Experimentation with Cocktail Flavors . . . Mixology?

[randooch]

Interesting article in the Times about this

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/dining/16bartender.html

How many of you folks go out on a limb with new flavor variations?

 

[John in Covina]

To mix, marry, mingle and manipulate the best flavors and aromas is a neat art.

 

[Tomasso]

That is an interesting read, thanks.

I like my fancy coctails. A couple of weeks ago I attended a seminar for home mixologists.

 

[Adcurium]

I could go for a drink...

 

[Ethan Bentley]

Ah yes I saw this article posted on Facebook. It seems alcohol is becoming medicinal again.

 

[dhermann1]

I made myself a martini the other night, and since I didn't have any olives or cocktail onions, I made the radical experiment of tossing in a couple of capers into my drink. Not half bad.

 

[John in Covina]

I made myself a martini the other night, and since I didn't have any olives or cocktail onions, I made the radical experiment of tossing in a couple of capers into my drink. Not half bad.

That sound like it could work, I feel that capers have a lot in common with olives.

 

[John in Covina]

I just got to throw out there the idea of most flavored vodkas defeats the traditional definition of vodka.

However at the same time if one is making a specific drink and infuses the vodka with a flavor to a specific purpose that is to me more acceptable.

i know strange concepts how can you have both?

 

[randooch]

Every time I cave in and buy some flavored vodka, it turns out to be sticky sweet, even if the shopkeep says otherwise. Why can't a flavor be infusd without a sack of sugar? Cases in point: chocolate, cucumber, ginger. All of those flavors are superb in real life, minus the sugar. I'm not looking for dessert, after all!

Great idea with the capers!

 

[John in Covina]

Every time I cave in and buy some flavored vodka, it turns out to be sticky sweet, even if the shopkeep says otherwise. Why can't a flavor be infusd without a sack of sugar? Cases in point: chocolate, cucumber, ginger. All of those flavors are superb in real life, minus the sugar. I'm not looking for dessert, after all!

You might try to make some flavor infusions yourself, I think you could probably come a lot closer to what you want than most commercial products. Here is a wild one I did not get to try, a friend of Fedora Gent and Magneto is a fine mixologist and described that either he had or a friend had made i think a vodka infused with a flavor of a smokey gormet bacon (cooked bacon!) to create some drink and it turned out to be really good. Wish i had been able to try that sounds intriguing.

 

[dhermann1]

So, I guess I've accidentally invented a new drink, we could call it . . . . uhhh . . . let's see . . .
Wait! I have it! We'll call it a Hermann!

 

[randooch]

Well, do tell, what's in it?

 

[jmrtnko]

Every time I cave in and buy some flavored vodka, it turns out to be sticky sweet, even if the shopkeep says otherwise. Why can't a flavor be infusd without a sack of sugar? Cases in point: chocolate, cucumber, ginger. All of those flavors are superb in real life, minus the sugar. I'm not looking for dessert, after all!

The problem is that some of these "simple" flavorings are incredibly complex. Chocolate alone has upwards of 1500 flavor components. The flavoring in most vodkas is usually artificial and incomplete, requiring the sugar to mask the rough edges.

This article has been stirring up a lot of talk on other cocktail blogs. It seems a pretty gimmicky, but then, with so many people involved in cocktails now, it's probably very tough to stand out professionally. An OXO jigger, a bottle of orange bitters and a copy of Jerry Thomas just won't cut it anymore. Still, the heavy dose of self-congratulation surely isn't winning him many friends, but who knows, maybe something useful will come from it...