Bombay Government Punch

Remember making punch?

For me it conjures up a visions of college when alcohol was scarce, and money was scarcer¹.

Shudder.

But it wasn't always like that. Once upon a time, a punch was an elegant thing.

In fact, before there were cocktails, there were punches.

Punches were mixed drinks. But instead of mixing one glass, they were made in large quantities, served in big bowls.

A drink for a group.

A communal drink.

Oxford English Dictionary, dates the word "punch" to 1632. The OED believes it derives from the Sanscrit "paunch", meaning “five,” a reference to the original five-ingredient recipe: spirits (rum, brandy, or arrack); sugar; water; citrus; and spice (usually grated nutmeg, but sometimes green or black tea).

Punch was popular in England from the 1600s to the 1850s. Because punch was made with imported ingredients like citrus and spices, and it was made in large quantities, it was too expensive for the lower classes. “It was a gentlemanly drink,” says cocktail historian David Wondrich². It was one of the few things a man would prepare himself and not trust to the servants. It came with the English to Colonial America, where it was served in taverns and at parties in private homes.

Why did punch fall from favor? It seems there were many factors, not the least of which was that there was more money to be made by selling drinks by the glass, not by the bowl. However, today, serving punch by the bowl is making a comeback, and it one of the latest things in today’s cocktail scene - here in San Francisco you can get punch by the bowl at Elixir, or The Rickhouse (for example).

Today’s recipe comes to us via David Wondrich, and the proportions are taken from the 1694 regulations the English government put out for Bombay punch houses³: “if any man comes into a victualling house to drink punch, he may demand one quart good Goa arak, half a pound of sugar, and half a pint of good lime water, and make his own punch.” Goa arrack (the local hooch) was made from coconut-palm sap, but sugar-cane arrack (from the next archipelago over) and then rum were natural substitutes. The addition of a water or tea is also traditional (and very sensible.)

Batavia Arrack is made from sugarcane and fermented red rice, and is only manufactured in Java, Indonesia. Between the flavor of the red rice and aging it in teak, it develops a distinct flavor. And smell. But this is a good thing.

Batavia Arrack is one of the so-called “Lazarus Ingredients” – unavailable for decades, formerly famous, but until recently only known in old books and old recipes. Batavia Arrack has been made continuously, but was not imported into the United States for over half a century(?).  Fortunately, with the renaissance of classic cocktails, Batavia Arrack is again being imported, and readily available at stores here in the San Francisco area, one of the epicenters of the cocktail renaissance.

Eric Seed who imports Batavia-Arrack into the United States, says, “It marries especially well with spices and fruit, yet it has a back-palate effect similar to that of dark chocolate.” Because of its unique flavor profile, he says, most of the sales today are to European chocolatiers. “You can use it in lieu of a vanilla,” Seed says.

The preparation of punches is usually quite straight-forward, although it is best to prepare them at least a couple of hours ahead of time to let the flavors marry, and to give it time to chill.  I made our punch at 11:00 am to serve at 6:30 pm and our cocktail research team commented on how well integrated the flavors were.

Bombay Government Punch

• Mix 2 cups Demerera sugar in water, heat gently and stir until completely dissolved
• Mix in 12 oz lime juice
• add 16 oz Batavia Arrack & 32 oz Dark Rum ( I used Coruba and Lemon Hart)
  
• Add 6 cups water or tea (I used a mild green tea)
• Stir and Refrigerate
• 1/2 hour before serving add large ice cube (mine was made in a 2 quart tupperware container)
• garnish with grated nutmeg

This punch is about 18% alcohol (~ 36 proof).
That’s more than three times the strength of beer, and 50% stronger than wine.

Rating

The punch was very popular - it was, as Eric Seed posted on Chanticleer, "a crowd pleaser". O thought this was an "A List" drink, while Millie⁴ thought it would only be so for those whose palates enjoyed the taste of alcohol.

Note

A punch is a lot less work for the host of the party than shaking drinks.  However, people seem to drink a lot more punch than they do cocktails. Or maybe its just that they drink more of my punches .... In any case, I'm very specific about posting signs prominently that give the strength of the drink - ever since I started serving 'Fish House Punch'.  But those stories will have to wait until the postings about Lady Chatterley's Mixologist.

