A delightful drink indeed, full of great fall flavors - fresh apple, spices, and maple.  As the evening went on, I talked my friendly bartender into letting me try a bit of the maple syrup on its own.  Wow.  Absolutely delicious - and I often don’t care for real maple syrup (my momma raised me on Log Cabin “maple tasting syrup” so that’s what I usually put on my pancakes, much to my hubby’s dismay).

So I’m off to order my own bottle of Blis, both for use in cocktails and for breakfast.   I can see that this lovely syrup has some real potential.  In fact, I think I’ll soon be trying the Maple Leaf cocktail and maybe the Applejack Rabbit.

I attended the book signing party last week at the Drawing Room here in Chicago, and it was a great party full of fantastic cocktails and fun conversations. Bridget and her co-author, Mary Barranco, were tied up signing books for most of the evening, an indicator of the enthusiasm in the room.

There are lots of cocktail books out there, and I own copies of many of them.  Unfortunately, only a few of them actually come off the bookshelf very often - somehow the novelty wears off and they don’t grab my attention after awhile.  So far, this book hasn’t been one of those - I’ve already used it several times, and am looking forward to working through the seasons with it.

The book is organized by seasons, with great recipes using the fresh produce you might find during that time of year. I have a garden in my backyard, which is bursting with cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and herbs right now.  In addition to making a variety of sauces and salads, I’ve been turning to Bridget’s book for ideas on using them in cocktails, such as:

“Fresh Tomato Bloody Mary
6 cherry tomatoes
1 basil leaf
Pinch of fresh oregano
Pinch of salt
Pinch of ground black pepper
Dash of Tabasco sauce
Dash of Worcestershire sauce
Juice of 1 lemon wedge
1½ oz citrus vodka
1 oregano sprig

Mixing the Drink:
In mixing glass, muddle 5 tomatoes, basil, oregano, salt, pepper, Tabasco sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and lemon juice. Add citrus vodka. Add ice to tin. Shake well. Double-strain into cocktail glass using the strainer on the shaker while pouring contents through the sieve placed over the glass. Garnish with an oregano sprig speared through remaining cherry tomato.”

The instructions are easy to follow, and well organized - since Mary is an experienced educator, I’m thinking she had something to do with that.  This book would make a great gift, and is suitable for those who don’t have a ton of cocktail experience.

And if you’re into cocktail photography, the photos in this book (by Tim Turner) are great too. (I wanted to write cocktail porn there, but I haven’t seen that term too much yet and a google search led me to a bunch of sites I didn’t want to visit.)

Changes Coming
NP has recently changed the US formula for their dry vermouth. In the past, their research had shown that Americans preferred sweeter, less herbal/bitter vermouth. Their new formulation will be the same as the European version. We got to try the new formulation, but unfortunately we did not have an old version for comparison.

They are also introducing new packaging this year, perhaps following in the footsteps of Martini & Rossi. Although I’ve not seen it anywhere but the seminar yet, you can see the new packaging on their website.

A couple of other factoids from the “I didn’t know that” department:

1. They use 25 herbs in the dry, 30 in the sweet and 40 in the ambre.
2. The ambre is not usually available outside of their shop in France, it is unique to them. It was a rare treat to try it at the seminar. It tasted like a sweeter, dessert-style wine with hints of cinnamon, rose and vanilla. Lovely.
3. If was capturing the speaker’s accent correctly, the name is pronounced something like “Noo-oily,” (but fast) rather than the “Noy-ee-ee” or “Noy-lee” that I often hear. Any French speakers want to chime in on that one?

One final reminder - keep vermouth in the refrigerator once it is open!

The opening ceremony featured great cocktails (of course), and many attended the opening, despite the timing (it was the Monday morning immediately after the last night of Tales of the Cocktail).

The museum is filled with fascinating cocktail memorabilia, including vintage shakers, bar tools, cocktail books and more.I particularly enjoyed the section on Prohibition, and reading the labels of bottles of “flavorings” from that era.

If you find yourself in NOLA anytime soon, be sure to swing by the museum - it’s at the end of the Riverwalk center, inside the Southern Food & Beverage Museum. It’s a small museum, so you won’t be there all day, but it’s full of things you might not see anywhere else. Don’t miss it!

Here’s a quick recap of my favorite moments, in no particular order. Hopefully this will add to Meade’s attempts to get you to feel bad for not attending this year!

