Episode 068

Not something you come across every day at the grocery store.

After sampling this tangy, tropical-tasting vinegar, our five courageous bartenders immediately set to work crafting their first drinks.

Andrew and Jeff apparently had the same idea – following the sourness and tropical notes to their logical conclusion in a Junglebird cocktail – something that normally calls for lime and pineapple juice. Meanwhile, Sam put together a refreshing whiskey sour, and Phil made an original cocktail using Catoctin Creek’s pear brandy and a Chartreuse-soaked herbal garnish.

Once prepared, the cocktails were lined up before the three judges, Catoctin Creek International portfolio manager Chad Robinson, Brian Jenkins owner of local restaurant Monk’s BBQ, and Trevor Baratko, editor in chief of the Loudon Times-Mirror.

As predicted before the competition, Samet busted out his cocktail smoking rig and got to work smoking some of Catoctin Creek’s Roundstone Rye whiskey. He used apple wood, which is a lighter, more delicate smoke than something like a mesquite or a hickory that you would expect to find more commonly in barbeque dishes.

Visually, a smoked cocktail is really exciting. It’s a head-turner and everyone at the bar is going to notice when you break out the smoking gun. It’s something akin to ordering a dish that’s prepared table-side with an open flame at a nice restaurant.

Unfortunately, the smoked cocktail didn’t receive any votes from the judges. And here’s why.

While all eyes were on Samet, Jeff Berry was quietly consorting with a bottle of our Liquid Gold Ancient Trade Bitters. He paired them with the snake oil hot sauce, Roundstone Rye, Green Chartreuse, Ginger, and Lime, with a fresh sage & basil garnish.

And this makes a lot of sense. Indian dishes are often very hot and spicy, and they rely on ingredients like turmeric, fenugreek, holy basil, and cardamom (all of which are present in the Liquid Gold bitters) to round out that flavor profile and curb the heat a bit.

This earned Jeff two points, while Phil took the third point of the round.

Round 3

After round two, Phil and Jeff were tied for the lead with two points apiece, and Andrew and Sam were close behind, each with one point. And that meant that anybody could still win with a strong enough showing in round 3.
The secret ingredient for this final round was salt with grasshoppers and agave worms (or “Sal de Gusanos y Chapulin,” en espanol).

So first we had Paw-Paw vinegar (sour and fruity), then we had hot sauce (spicy and savory), and now we had this smoky, salty concoction with just a little “ick” factor courtesy of the worms and bugs.

During the final round, Samet drew from his experience working at a chocolate-driven restaurant to create a salted-chocolate old fashioned, which drew some nice attention from the judges. Jeff broke out the Cynar to try and offset that funky salt with some of bitterness and herbal sweetness. Meanwhile, Sam whipped up a tequila-driven negroni variation, and phil broke out the egg whites and produced a gin sour with a salted rim.

And the Winner Is…

In the end, it wasn’t flashiness that won the day. It wasn’t smoke. And it wasn’t complexity.

It was consistency.

By scoring a point in each of the three rounds, Phil Duong of AhSo in Brambleton, creator of that amazing gin sour, took home the win for himself and his bar.

Acknowledgments

Thanks for tuning in to this special episode of the Modern Bar Cart Podcast. We had a lot of fun putting this one together, and we’d like to start doing more interactive and in-depth pieces like this. So if you’re located in the Mid-Atlantic and you’ve got a cocktail-related event you’d like us to catalog, please drop us a line by emailing podcast@modernbarcart.com.

We’d like to thank Catoctin Creek Distilling Company (especially Denise Petty, Lauren Barrett, Chad Robinson, and Scott & Becky Harris) for being excellent partners and for hosting this terrific event. And we’d also like to applaud them for donating a portion of the proceeds to CORE (Children of Restaurant Employees), which is a charitable organization that lends a helping hand when children with service industry parents experience life-altering events.

If you’re looking to host an event like this, please consider following their lead and selecting a good cause that can benefit from a night of amazing cocktails.

Creative Commons Attributions

• Past Catching Up by Lee Rosevere is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
• Awkward Silences (version a) by Lee Rosevere is licensed under a Attribution License.
• Puzzle Pieces by Lee Rosevere is licensed under a Attribution License.
• “I’m Going for a Coffee” by Lee Rosevere is licensed under a Attribution License.
• “Tiki Room Rendezvous” by Lee Rosevere is licensed under a Attribution License.