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¹ Of course there was the time in college when we made a fruit punch using a bottle of 96% ethanol (food grade). It was completely tasteless, and by 8:30 pm the party was over and the room was filled with sleeping people.  The things you learn (and try) in engineering school.

²I've seen several references on the internet, notably Chowhound, suggesting that this recipe is from David Wondrich's excellent book  Imbibe, the 2008 winner of the James Beard Foundation Award for Best Book About Wine and Spirits.  However, I can't find the recipe in my copy.

³I found references on the net suggesting that “punch house” may be (or was) a euphemism for ‘brothel.’ Hmmm ...

⁴ Definitely a goddess, but which one?  We think she may be one of the Norns

Three times nine girls, but one girl rode ahead,

white-skinned under her helmet;

Cocktails 102 at The Beverage Academy at Bourbon & Branch

On September 8 I attended “Cocktails 102” at the Beverage Academy at Bourbon & Branch. This turned out to be the first time the class has been offered.

It was taught by Jon Santer, one of the founding bartenders of Bourbon & Branch.  Again, the table was set for 16 students – sixteen complete bar setups – and the class was full.

Like Cocktails 101, there was a PowerPoint presentation with some history, the recipes, a tablespoon of drink theory, and some information about the pioneers of the cocktail revival.

For each recipe, Jon described a particular technique, then talked us through the recipe, then he made the recipe, then we made it.

Jon said that in contrast with Cocktails 101, this class would focus more on mechanics, and would move faster. And that while most people can make good drinks, the goal of the class was to make perfect drinks. This is exactly what I want - I make very good drinks, but rarely with the elegance and impact of the drinks I've had at Bourbon & Branch.

Unsurprisingly, its all about a lot of small details. Measure carefully. Shake the same amount of time. Chill your glassware. Store your fresh cut mint in water until you use it.

We made three cocktails* – the Gin Gin Mule (from the Pegu Club Bar in New York), a Martini, and a Gin Fizz Tropical (a Charles Baker recipe). As always, the ingredients provided were first rate – Fever Tree Ginger Ale, Small Hand Syrups, Martin Miller Gin*, Vya Vermouth.  We were again treated to a fervent sermon on the Gospel of Kold Draft Ice.

We had a lesson in stirring – how to use a bar spoon to cool and mix a drink to the proper dilution, but without introducing air bubbles – air bubbles make a drink cloudy, and lessens the silken texture. Lesson, as in:

"everybody hold your hand up.....spread your fingers like this .... put the spoon through your hand like this ... now move your wrist .... not that, like this ... good, good .... now practice stirring your mixing glass (full of water & ice) while I describe the next recipe."

This was 100% different from what I've seen in bar books - rolling the bar spoon between your palms so it acts like an egg beater.  The secret lies in use of the wrist.  Unsurprisingly Jon could stir amazingly fast. [Note to self: next time we have martinis, stir one each way, and see how different they are visually and texturally.]

Egg white drinks - I've had them many places, and made them many times.  At home I use a blender. Honestly.

I've tried shaking them by hand, but I don't have that much time and that much shoulder.

Well, we shook for 22 seconds - two measured steps - dry shake, then a precise number of ice cubes, then hard shake. It was the best fizz I've ever made, and I wish I'd taken the photo before I drank the first sip. Jon said he's tried the 'use the spring from the hawthorne strainer' trick, and it doesn't make any difference.

As before, the class was FUN - lots of laughter. Imagine my delight at sitting between two stunningly beautiful women - that was icing on the cake!

What were some of my 'take aways'?

• “The best sip is the first sip” - I've seen the same said in wine tasting (and in diet books). I've noticed that when I eat or drink something, I pay less attention to each subsequent bite.  I think double straining makes the drink more consistent - you remove the little flakes of ice that will quickly melt and change the dilution of the drink - so the drink will taste the same whether you serve it 10 seconds or 100 seconds after you shake it.  [Obviously if you wait too long it will warm up.]
• Build it dry, then add ice.  It makes sense that putting the ice in the shaker first would result in more dilution. See here for an excellent write up of research on the topic of dilution with actual data on temperature, shake time, and dilution. Let's do more research here!
  
