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Hi everyone, welcome to potluck food talks. Today we're going to talk about booze. Mixology.

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Mixology, the art of getting you buzzed and happy.

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Yeah, the art of getting drunk with class.

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Yeah, I'm a big fan of mixology. I mean, mixology is such a weird term, you know, but it's something

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that I found it really fascinating. I remember when the first time I went into like a really

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high class bar and you get drinks that are so, you know, curated and I found it so interesting

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that you had this glass of like liquid, you know, and it was mixed in such a way that the elements,

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which are not a lot of elements, you know, they work together so perfectly and create

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something really, really complex. And I found that really, really interesting from a culinary

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point of view. Yeah, I completely agree. It's kind of like a liquid cooking or something like that,

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but you're not cooking, you're just mixing, but you're cooking in the sense that you're

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mixing things and tasting until you get the perfect spot and, you know, and then know how to

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find a way to replicate it many times. That's kind of like cocktail making process, I would say.

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Yeah, totally. I remember I thought like back when that happened to me, I was in my apprenticeship

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and I was really fascinated with sauce making. And, you know, when you make a sauce, it is kind

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of like you already have it at a point where it's very tasty, but just like getting trying to creep

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up to that point where everything is just perfect, you know, and then especially when you have

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somebody who really knows what they're doing and you make something and taste it, they're like,

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yes, good, but like do add a little bit of this, add a little bit of that, and they get it to that

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perfect sweet spot. You taste it and you're like, oh my god, now it's amazing, you know.

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Yeah, I had a soup in my apprenticeship. It was kind of like a Caribbean bouillabaisse and this

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like French classic French Caribbean restaurant where I learned. And yeah, it was this bouillabaisse,

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but it would also like the classic ingredients of the bouillabaisse, but then also some Latin twist.

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It had even some hot sauce and you had to find a way to get the right flavor, you know, like

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if you already knew the soup, you would know how to get there and adding a little bit more of this

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and no, it's not there. Okay, now there it is, you know, like because it's not like a cocktail that

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you just do that once and then you know how to replicate it many times. Yeah, totally, you know,

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like it was the same in Thai cooking, like when I learned how to cook like Northern Thai food with

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the som tam dressing, it's just like fish sauce, tamarind, lime juice, and chili, right, and palm

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sugar. So you have, you know, sweet, salty, sour, spicy, you know, all those like quintessential

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Thai flavors and you would try to get them into like the perfect balance where they have to be,

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where everything plays together and that would be very difficult, you know, and you'd like,

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especially me, you know, this is so highly seasoned, like I taste it, I'd be like,

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okay, now it's good. And then, you know, the head chef would like taste it and be like, no,

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no, it needs more this, needs more that, needs to have more, more, more, more. And you season it and

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season it and season it until it's at that very sweet spot where you couldn't possibly season it

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anymore, you know. Yeah, and also the thing about cocktails is that the aroma spectrum is, you know,

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you can have like super dry cocktails or you can have a dessert cocktail, something that is like,

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you know, let's say a cheesecake made or a milk rice made cocktail, or if we talk about classics

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like a piña colada, I would say it goes in that direction while you have other things that are

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completely dry, like a martini or something like that. Or like really fresh and acidic, you know,

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like a daikiri or, you know, all sorts of things. Yeah. And like, I also think that the range of

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product is really interesting, you know, like, I mean, a lot of the bars that I went to that I

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found really interesting, like, for example, a bar that we both know well in Berlin,

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Buck & Breck, which is a favorite bar in the world. It's amazing. Yeah, right. I mean, like,

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especially back then, it was, it was back then when we went, it was run by Holger Kroll and

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the Salsa, it's got like a Portuguese name, the Salsa. Sorry if I'm pronouncing it wrong. Man,

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I love that place because the whole experience of going to that place, so to tell the story that

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imagine you're walking in Berlin and there is just like a door in the middle of nowhere with a ring

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and you have to know that there is a bar. So you ring the bell and, and if you're like the right

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amount of people or whatever you get in and it's just a bar with what, 10 seats, something like

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that. Had it like two tables in the back. I'm not sure. Maybe, but let's say maximum like 15 people,

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if it was fully packed to the very end, maximum. And, and what I liked about that place is that

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there were no labels of anything. Like they had this color codes on the bottles and they knew

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exactly what to take and how to mix the cocktails. Everything was super neutral and minimalist, like

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in terms of ambience. And then the cocktails were super elegant, man. All of those cocktails were

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like super thoughtful or well executed. Even the classic ones. I remember having a darkened

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Stormi there many times that was like super properly executed. Yeah, man. They were on another

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level. I mean, like I learned most of the things that I now know about like mixology in that place.