• The first session I attended, To Have and Have Another: The Hemingway Bartender’s Companion, was a fantastic way to start the conference. The session was led by Phil Greene, who is clearly a Hemingway scholar. We tasted five (yes five) cocktails that were Hemingway’s favorites at different points in his life, and heard many great stories and related passages from Hemingway’s works. I just might have to start reading Hemingway again, and I definitely have to go to Captain Tony’s Saloon when I’m in Key West early next year. So the count stood at five drinks before noon, in true Hemingway style.

• Perhaps the best cocktail tip I retained was from Audrey Saunders and Tony Conigliaro in the session entitled The Scented Trail: Techniques on How to Develop Aroma in Your Cocktails. We started the session with a tasting of aromatized waters and a discussion of top notes, mid notes and base notes in aroma, and strategies for developing and enhancing them. Audrey and Tony suggested that instead of infusing flavors into syrups, where the aromas are pulled to the bottom of the drink with the weight of the syrup (and masked by the sugar), consider infusing them into waters or low-alcohol spirits, and then misting your garnishes, glassware and/or drink with them right before serving. I’ve not tried this, but I really liked the sound of that idea and plan to try it very soon. Of course Tony had a vapor still so he could just whip up these things, but there are simpler ways to create what are, in essence, perfumes for your cocktails.

• For those who haven’t heard, the Appletini is now dead & gone. We buried it, and held a proper funeral procession for it, including a band and a brief funeral service. This was fantastic - at midnight, the police stopped traffic so we could march down the street in our funeral procession, following the band and casket with our good cocktails in hand.

• One of my goals for Tales was to develop a better understanding and appreciation for rum, and to learn a bit more about Tiki and the world of Tiki drinks. I went to the Rum, Ron, Rhum session, which was great. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to attend any Tiki-focused sessions. On the Regional Trends panel, I learned that Tiki is coming back in a big way on the coasts, so I expect that someday soon we’ll have a good tiki bar in Chicago. Rumor has it that Trader Vic’s is reopening here in November. Lucky for me, I did get to attend a class taught by James Teitelbaum here in Chicago shortly after Tales, which was a great lesson on Tiki culture and tradition.

• The French Quarter is fun, but five days in the heat & humidity might be a bit too much of a good thing. Nonetheless, we had some fantastic cocktails in the great bars found in the Quarter, including Napoleon House (try the Pimm’s Cup), French 75 Bar (try the French 75, or whatever Chris Hannah is making), and the Carousel Bar (try the Vieux Carré). We had great food, especially once we started following Chuck Taggart’s recommendations. We also met a very fun couple who live in NOLA who took us to some of the local hangouts, and we had perhaps the best hamburger ever at Yo Mama’s and had a great time going to places we might not have visited otherwise.

All in all, it was a great time and I’d highly recommend going next year!

If you’re in the area, it’s not too late to make plans to attend Tales (July 16 - 20). You can get a full schedule of the events, and purchase tickets, on their website here. If you can’t attend, you can stay up on the latest from Tales by checking in at the official Tales of the Cocktail Blog, where I and many of my fellow cocktail bloggers will be posting daily about our adventures. I’ll also post some updates here too, of course!

Just to tempt you, here are a few of the sessions I am planning to attend. There are so many great ones to choose from, its tough to pick:

Wednesday, July 16th

• Tales Revives the Green Hour - word on the street is that Pernod will be pouring their new (old) absinthe formulation

Thursday, July 17th

• Artisan Spirits - exploring the growth of small-batch, handmade unique spirits around the world, with a distinguished panel including Lance Winters, distiller at St. George Spirits, Neyah White, well-known mixologist from Nopa in San Francisco,Eric Seed, proprietor of Haus Alpenz, and Bill Yorks, Spirits Manager at Quality Wine & Spirits
• The Scented Trail - exploring the role of aroma in cocktails, and optimal uses for essences, hydrosols, and tinctures, among other things - led by Audrey Saunders (looking forward to meeting her especially!) and Tony Conigliaro

Friday, July 18th

• Amore Amari - Exploring the role and history of bitters and bitter spirits, including their impact on the palate and role in cocktails. We’ll get to taste a range of amer/amaro/bitters traditional to regions across Europe.
• Rum, Rhon and Rhum - Overview of rum across the centuries, looking at the varieties of styles and what makes them unique. I must confess that I don’t know that much about rum, so I’m looking forward to learning more.