• Plastic squeeze bottle for egg white - how obvious (but only in retrospect)! What a great idea!
• Small Hand Syrups – oh, my!  It has become my habit to taste each of the ingredients separately - Ivan got me in the habit of doing that - and I have become very curious about Small Hand syrups based on the great praise I've seen for them on the blogosphere.  Having made my own Orgeat Syrup, which I thought was the 'bee's knees", I have to say Jennifer's* leaves-mine-in-the-dust! Hers is light and fluffy (!?!) and not overly sweet.  I can't wait to taste her grenadine.
• "If it doesn't go bad, don't eat it."  Applies equally to twinkies and high fructose bar syrup.
  

The modern history information was very interesting.  Yeah, I knew Dale DeGroff was a key figure in starting the cocktail revival, but had no idea who Audrey Sanders and Sasha Petraske are, and what roles they played.  I'd like to figure out where Paul Harrington fits into this picture.

Criticisms, suggestions?

Well, not much.

• I would suggest stirring a martini the right way and the wrong way to show the difference. Shine a light through them to show the difference in clarity?
  
• Since you all love to talk about ice, I noticed you don't talk about how you filter your water before you freeze it .... Jon emailed me to let me know that the Kold Draft includes a reverse osmosis filter, so the water is clean!
  
• And I thought you were a little over the top in omitting Elixir from the list of San Francisco Bars
• Mr. Skeptical Engineer lived in Japan for three years and has a third degree black belt so he has a great deal of respect for Japanese attention to detail and likes Japanese tools, but he thought 'Japanese food grade steel' sounded a lot like 'super premium vodka.'

  The Last Word: Schedule more classes, please!

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*A couple of days after the class we were emailed all the recipes.
** It turns out that Jon is some kind of brand rep or brand ambassador for Martin Miller’s - it sounded like he liked their gin so much that he started working for them, and he wanted to be up front with us about it.
*** Jennifer Colliau is the owner/proprietor/Chef of Small Hand Foods.  I hope to meet her someday.

Bay Area Cocktails Spots: The Slanted Door

One of our goals is to try all the hot bay area cocktail spots (and write them up).

For my 51rst birthday, O organized a 'research trip' to The Slanted Door. Unfortunately, some idiot (which would be me) left the camera in our car. Art saved the day - Thank you so much Art!

The Slanted Door is in the San Francisco Ferry Building. If you haven't been to the Ferry building, go! It's your basic "run-down-historic-building-redeveloped-into-an-incredibly-chic-collection-of-trendy-food-spots" - kind of like a "Food Court of the Gods of San Francisco."

One of the great things about the Ferry Building is that you can take a Ferry to get there. Remember we are very very careful about drinking and driving, so having BART or Alameda Ferry driving us is great!


From Jack London Square its about a half hour ride, and its very pretty - especially after dark. Unfortunately the last ferry back on a weekday is at 8:20 pm. The Ferry building is an easy walk to the BART if you miss the last ferry.


After many a low-light dive bar, or the semi-darkness of Bourbon & Branch, The Slanted Door is bright! You can easily read the menu - what a concept!

Stylistically, sort of a contemporary version of "the Jetsons." Importantly for us, the bar area is large, seating 24 at the bar and 30 in the cocktail lounge area. There is a bunch more seating to the left of the benches in this photo.

We arrived around 6pm on a Tuesday night and had no trouble getting seating for our party of seven, the bar was full twice during the next two hours, but never that crowded. The service was excellent, our handsome wait person was very friendly, although each round he brought us a drink we hadn't ordered. (Hey, we like you, you are fun, could you write our order down next time?*)


The team:
A few of the 'hard core' members of the cocktail research team - The Polynesian Princess, her consort Ivan, and Gregoire. O is, of course, a founding member of the team - in fact the inspiration for this entire effort. Also present old friends Z and Art and myself.

It really was Gregoire's "fault" we went. He pinged me on Facebook asking where we were going for my birthday - last year we reserved a room at Bourbon & Branch .... Thanks for getting us into gear, Gregoire!