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They had a lot of classic cocktails that you don't see any, anywhere anymore. You know,

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things like a clove club, they had a Ramos gin fist, which is one of my favorite drinks, you know,

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which nobody does because it's notoriously hard to make. I mean, it's, it's very simple, but it's,

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it's got a funny backstory actually. So a gin fist, you know, everybody knows and a Ramos gin

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fist is special because it's got a little bit of orange blossom water and a little bit of cream,

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like just like single cream. And because of that, it needs to get shaken very hard and for like a

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very long time so that it like emulsifies and that it doesn't separate in the glass. So it comes from

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this country club where they invented a drink and they had a barman mixing the drinks and then behind

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them two guys that he would just hand the shaker to that would just shake and shake and shake and

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shake and shake and shake and shake because you have to shake it for like a minute, solid, nonstop.

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And if you do the, if you do like 10 in a row, you know, you're exhausted. So every barman just had

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like guys behind him to shake these drinks. And yeah, they would do things like that. But also on

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top of that, they would have really special spirits. You know, they, I remember they had like a mustard

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seed distillates that they sourced in Germany, you know, they had like very, they had like a

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cumin kind of liquor and like very sort of unusual things that they sourced, you know, that they then

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used for their cocktails. But also, like you said, you know, the big thing was just that they

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executed things perfectly. Everything was just spot on, in balance, perfectly executed. The service

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was amazing, like such a small space and only like two people working at the same time behind the bar.

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If at all, sometimes just one person. And, but, but they treated you super well. The

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ambience was amazing. It was sort of like mellow hip hop playing. And it really, for me, like I

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found it, it really set the bar for a lot of things. Did you ever try this super crazy

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piña colada masters in Japan? You know what I'm talking about? No, no, I'm not sure. There are like

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these guys that make piña colada in Japan with a, like a specific super like robotic shaking

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technique. And it's like this big thing. It's like, I think the most expensive piña colada in the

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world by the greatest piña colada master. And it's like, yeah, I think I saw this in a mind of a

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chef episode, like David Chang was traveling in Tokyo and visiting this place. Yeah, I've definitely

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seen it. But I mean, like, you know, piña colada is a great example of like a drink that like,

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usually when you order it, it's just really horrible. You get like canned fucking coconuts,

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cream, canned everything, canned pineapples, canned everything. And it's like super sweet and like,

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you know, rum and blah, and it's horrible. It's like creamy and that. But if you get, you know,

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fresh coconut water or fresh coconut cream, you know, and like fresh juice pineapple, that stuff's

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delicious, you know, and then you have a high quality rum and you mix that together. It's an

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amazing drink. Yeah, I've had nice piña coladas mainly in Venezuela and it was, it was quite

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something having a super good one. I have good memories of that. Yeah, but I'm not surprised that

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Japan is on such a forefront of mixology because this like aspect of kind of like getting things

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to perfection and also the gesture of things, you know, the mixing is the mixing is very important.

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You have to think that why do you mix a cocktail with ice is sort of like to cool it down, obviously,

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but also to dilute this, you know, like if you would just mix, like, for example, taking a

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groany, right? You can, of course, just mix equal parts of Campari, red vermouth and gin and just

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mix that together and put it in a glass, but it's not going to be the same. It's going to be very

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brutal and like stirring it in a glass, you know, with the ice, it cools down, but it also like

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dilutes the alcohol with the water from the melting ice and getting it to the perfect point

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where it's right at that sweet spot where it's alcoholic enough, but like not too watery, not

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too strong. That's just really heavy. And that's why like, I think like this Japanese mentality,

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this sort of shokunin mentality, it fits perfectly. I've been to some amazing bars in Japan. I mean,

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one really good example is a place called Gen Yamamoto, which also is, it's just one guy

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behind the counter with this sort of kaiseki attitude to cocktails. It's seasonal cocktails.

