Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Stronger
BY JACK ROBERTIELLO
changes can be constant and and brandies, dark rum and aged
adventurous, with menus Brandy warms up cherry puree and chocolate tequilas. Citrus and fresh herbs
incorporating robust, house-made for a Black Forest Martini with cherry cordial move aside for hardy, storable
syrups and bitters, squash and flavors, perfect for winter months. apples and pears, while more-
root vegetables. Even at assertive flavors from cinnamon,
restaurants with well-defined ethnic menus and at high- clove, nutmeg and ginger take prominence. Strong, stirred
volume operations, where consistently fleet service is drinks come on, as do hot toddies and beverages made
important, the days of perpetual drink menus are done. with whole eggs or egg yolks.
on days that are hot, blends Captain Morgan Spiced Rum, Monin
you still want Ginger Syrup and apple and fresh lemon
Bartenders turn to darker to offer something refreshing.” juice.
spirits and add extras like Like Brunner, Pearson turns to darker “Bars today need to be bringing in drinks
tea, cider and late-harvest
spirits, adding to the menu seasonal drinks with fresh ingredients, especially when they
fruits to capture fall
flavors, as in Sepia’s rye- that feature aged rums, blended Scotches with are connected to fine-dining restaurants,” says
based Highroad. a little smoke, Calvados and other more Rosario. “There may still be many places in
robust flavors. He’s also open to working more Vegas where cheap drinks are what’s popular,
with vegetables; he recently pureed roasted but mixologists are following the lead of chefs
beets and mixed them with rye, white crème and keeping their menus seasonal.”
essence and an allspice syrup other citrus fruits make their appearance in
that provide intensely mid-winter. Schlesinger-Guidelli looks
warming qualities. Creative forward to in-season ingredients like oro
mixologists have extended blanco, a grapefruit-pomelo hybrid. But he
their reach into winter also takes fruits and vegetables at their peak
warmers as well. Paragon’s and preserves them for later use. At the end
Winter calls for festive, Brunner rolls out a number of hot toddies of summer, he was canning produce for
indulgent drinks like made with assertively flavored cordials, winter drinks.
master mixologist
including an alpine-pine fruit liqueur and “It might sound crazy for a bar program,”
Armando Rosario’s XO
Sweetspot, featuring Allspice Dram filled with flavors of nutmeg, he admits, “but if I’m going to do something
Amoretti Crème di cinnamon, clove and pepper. Schlesinger- on Valentine’s Day with raspberries, I’d rather
Pistachio and rimmed with Guidelli last year made toddies using arrack extend what’s really great now through
chocolate and ground
(palm wine) and Bénédictine. preserving techniques.”
pistachio.
Rinses are another way bartenders add That may not match current ideas of fresh
more-intense flavor to drinks in the colder seasonality, but perhaps truly locavore drink
months. Swishing a glass with absinthe, lists will evolve from the calendar-conscious
bar menu. If that proves so, expect bartenders
to add canning to the current repertoire of
TAK E -AWAY T I P S pureeing, infusing, syruping, bitters-making
and the rest of the skills a 21st century
TWEAK TO FIT: With darker spirits, warming jalapeño syrups and mixologist must master. &
seasonal fruit, even icy drinks like mojitos and juleps can shift with the
seasons
TRY THE RINSE CYCLE: Swishing a glass with a strong spirit
enhances warming drinks without overwhelming more subtle flavors
JACK ROBERTIELLO writes about spirits,
ADD ZEST: Winter’s citrus season helps keep winter drinks — both cocktails, wine, beer and food from Brooklyn,
hot and cold — refreshing and seasonal N.Y.; he can be e-mailed at applejak@earthlink.net.
PUT IT ON ICE: Prepare for Valentine’s day by freezing strawberries,
raspberries and cherries for festive red drinks