The cocktail menu is a reasonable length - 15 drinks - so among the seven of us we covered what seemed to be the most interesting drinks in two rounds, but stayed for three.




The evening featured serious discussions ....

Friendship

Lots of laughter,

lots of love ...

So what did we think?

• Rye Bee: a dry, elegant drink, as good as it sounds
• Pisco Sour: fine, but not much character
  
• Corpse Reviver #2: O loved these, I thought them too dry and not that flavorful. You can find this at many bars now, so they are a great point of comparison. We serve them every Halloween.
  
• Zora: excellent. I'm not a big tequila fan, and I recommend these - the last note of the drink (as you swallow) is tequila.
  
• Sidecar: let's go off the menu and order a standard - O said "a solid sidecar, but didn't blow me away"
  
• Shanghai Buck - very fun ginger / ginger ale, made me want to learn about this archaic class of drinks
• Summer on the Danube - ???? (no notes taken. oops!)
• Hotel Nationale - rum with a spicy cayenne-like note in the middle, 3 levels of taste. A winner.
  
• Indian Summer - I love grapefruit, and this melds well with elderflower
  
• Royal Pimms Cup - bitter elegance. "An elegant drink from a more civilized age." Art's comment (below)  pointed out that this was the drink that arrived with a forest of basil, not the Rhum punch.
  
• Phantasm - Oceana thought it was one of the more elegant drinks
  
• Pisqu - the most unremarkable drink of the evening
• Agricole Rhum Punch - nah!
  

The food:

We ordered a bunch of appetizers - the wood oven roasted becker lane tea smoked pork belly was "out of this world" (and its a heart attack worth of cholesterol in every bite, melt-in-your-mouth tender), the ribs (not on the menu?) more like Chinese than bbq, they were great and went fast, and the spring rolls - veg and non-veg - they were good, but unremarkable


The Verdict

We had a great time, the bar service was reasonably fast, for us the location is great. In most parts of the world, $10 a drink is a lot, not here in the bay area.

I have to say that I thought the drinks were, on the balance, quite good. However, this is San Francisco, so the competition is fierce.

Most of the drinks were very good but not great, and I didn't have that "how did they do this?" / "Oh my god" reaction I've had in some places. The one recipe I wanted is the Hotel Nationale Special - here is a recipe on Small Hands Foods.

Overall, by SF Snob standards, we are talking "B+". Would we go back? Absolutely!

The Ride Home (ie the after-party)

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* This is an example of using what we call 'the training cycle.' It's a method of telling people what you want in such a way that they can "win" every step of the way. It's yet another thing I learned in a class called Basic Sensuality.

Homemade (Housemade) Orgeat Syrup

I've been reading lots of posts about making one's own syrups, mostly skeptically. However, after tasting the difference between commercial bar syrup and cane sugar simple syrup at The Beverage Academy at Bourbon & Branch, I've gotten more and more interested. As it happens, I read a couple of blog posts about making Orgeat, at least one mentioned Mai Tais - which stuck in my memory.

Saturday was 'International Tiki Day' ..... when it comes to Tiki drinks I'm pretty much what Hawaiians would term a Haole (foreigner), although I aspire to be kamaaina.

Anyway, here I am thinking, "we should have a party Saturday night and serve a tiki drink, is there something I could write up for my blog", and I came up with the idea of trying homemade Orgeat. A quick blog search turned up several well written recipes:

Art of Drink Orgeat Recipe
Trader Tiki's Orgeat Recipe
Kaiser Penguin's Orgeat Recipe

They are all quite similar. And I realized I didn't start the process twelve hours in advance ....

Fortunately, we have a restaurant here called "Cafe Gratitude" which specializes in very good raw foods, even if they have a kind of off-putting "Stepford Wives" cheerfulness. And they make kick a** almond milk. Oceana sez so, and she used to make it every week, using a recipe quite similar to the ones I showed her from the above list.


So I bought an 8 oz bottle, which I warmed and mixed with 12 ounces of organic raw cane sugar (2::3 ratio) until it dissolved. Then I let it cool, and added a 1/4 teaspoon of Monteux orange flower water, 1/4 teaspoon of Carlo rose water, 1/4 teaspoon of Whole Foods almond extract (which is bitter almond in glycerin), and two tablespoons of vodka (for shelf stability).