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Basically you have like a Omakase cocktail tasting. And he, yeah, and it like, it's focuses

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on regional produce and seasonal produce, you know, so fruits and vegetables and herbs and other

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ingredients that kind of like are in season at that moment. And then, you know, he presents it,

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you know, most of the time with something natural, kind of like akin to Ikebana. Ikebana is the art

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of flower arranging in Japan. So you have the drink and something that's a reference to what's

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in the drink next to it. And it's a super beautiful experience. Oh nice, I know Ikebana and I've seen

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this kind of Ikebana interactions in food, but not with drinks. That's amazing. Yeah, yeah, for sure.

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Like a cool bar where I was running a lab in a restaurant in Bolivia and this restaurant,

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part of the concept was not to use all the Bolivian ingredients. And you know, this was

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cool, especially at the bar because they wouldn't use any kind of foreign liquors nor soft drinks.

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And so no Coca-Cola was not allowed or this kind of drinks, you know. So everything was like,

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it was very organic driven, like making bitters or all kind of kombucha or fresh juices or all

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this kind of stuff, infusions and so on. And there was like this guy, his name is Josue Grajeda.

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He was like a young guy that learned in that bar. And this guy was like really super intuitive in

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the way of making cocktails. And I remember he went to like this national championship there.

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And I don't know if he won or got second place. I think he won actually. And this was like super

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cool, you know, to win a national contest without using any foreign liquors and working only with

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with bitters and macerations and this kind of stuff like that you did homemade. I think that's

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super cool that having a bar with that approach. Yeah, totally. I mean, I think that a lot of

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really interesting techniques came from, you know, bar culture. Like have you heard of like

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milk filtering sort of like infusions? No, I have no idea about that. Okay, so I don't know super

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well how to do it, but basically like you take a liquid and you mix it with milk and the fat from

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the milk sort of like absorbs like the sort of like particles in the liquid and then you filter it out

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like the the milk kind of like curdles in a way and then you filter out and you get a really,

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really clear liquid. So for example, you can do it with exactly an example with lemon, for example,

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and then you get like a super clear like water liquid that tastes like lemon, you know, and you're

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like, wow, this is this is really, really cool, you know, and then there's also you have older,

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you have a very, very clean flavor. Yeah, I imagine it filters a lot of stuff, but there's

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a lemon essence that you can see cleaner, right? Yeah, exactly. And like all these sort of like

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filtering and like sort of macerating techniques, you know, it's crazy like what's been happening

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in the bar world like these last couple of decades is insane. Yeah, also the Nordic influence, I think

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it's places like Empirical creating like a whole new direction and liqueurs. And also, I mean, this

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story I just told about Bolivia, this is completely a Nordic cuisine influence, you know, like having

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this approach of doing everything at home and not getting foreign produce and so on. Do you have any

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favorite mixologist or bartenders or someone you would like to mention? I mean, I'm a big fan of

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Charles Schumann, you know, the classic Charles Schumann. I mean, he's a if nobody knows, if you

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don't know Charles Schumann because of his work in gastronomy, then maybe you know him as a model

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for Davidoff and whatnot. He's a very, he's a style icon, you know, but he's a guy he's based in

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Bavaria in Munich and he is bar called Schumann's bar. It's been around forever and he wrote this

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sort of like cocktail companion called also Schumann's where he basically lists all the classic

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cocktails and how to make them. And he's just like, he's basically like the Eckart Witzigmann or the

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the Paul Bocuse of mixology. Yeah, like worldwide, not only Germany. Worldwide, worldwide. Yeah, but he's also just like,

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I also like him just because he's such a character. I met him when I was in Japan. Like I remember I was

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at this really, really nice bar called Bar Trench. This run by Rogério Igarashi. And it's also this

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like small neighborhood bar in Ebisu. Super, super nice. And it was the Tokyo Bar Convention.

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And we were at this bar, you know, with lots of mixologists, you know, people from Hendricks Gin

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and that sort of stuff. And Charles Schumann pulls up in a taxi outside of the bar and he gets out of

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the taxi wearing a completely sort of like wine red suit, you know, with his like gray hair slicked back.

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And he walked into the bar and he's kind of like, you know, the sort of like this like advertisement,

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the most important man in the world. Yeah, like a living God walking on earth and knowing it,

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you know, like, yeah, kind of like a little bit of a beard, gray hair, you know, like nice suit.

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And he's just sort of like the most charming guy you'll ever meet. But he's just like super

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authentic, you know, and like he stands for these, for these like old school principles of hospitality

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and, you know, things, simple things done well. And I really dig that. I really like that.

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That's it for this week's episode of potluck food talks. If you like what we're doing, make sure to

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