Saturday, July 19th

• Spice & Ice - Spicy Cocktails - “For adventurous drinkers only!” (sounds like me), looking at how to excite the palate with hot, spicy, and savory cocktails using a range of spicy flavors and ingredients
• New Orleans Original Cocktail Tour - This one’s a must for anyone who hasn’t spent a lot of time in New Orleans -popular historian Joe Gendusa takes you on a walk through history, exploring famous bars in the French Quarter and the stories and spirits that made them famous.

And that’s just a small taste of what’s going on - there are lots of cocktail parties, cocktail-food pairing dinners, many more sessions on all types of spirits & cocktails, and even a Grand Soiree d’Absinthe on Sunday evening. So hurry up and get your tickets, or at least make plans to live vicariously through your intrepid cocktail blogging friends!

Well that’s about to change. I was at The Violet Hour here in Chicago recently, and happened to spot this bottle on the back of the bar. What is it? A sample bottle of Crème Yvette from Charles Jacquin et Cie.

I managed to talk the gentleman behind the bar out of a little taste (and snuck a picture), and it was fantastic. Delicate violet flavors, with a few subtle spices dancing on my tongue. Its a bit higher in proof than the others (they’re both 20% alcohol, this one is 27.5%), which may help it retain its flavor longer.

Next time I’m there, I’ll have to order a Blue Moon and see how it changes with the Crème Yvette instead of another violet liqueur.

Aside from my exploits at home, no one in the room had ever attempted pairing cocktails with food, but all were excited at the prospect. Here’s a sampling of the pairings (this was a big tasting menu):

Food: Wild kind salmon combination, with housemade gravlax (done in a gin-based brine), and warm olive oil poached
Cocktail: Gimlet, made with fresh lime juice
Notes: The gravlax in particular was fantastic with the cocktail, it accentuated the gin’s spice in the drink, and the lime helped balance the heaviness of the oil on the poached salmon

Food: Roasted pork loin and fresh ham, with woodgrilled porcini mushrooms, arugula and olives
Cocktail: Dirty martini with house cured olives
Notes: This was the favorite pairing of several in the room, with the two savory components accentuating the other’s flavors. The touch of olives with the pork helped bring them together, but the other flavors in each allowed for great contrasts as well.

Food: Raw milk caraway Gouda, housemade rye bread, candied ginger
Cocktail: Gingervit (aquavit, ginger-infused syrup, orange bitters and soda)
Notes: This was the other favorite, with each of the elements in the food highlighting components of the drink, creating an amazing taste together.

The Finale
Food: Rhubarb and frangipane tart, with mascarpone sabayon and roasted marcona almonds
Cocktail: Strawberries and cream martini, with a hint of hazelnut (in a nut-crusted rim, and not sweetened beyond the strawberry puree)
Notes: The fact that the drink wasn’t that sweet really made this pairing work. The tart was incredibly rich and creamy, but not that sweet, and the acidity of the drink really cut through the tart’s richness.

All in all, a fantastic evening of great food & cocktails. The feedback was amazingly positive, and everyone enjoyed it even more than they had expected.

Anyone else have a fun food & cocktail pairing story to share?

Note: pictures are from other pairing dinners I’ve attended, unfortunately I forgot to take my camera to this one!

Lolliphile is a new candy company in San Francisco making unusual flavors of lollipops. So far, they’re making absinthe-flavored ones, as well as maple-bacon. They’re working on more flavors too, aiming to “blow your tastebuds’ minds.” That’s an ambitious goal, definitely worth pursuing.

Apparently, they “started waaaaaay back around Halloween of 2007″ when they found themselves “with a lot of absinthe and no candy.” I’m not sure why they didn’t just drink some more absinthe with an extra sugar cube, or go to the store, or make some other kind of candy/sweet, but hey that’s me.