It smelled incredible and tasted overwhelmingly sweet - if I make it again I might reduce the % of sugar.

Well, the proof is in the drinking. Last night we had Mai Tais with The Polynesian Princess and her consort at their new abode, and we used the Monin Orgeat. Tonight, we had Mai Tais in the back yard at 80 - tiki torches blazing - and both Oceana and I pronounced these better - more complex taste and more interesting bouquet - and the unmistakeable almond oil aftertaste.

So my bottle of Orgeat is back in the fridge, and our next project is to make the Japanese Cocktail!

The Mai Tai

History and Context

This world famous drink was invented right here in the east bay*. Victor Bergeron, known to the world as ‘Trader Vic’, created the first Mai Tai in at his Emeryville restaurant at 65th & San Pablo Avenue.

“In 1944, after success with several exotic rum drinks, I felt a new drink was needed. I thought about all the really successful drinks; martinis, manhattans, daiquiris .... All basically simple drinks.

I was at the service bar in my Oakland restaurant. I took down a bottle of 17-year old rum. It was J. Wray Nephew from Jamaica; surprisingly golden in color, medium bodied, but with the rich pungent flavor particular to the Jamaican blends.

The flavor of this great rum wasn’t meant to be overpowered with heavy additions of fruit juices and flavorings. I took a fresh lime, added some orange curacao from Holland, a dash of Rock Candy Syrup, and a dollop of French Orgeat, for its subtle almond flavor. A generous amount of shaved ice and vigorous shaking by hand produced the marriage I was after.

I gave two of them to Ham and Carrie Guild, friends from Tahiti, who were there that night. Carrie took one sip and said, "Mai Tai - Roa Ae". In Tahitian this means "Out of This World - The Best." Well, that was that. I named the drink "Mai Tai."

Our Opinion

You can have a Mai Tai almost anywhere. Most of them are terrible.

When Trader Vic (and Don Beach) started out, their recipes were their trade secrets, closely guarded even from their bar staff. So if you went to Terry's Tiki Tower in 1946 and asked for a Mai Tai, the bartender there would ask you what it tasted like, and make a guess as to what to use. If you liked the drink, then that might become the house Mai Tai recipe, although it might have nothing in common with the original recipe. Thus, the drink that launched 10,000 recipes. After the Tiki craze died down, the folks at Trader Vic's published their recipe - that's how we got it (its on their website). However, the damage was already done.

So our experience is that many people have tasted this drink, but few have had a well made one. With the right ingredients it truly is ‘out of this world”, and its an education in rum.

In addition to being easy to make, this drink is a 'crowd pleaser'. And you can add that extra touch with the story about how "this is the real recipe ...."

Bartending Notes

OK, this drink is rum, curacao, lime, sugar (simple syrup) plus orgeat (almond). So its a Rum Margarita with almond. How exotic is that?

I think one of the things about the Mai Tai is that it highlights the strengths and wide varieties of Rum. So you want to use the specific kinds (Jamaican, Demerara) that are recommended, even use the specific bottlings we suggest - they aren't that expensive.

• 3/4 ounce fresh lime juice (2 to 3 halved limes)
• 3/4 ounce Cointreau
• 3/4 ounce Orgeat syrup (we had been using Torani, now we make our own!)
• 1 ounce Coruba Dark Jamaican rum
• 1 ounce dark Lemon Hart & Son Demerara Rum from Guyana

We've been happily making it with a mix of Jamaican Coruba Rum and Lemon Hart Demerara rum for years.

One of the things we recommend when one is studying cocktails is to taste each ingredient separately, and then imagine how that might fit into the whole. If you've never had 'real' dark rum, the first time you smell Coruba, you are in for a treat. And then the Demerara rums are a whole different experience. My previous experience of rum was limited to the most famous brand, a wonderful product from Puerto Rico that might be described as 'rum flavored vodka' that comes in two colors. So trying Coruba was an eye opening experience.

