Flower Power A T W IS T O N FA R M -TO - G L A S S COCK TA I L S TA PS LOC A L FO R AG E RS A N D A P O T H EC A RY T R A D I T I O N . B Y I A N M C N U LT Y
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Gambit > bestofneworleans.com > july 24 > 2012
Adam Seger has developed cocktail and beer combinations.
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Belgian beer, a Saison DuPont ale this time, over a cocktail of tea, honey syrup, lime juice and Hum Botanical Spirit. That last ingredient is a rum-based liqueur infused with hibiscus, ginger, cardamom and lime that Seger developed himself. The idea is not new — beer, wine, cider, spirits and syrups have been mixed for ages — and as with many bar and culinary trends, the beertail is more of a revival and modern reinterpretation. Still, Seger says at least initially the concept can be a hard sell to cocktail enthusiasts and beer purists alike. “I’ve approached so many brewers with the idea of beertails, and they’re not interested at all,” Seger says. “They say, ‘you want to take this beer that I’ve worked so hard to perfect and then add all that to it? No thanks.’” But, he’s heartened by the past example of fine American bourbon and whiskey makers, who wanted to showcase the purity and craft for their product as they came into their own in the 1990s. “They didn’t want me adding berries and bitters,” Seger says. “They didn’t want you manipulating their product. But today they’re so enthralled by cocktail culture. It took some time. But I really believe that will happen with brewers too.” The great variety of beers available on the market now creates seemingly limitless possibilities for beertails, but that’s not to say all of them are good. In fact, the beertail is especially fraught with flavor peril, as Seger has discovered through some of his own experimentation. “I’ve definitely made more bad beertails than any other type of cocktail. It’s a danger of the trend, like bad fusion cooking in the 1990s,” he says. “That’s how I learned that the cocktail has to stand on its own. You have to respect the beer as the brewer intended it and then combine them for an awesome new experience.”
“Beertails: The most chemically complex CKTLS” Led by Adam Seger with wine writer Doug Frost and Francesco Lafranconi, mixology and spirits educator with Southern Wine & Spirits of America 1 p.m. Saturday, July 28 Royal Sonesta, Fleur De Lis Room, 300 Bourbon St.; www.talesofthecocktail.com Tickets $47
he farm-to-table culinary trend led naturally enough to farm-to-glass drinks, with mixologists highlighting farmers market finds and locally sourced fruit, vegetables and sometimes even meats (think heritage bacon Bloody Marys). The next ripple, however, might best be called forager-to-glass cocktails. “What we’re talking about is an apothecary-style bar program of foraged botanicals,” says Lauren Mote, a Canadian mixologist and drinks consultant who is championing the idea. Mote is a partner in Kale & Nori, a Vancouver-based catering and events company that specializes in avant garde mixology. Along with her Kale & Nori business partner, chef Jonathan Chovancek, and fellow Vancouver cocktail experts Danielle Tatarin and David Wolowidnyk, she’s leading a session at Tales of the Cocktail titled “A Forager’s Pharmacy.” She’ll introduce the concept and explore the possibilities of working with everything from wild flowers to local spices, foliage and even tree bark. Though some of her ingredients might raise eyebrows, the drinks start with traditional cocktails and build from there. “Like any good bartender, you have to have a foundation on the classics, which gives some familiarity back to the customer and grounds it,” she says. One of her favorite examples is the marigold gimlet, which is based on the wellknown gin cocktail. For this foraged variation, however, she replaces lime cordial (typically the popular commercial brand Rose’s) with fresh lime and a handmade marigold cordial. “You’ve taken out some of the sugar from that lime cordial, you replace it with rhubarb bitters and ginger syrup to round it all out, and then you add rose petals on top that brings this floral element,” Mote says. “So, it’s completely different but still unmistakably a gimlet.” Earlier this year, Kale & Nori launched a line of artisan tinctures, called Bittered Sling Extracts (the name comes from an early 19th-century reference to the cocktail), but Mote encourages curious bartenders to experiment with what they can forage and find at home. Her own cocktails might call for extracts made from pansies, lilacs, grand fir tips or cherry blossoms, which are a regional obsession around Vancouver. “People buy or pick flowers and want to keep them around because they’re so pretty,” Mote says. “We turn it into a cordial that brings the color, the flavor and the integrity of the flower to the cocktail.” This blend of herbs and alcohol harkens back to the ancient traditions of the apothecary, that forerunner of the modern pharmacy. Chartreuse, originally a medicinal herb elixir made by Carthusian monks in France starting in the 18th century, is one widely recognized and broadly available example of a curative by way of a stiff drink. But even the evolution of bitters, that bartender’s staple, traces its roots back to the dispensary. In fact, the owners of Cure, the craft cocktail destination on Freret Street, PAGE 18