Four Pillars, a small distillery in Melbourne, Australia seems to have gotten its mission from its geography: When the world gives you oranges, you make gin. But the founders of the company didn't stop there. After distillation, the oranges that have been used for gin are given another chance at life in the form of…
Adding color and seasonality, this NYC bartender offers up his own martini variation that tastes like one at first, but evolves into something different.
There’s nothing wrong with ordering a vodka and soda, but there are countless bartenders just waiting to make you something different, if you dare to venture into a wild frontier of flavor. Often bartenders have the perfect drink in their back pocket just for those guests who rarely deviate from their vodka safety zone but…
One hazy morning at the bleary-eyed hour of 9 a.m., Simon Ford and Jason Kosmas gathered in the dark basement of Macao Trading Company in New York City to brainstorm ideas for a new style of gin. At the time, the most popular gin brand on the market was probably Hendrick's, a spirit infused with rose and cucumber.…
Finding vinegar in your cocktail may not sound appealing in theory, but when it comes to capturing a fruit or vegetable picked at its peak and bringing that flavor to the glass, few techniques can compare to the shrub. For most bartenders, translating this sort of long-winded explanation across a loud bar is seldom an option, and with…
Few know the wonderful world of tiki drinks as well as Jane Danger, now beverage director at Mother of Pearl in NYC's East Village. These ornamented cocktails can take on many shapes and are often as intense to drink as they are to create. For some, ordering a spirited Zombie may be a onetime occurrence, which is why…
When perusing a cocktail list for the first time, you don’t tend to miss a word like calamansi. The citrus — a Southeast Asian cross between mandarin oranges and kumquats — might be common in Filipino, Malaysian and Indian cuisine, but it's seldom seen in cocktails. For Brooklyn’s casual Freek’s Mill restaurant, a newcomer to the evolving Gowanus Canal neighborhood,…
While many know of Lambrusco, the sparkling red wine from Italy, its mild resurgence has yet to overcome its perceived sweetness. Polishing off a bottle is a rarity, which is why the team at NoHo restaurant Vic's in NYC puts errant bottles of Lambrusco to good use with its gin-based Uva Dolce cocktail.Italian bitter cocktails often open the palate, but barman Damian Laezza's unique combination…
Food Republic’s Brian Quinn has been all over the cocktail beat during the past few years, highlighting drinks from bars across the U.S., ranging from the simple to the difficult to the impressively unique. Have some extra mole bitters lying around your home and don’t know what to do with them? Care to immerse yourself in…
The art of crafting cocktails has always been built on experimentation and pushing the innovations of previous generations forward. For legendary bartender Dick Bradsell, it was all about perfecting great drinks and keeping up a standard of excellence, which is why his now-classic invention, the Bramble, as well as his later creation, the espresso martini, became…
Sometimes more is more, and cocktails that stand out in a crowd have always been popular. With the proliferation of tiki and now culinary-inspired cocktails, much attention seems to be paid to the panache of one’s garnish or finding “insane” flavor combinations. But it’s not all style over substance, as the best of these drinks actually taste…
The craft spirit movement has made champions of some unlikely protagonists. While the likes of scotch whisky were destined to be sexy regardless of what they mingled with, few could have accurately predicted the fervor with which obscure spirits like pisco and mezcal would be embraced, and likewise the renewed passion for old-man liquors like…
Seasonality isn’t what it used to be. While colder weather lends itself to darker spirits and warmer drinks, many recognize that an easy-sipping cooler, such as the Pimm’s Cup, is an instant crowd-pleaser at any time of year. At Trick Dog in San Francisco's Mission district, the Pimm’s variation on offer is just as refreshing as the classic, but with a…
Hold on to your tonics, gin lovers. We might be on the verge of a shortage. The BBC reports that a fungus called phytophthora austrocedrae is making the rounds in Scotland and killing juniper plants, the major component of gin flavoring. Plantlife, a British organization dedicated to the conservation of local plants, conducted a study and concluded…
The elegance of the French 75 is unparalleled. Whether made with gin or cognac, it’s hard to imagine creating an improved version of this classic. However, at one of the latest fine-dining establishments to open in NYC, Gabriel Kreuther, not a shred of elegance is lost in an inventive marriage of both Alsatian and Mediterranean elements in its Mirto cocktail. Of course,…
The combination of gin, lime and sugar remains one of the most iconic flavor profiles in the cocktail lexicon, which is why it is both easy and challenging to improve on the trusty gimlet. At Bushwick’s Forrest Point, bartender Taylor Smirl set out to create a shochu, yuzu and sesame-syrup gimlet variation, but it soon became clear…
Jeffrey Morgenthaler is Food Republic’s contributing cocktail editor and the author of the column Easy Drinking. He currently manages the bars Clyde Common and Pépé Le Moko in Portland, Oregon, and is the author of The Bar Book: Elements of Cocktail Technique . One of the hot buzz terms in writing about cocktails these days is “modern…
It’s Craft Beer & Spirits Week at Food Republic, which has us taking a close look at the small producers of fine potables. We can’t go long with all of these producers, like we previously did with 86 Co. and Cathead Vodka. But we wanted to call out some of our favorite American craft spirits makers — as…
It’s a classic that everyone knows but often overlooks — even though its influence on the world of drinks can hardly be measured. It’s said to have been first created by a surgeon in the British Royal Navy as a prescription for officers to avoid scurvy, and the original version was no lightweight, with overproof…
Jeffrey Morgenthaler is Food Republic’s new contributing cocktail editor and the author of the occasional column Easy Drinking. Jeffrey is an industry veteran, having worked at bars of many styles for the past two decades. He currently manages the bars Clyde Common and Pépé Le Moko in Portland, Oregon, and is the author of The Bar Book: Elements of…