As Tiki drinks go, Mai Tais are easy - the only fruit juice you need is lime juice, orgeat syrup is relatively easy to find. So its easy to experiment - what happens if we use Myers Dark Rum? Or Goslings? Or 12 year old El Dorado Demerara Rum?

As it happens, our latest experiment is to use 3 rums, which makes for a drier drink:

.75 Coruba
.75 Lemon Hart
.75 El Dorado 12 year
.75 Curacao (Cointreau)
.5 Orgeat**
.25 Simple Syrup
.75 Lime

I find that you must be somewhat cautious about dilution, so if you shake this drink for 20 seconds, I'd fill the glasses with ice cubes, not crushed ice***. Try it both ways ....





At Trader Vics, here is what they now call "the original" Mai Tai:

• 3/4 ounce fresh lime juice (2 to 3 halved limes)
• 3/4 ounce Leroux Orange Curacao
• 3/4 ounce Trader Vic Formula Orgeat syrup
• 1 ounce Coruba Dark Jamaican rum
• 1 ounce dark Lemon Hart & Son Demerara Rum from Guyana
• and pineapple chunk, maraschino cherry and mint for garnish.

Fill a wide-mouthed glass with crushed ice. Squeeze the juice from the lime halves. Reserve one squeezed lime half. Pour in the lime juice, Leroux Orange Curacao and the orgeat syrup. Pour in the Jamaican rum, followed by the Guyana rum. Dump the contents of the glass into a cocktail shaker and shake vigorously for 30 seconds. Pour everything back into the glass, and garnish with a chunk of pineapple and a maraschino cherry skewered on a swizzle stick. Drop in the squeezed lime half and add a sprig of mint. The hand-squeezed lime is crucial to the flavor. The mint doesn't affect the flavor as much as the bouquet, which is part of the Mai Tai experience.

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*There is a historical dispute between Donn the Beachcomber and Trader Vic as to who invented the Mai Tai. Who invented the Mai Tai? I don't know. The story I've repeated above is a great story, which doesn't mean its true. The one Donn Beach recipe I've seen for a Mai Tai is for a completely different drink - its in the Little Hawaiian Tropical Drink book. I look forward to being edified on this topic.

** I'm quite surprised (and, honestly, pleased) how much difference homemade ("housemade") orgeat makes - see Homemade Orgeat Syrup for the 'how to.'

***If you are really curious about shaking and dilution, read this post about The Science of Shaking

Cocktails 101 at The Beverage Academy at Bourbon & Branch

Monday night I went to our favorite bar for a cocktail class at The Beverage Academy at Bourbon & Branch, on the edge of the Tenderloin in San Francisco.

In case you are wondering, Bourbon & Branch is where I have had the best mixed drinks of my entire life. [So far] Their recipes are well thought out, and often incredibly elegant, and the drinks are well built - hand shaken*, one at a time. While I don't love every drink they make, it is quite common that I'll order their take on a drink that I know well - like the French 75 - and after a sip I'll think "how did they do that!" and "how could theirs be so much better (when mine are excellent)?"

There is no sign for Bourbon & Branch at the corner of Jones & O’Farrell, but you can see the ‘San Francisco Anti-Saloon league’ sign as you walk up O'Farrell.

The bar has no windows and the unmarked heavy oak door has bars over the tiny peephole. You knock, are asked for the password, then you enter into darkness.

Bourbon & Branch is a recreation of a prohibition speak-easy, in the location of an actual San Francisco speak-easy. The beautiful period interior is dimly lit so that you can’t recognize the people at the next table, nor they, you. Those who have been here before will bring tiny flashlights** so that you can read the extensive drink menu.

Arriving early, I was instructed to wait at the bar, when the room was ready the maitre d‘ opened a (no kidding) secret door and led us into the Russell Room. There under a shiny stamped tin ceiling was a long high table set with 16 mixing stations and 16 bar stools, above the bar at the end of the room was a screen, and in the middle of the table on a platform was a projector and laptop. Our teacher was Erick Castro, Erick greeted us warmly, and introduced the class and shepherded us through making our first drink. He assured us that he would be far more entertaining after we’d started drinking***. As we sipped our first creation - 'the Democrat' - he had us introduce ourselves briefly and say why we'd come - there were about a dozen of us - a surprising number of guys were there at the request of their lady to learn to make better cocktails for their parties! An eclectic mix of pleasant music played through the evening – mostly music from the 20s, 30s, and 40s, I only recognized Frank Sinatra and Django Reinhardt.