I had a bit of a hard time getting any more info on the lollipops beyond what’s on the website, so I’m really not sure what absinthe they’re using or how exactly they’re making these lollipops. They say the pops are made with real absinthe, and that they’re cooking off the alcohol. They also report that they’re not using any artificial colors or flavors at all. I’m really curious as to how they get that bright green color if they’re first cooking the absinthe, and not using any colorings - perhaps they’re starting with this stuff? It IS a very similar shade of bright green…

Guess I might have to break down and order some of these to try them out, and then report back. Anyone else out there tried them yet? I must admit, the maple-bacon ones are calling me just a little…

The focus of this year’s conference was whisk(e)y, so we gathered in Louisville, Kentucky. After a day of distillery and cooperage tours (followed by cocktail and spirit tastings galore), we gathered at Huber’s Orchard and Winery (the home of the Starlight Distillery) across the border in Borden, Indiana for a series of sessions about distillation and the liquor industry. Here are a few highlights from the conference:

Informal Product Tastings
Both at the start and later in the conference, we had opportunities to try each other’s products and talk about what we’re doing. The first night, a group of whiskey producers (and one rum) poured samples for other attendees and talked about their products and companies. This group is very informal, and everyone is very approachable, which makes for a really fun and informative tasting.

A couple of days later, many folks brought their products to the conference for more tasting and discussion.

Cooperage Tour
This was my second tour of a cooperage, and they are fascinating places if you like whiskey. This year, we went to Independent Stave’s cooperage in Lebanon, KY. Unfortunately, they did not allow photographs within the cooperage, so I’m substituting a photo from the Bluegrass Cooperage.

These places are very loud, with lots of big machines and quite a few men running them and ensuring the process goes smoothly (didn’t see any women, I looked). Starting from logs, they season the staves and then dry & process them to form barrels. It’s a fairly complex process, and each distillery requires different levels of wood seasoning and barrel char.

Tasting with Parker Beam
We toured the Makers Mark distillery in Loretto and also visited Heaven Hill’s facility in Bardstown. Both are beautiful,and we had great weather. At Heaven Hill, we were treated to a private tasting with master distiller Parker Beam (pictured). He walked us through a tasting of Bernheim Wheat Whiskey and the Evan Williams Single Barrel.

Craft Whiskey Distillers Panel
After our day of tours, we gathered for a day of focused conference sessions. The Huber facility is beautiful and suited our conference beautifully. They have a still on the premises, which was running throughout the conference, and they have a really nice conference space (and don’t miss their fried chicken, its fantastic). The first panel discussion, about craft whiskey distilling, included Jess Graber from Stranahan’s Whiskey in Colorado, Ralph Erenzo from Tuthilltown Spirits in New York, Don Poffenroth from Dry Fly Distilling in Washington, and Rick Wasmund from Copper Fox Distillery in Virginia. Bill Owen from the American Distilling Institute led the panel discussion.

These four talked about their challenges in getting started (and their financial investments), their current outputs, and some of the lessons they have learned along the way. All were forthright, painting a true picture of what their experience has been in starting their distilleries and selling their products. This session was a real eye-opener for everyone in attendance, especially those who were new to artisan distilling.

Jim Murray Tasting
One afternoon, half of us were led in a blind whiskey tasting by Jim Murray. Each whiskey was a surprise - it was not in fact what your palate suggested it was. The biggest surprise for me was the last whiskey we tasted. It was rich, complex and a bit peaty – it tasted like a well-made single malt Scotch that had probably aged for at least 12 years.

What was it? A 3-year old whiskey made in India(!). Mr. Murray said that because of the extreme heat in Bangalore where the whiskey is made, the aging process goes much faster. In fact, he said that with just 2 more years in the barrel, this whiskey would be undrinkable. The whiskey was called Amrut cask strength, and I would highly recommend seeking it out if you can find it.

Evening Meals and Cocktails
After the tours and conference sessions were over, many of us ventured out into Louisville for dinner, cocktails and conversations. It was a great opportunity to talk informally and get to know each other better. There were a lot of fun times, a lot of laughter, and great memories.

We had a great meal at Jeff Ruby’s (in-house dry aging), and a great meal and great cocktails at Proof on Main (bar in the photo). If you go to Louisville, go to the Old Seelbach Bar for a drink or two – I recommend the Speakeasy Select bourbon & rye. They are the house brand at the Seelbach, and I couldn’t find them anywhere else.

All in all, a wonderful experience. I learned a lot, made some new friends and had some great times. What more could you want from a conference?

For more details on the conference, check out the more detailed day-by-day summary on my personal blog, Thinking of Drinking and visit the American Distilling Institute website.