOGY TALK PODCAST #199
Today, we’re revisiting our favorite 10 podcasts of the last 100 episodes– with special guest, our very own Julia Tunstall. Split up between technique and career-focused episodes, these are podcasts you definitely want to go back and listen to if you missed them the first time!
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PODCAST HIGHLIGHTS:
- 2:01– Smoked Cocktails with Ben Potts (episode #182)
- 5:16– Cocktail Pairing with Lucas Hugg (episode #161)
- 8:39– Beer Cocktails with Chris Krause (episode #173) and Nicole Barker (episode #174)
- 13:35– Red Cocktails with Amy Mirate (episode #172)
- 16:25– Non-Alcoholic Cocktails with Julia Momose (episode #137)
- 19:00– Non-Alcoholic Amaro with Jason La Valla (episode #176)
- 21:19– Chris Elford (episode #175)
- 22:56– Beachbum Berry (episode #178)
- 24:48– Jennifer Colliau (episode #120)
- 26:47– David Sangwell (episode #124)
10 best episodes in no particular order
How we came up with the list –
Here are the episodes
Technique
Ben Potts smoked cocktails – 182
- Takeaways: Smoked Cocktails are very eye catching
- Cocktail families that lend themselves to being smoked – if it has been barrel aged (char) it lends itself well
- Stick with Stirred cocktails
- Equipment list – Smoking gun Polyscience
- Surface area of the container makes a difference
- Different types of smoke to create – Spices, Dried Fruits
- Techniques to utilize smoke in the cocktail – mixers, syrups, vessel, etc
- Cold glassware is better for sticking smoke flavor
- Fun technique Smoked meat fat washing
Lucas Huff Cocktail Pairing – 161
Takeaways:
- Using Wine as a reference for cocktail and food pairing
- Favorite aspiring French 75 with oysters add a touch of absinthe
- Food knowledge is critical for creating pairings
- Collaboration with chefs is critical
- How to target flavor timing – using heat to focus on when the flavor evolves
- Spirit heavy cocktails are really hard to pair with food – High alcohol blows out your pallete
Chris Krause and Nicole Barker – beer cocktails 173 and 174 respectively
Takeaways:
- Techniques that work for beer cocktails – Replace water instead of water Make the beer into a syrup first and then add flavor
- Beers to use in cocktails – sour beers, porters, lagers, etc
- Don’t use ice – dilution will kill the cocktail
- Beer cocktails are for young people
- Taste the beer go flat to see how it will work in cocktails
Chris Krause
- Using Growlers from local breweries – This preserves the flavor of the original beer
- Use Beer Concentrate and beer syrups
- Making beer foam
- Reduce the sugar to add more flavor in a cocktail, 2:1, 3:1
Red Cocktails with Amy Mirate MTP 172
Takeaways:
- How to incorporate colors into a cocktail :
Dried Pigments - Purees and frozen fruit
- Reinforce the color with spices that evoke the feeling of the color
- Using freeze dried fruit for a diy approach
- Natures Flavor and Fresh as are great flavor and color
- Using a double boiler to make a consomme – 2 lbs of fruit (frozen) and 8 oz of sugar – preserves the aromatics vs boiling
- Working with berries, add a touch of elderberries to punch up the fragrance
Julia Momose N/a – 137
Takeaways:
- Adding a purposeful N/A can add to the overall guest experience
- Moving away from cocktail families and focus on flavor descriptors and the flavor experience
- Dilution is your enemy, using the water in the best way possible, flavored ice
- Instead of base spirits, descriptors start using “bases” building flavors through techniques like cooking with different temperatures for ideal extraction.
- Peppercorns can be a big asset when creating spirit free drinks
- Tea is a great vehicle for spirit free creation – Different steeping amounts have different expressions
Non alcoholic Amaro with Jason La Valla 176
Takeaways:
- Created a flavor library to create his first amaro then blended them. This helped him to identify specific flavors in cocktails
- Use fresh herbs and orange peels – Biggest tip
- He covers flavor extraction using alcohol vs non alcoholic extractions – he went with a flavor house.
- Use Non alcoholic mixer as a way to boost overall flavor in a cocktail – highballs tend to water down the base spirit, but a spirit free mixer can help to amplify it and add complexity
Just a fun interview
Career/business
Chris Elford – 175
Takeaways:
- Context – Right at the beginning of the pandemic and gives some great information and mental approaches on how to execute a to go cocktail menu
- To go menu is an extension of the experience that you want to create in your bar/restaurant.
- Sold the kits with and without booze They include the story, inspiration and also a list of other spirits that will work in their mixers
- Incorporate social media to help build your platform
- Individual cocktail to go servings was a lot of work vs income
- Interesting conversation that really showcases how hard the early part of the pandemic impacted our industry
- If you offer too many options, they might not make a choice
Beach Bum Berry 178
Takeaways:
- Amazing story teller
- Canadian whiskey and Carribean rums were the safest to drink during prohibition
- Rum fell out of favor right after prohibition and the price fell dramatically and tiki was a perfect vehicle to create a fun, profitable environment
- Tiki cocktails was the first craft cocktail after prohibition
- They used fresh ingredients used complexity by focusing on adding complexity in every step of a cocktail family, using different rums, different type of infused syrups, etc
- Talks about the journey of finding the recipes from Don the beachcombers.
- Bartenders were being poached as fast as they could and opening restaurants all over the world – this was a good enough reason to make all his recipes and ingredients a secret.
- World war 2 was the second wave of tiki popularity. Tiki offered a mini vacation
- 1950’s had the cold war and all the red scare of the time and tiki was a perfect escape
- Tiki restaurants were considered fine dining during their era. 1 million dollar build outs in the 60’s
- 70’s was a victim of the counterculture, Vietnam and moving away from what your parents liked. Drugs became more of a focus
- 80’s was the death of tiki -prepackaged
- One of my best stories around bartenders and how it impacted culture. The suffering bastard and how a bartender changed the direction World War 2 – Battle of El Alamein
Jennifer Colliau 120
Takeaways:
- Growing a business while working as a bartender – the birth of Small Hands food
- Focus on not making the best syrup, but focus on making the best end cocktail
- Deep dive into specific techniques with making syrups – making orgeat and pineapple syrups
- Labor cost vs buying quality made products
- We dive into some of the struggles of the environment of running a bar as a manager
- Tips on being a bartender entrepreneur
David Sangwell 124
Takeaways:
- Relationships are key both with vendors but also with the staff in each venue.
- Bar manager to beverage director – being organized – follow up with action items via email at any meeting
- Multi site operator Challenges – Training a staff that have different time constraints he used videos to train a staff and used Survey monkey to reinforce training
- Got a slack network of bartenders of other bars to pick up shift
- Communication is the biggest thing
- Remember names of each bartenders in each location
- Standardize equipment and inventory
- Motivation – Read each situation, see where each bar is at first and the personalities. Lead by example. Hearing the ideas of the staff
- New bartender to Multi site operator – get more experience however you can. Understand the mechanics of business, show initiative.
- Look for education, it is out there.
- Build relationships with vendors !!!!
- Bar manager to general manager – spreadsheets should be understood. Seeing the business from the guest perspective.
- Build processes if you continue to run into the same issues
- GM into multi site – Technology is your friend Dropbox,
- Know who is responsible for what – accountability, Communication. Being a confident presenter
- Surprises – you have to manage your time efficiently and what is going to move the needle the most.
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