The class, Cocktails 101, is geared towards people who have never handled a cocktail shaker before. Everything was explained clearly: via lecture with PowerPoint, then demonstrated by Erick at the bar, then we did it. As we made the drink Erick and another of the Bourbon & Branch staff were on hand to answer questions, offer advice, etc. We muddled, we stirred, we shook, we strained. We made three kinds of drinks: a swizzle – stirred then packed with crushed ice; a sour – shaken and double strained; and a spirituous cocktail – stirred with large cubes in the shaker and poured through a julep strainer into a chilled cocktail glass.

Down the center of the table in front of us were full bottles of excellent liquor – Martin Miller Gin, Rittenhouse Rye, Bulleit Bourbon, Heering Cherry Liqueur, a bitters bottle full of Lucid Absinthe, a quarter carafe of Carpano Antica formula – and everything else we needed - a plate of halved lemons (to squeeze for juice), a whole lemon to peel for garnishes, bottles of syrups, a bar towel, a bar spoon, a lemon squeezer, etc.

For each drink, in addition to the recipe and brief history, there was some discussion as to why a particular brand or type of spirit was chosen, and there was a quarter teaspoon of drink theory – for example, this spirit is the base, this one is the modifier, this is the accent. There was a lot of discussion of many small points – or perhaps I should say “fine points” of making excellent drinks. Measure each ingredient. Shake hard. Use the correct amount of ice. Use good ice****. Etc. Etc. Etc. None of it rocket science, but taken together one can see why the drinks at Bourbon & Branch are so consistent.

Erick talked about learning to make cocktails starting with some of the great classics – like The Sidecar – and learning some of the major drink families. After mastering these fundamentals, one can easily move on to more advanced topics.

The class was quite easy and very fun. There was lots of laughter among the students, and Erick took good care of both the beginners and more experienced students. It was quite luxurious – the staff cleared our places and washed our glassware, shakers, measures, etc., and re-stocked our setup while we sipped and listened and learned.

I’d say the thing that stood out for me the most was when they passed five different types of sugar syrup around the table for us to taste. The first was commercial bar syrup, and compared to the homemade syrup that followed it, it had almost no taste at all! It made a believer out of me - I don't want to ever use high fructose corn syrup again!

The confirmation email stresses that you should not plan on driving, this is very wise advice. I came via BART - its a easy walk from the Powell Station, after drinking some portion of the three strong, excellent cocktails I was glad my route home involved only "go straight and turn right at Powell."

It was a beginner's class, and because I've had such good teachers a lot of what Erick said was 'preaching to the chorus'. What I did learn was valuable to me, and the class was very fun. Everyone seemed happy when they left.

The last word? I’m enrolled in Cocktails 102 in August.

See you there?



*and they even hand shake the drinks with egg whites! And do it well!

**you will be the envy of every other patron, however please use them discretely in keeping with the atmosphere of privacy.

***Not every teacher hands his students a straight line like that, but when you meet someone who believes in using gomme syrup in a Sazerac, you have to cut them some slack. And, its true.

****I think if Erick was any prouder of their $17,000 (?) Kold Draft ice making system he would have burst.

Pisco Punch - the Party

History and Context

It was invented in 1887 in San Francisco at the site where the Transamerica Pyramid now stands, it was famous across America in its day, if not the world. A tart drink made with pineapple and Peruvian brandy, there was something very unique about it that left a lasting impression. The recipe was lost in 1929, and rediscovered in 2007, tonight we serve the most famous Barbary Coast drink of them all.

Duncan Nicols behind the bar at the Bank Exchange

Rudyard Kipling said it was:

“compounded of the shavings of cherub’s wings,
the glory of a tropical dawn,
the red clouds of sunset
and the fragments of lost epics by dead masters.”

The roots of tonight’s drink lie deep in San Francisco’s past. The discovery of gold on January 24, 1848 brought about 300,000 people to California, about half by sea. Part of San Francisco transformed overnight into a collection of bars, brothels, and gambling dens known as “The Barbary Coast” where miners could drink and spend - creating a ready market for alcohol in all forms. Ships from the east coast would sail around Cape Horn, then north along the coasts of Chile and Peru up to ‘Alta California.’ Stopping for provisions, the ships would also pick up goods for sale in San Francisco, including famous Peruvian brandy – Pisco.

In addition to bringing Pisco from Peru, the northbound ships brought many Peruvians to California – both miners and settlers – who brought their foods, recipes and culture. Two Peruvian drink recipes are of interest to us: a drink called ‘las once’ – Pisco, lime, sugar, and water; and “chicha de piña” – a mild fermented drink made from pineapple rinds. [Pineapples originated in South America and are grown in Peru]

All of this came together at the Bank Exchange and Billiard Saloon. Founded in 1853 at the corner of Montgomery and Washington, it was one of San Francisco’s most luxurious bars. From 1887 to 1919 it was owned and run by Duncan Nichols, and it was famous through out the Western world, and Pisco Punch was the house drink.

All in all, Pisco Punch is a very pleasant drink, but what about it induced the rhapsodies from Kipling and others: “one glass of punch will make a gnat fight an elephant” and “floating the drinker in the region of bliss of hasheesh and absinthe”.

Duncan Nicols was emphatic about a ‘one drink per customer’ policy when it came to the Pisco Punch – however a six ounce glass would only contain about one shot of alcohol. He was absolutely paranoid about the recipe – he never told the recipe to any of his bar staff, or even his wife. In the last years of his life he told his associates that a key ingredient was no longer available, and upon his death it was widely assumed the recipe was lost forever.

Researcher Guillermo Toro-Lira makes a strong case for the identity of that missing ingredient. May we recommend that you read his book "wings of cherubs" and find out his theories?

It is likely we will never know for sure what the missing secret ingredient in the Pisco Punch was, but we can enjoy both its taste and its history.

Our Opinion

The drink is a mild 'sweet / tart ' drink - like a margarita or daiquiri. Pisco has a distinctive character that is clearly tasted through the pineapple. This punch is very easy to drink, but otherwise not that remarkable.

I have to confess that I didn't taste, or notice, the gum arabic - which is supposed to add a silky mouth feel. I did notice, however it really does slow down the absorption of alcohol - I felt very little effect of the 4 or 5 cups of punch during the first two hours - we threw the party at our house, so I knew I didn't have to drive. We had 5 oz punch cups, and we told people at the party "maximum of two drinks per customer." It would be very easy to drink a pint or more of this, and then be disastrously intoxicated three or four (?) hours later.

As far as I know, the Guillermo Toro-Lira recipe isn't published online, so I'm not going to disclose it.

Pisco [Peruvian Brandy]

Pineapple

Lime Juice

Sugar

Gum Arabic*

*Gum Arabic is the dried sap of the Acacia tree, it has been used for centuries in foods and drinks. It is the ingredient that makes ‘gummy bears’ and jelly beans soft and chewy. “Gomme Syrup” or “Gum Syrup” is another recently rediscovered / reintroduced “lost” ingredient from classic cocktails.

Bartending Notes

The recipe provided in the book is somewhat complex - it involves 6 bottles of ingredients - one is a bottle of pisco, the 5 others are made of the pineapple, chicha de piña, and syrups. I think the recipe in the book makes enough for a couple of gallons of punch. I'd suggest that you work out all your proportions and ingredients well in advance - you must make the recipe at least 30 or so hours in advance - I'd suggest that you make your gomme syrup two plus days ahead, and mix that with the simple syrup the next day - ie one day ahead. I did not observe any signs of fermentation in the Chicha de piña at all, I'm not sure if I should have allowed it another day or added some source of yeast - like some whole grapes - which I could have removed a couple of hours later.

I mixed the complete punch and put it in a pitcher, so that during the party I would pour 2 oz of the punch into each of a dozen punch cups, then add 3 or 4 ice cubes - so it was very easy and I was able to spend time at the party entertaining two very beautiful women.