What’s shakin, cocktail fans?
Welcome to episode 121 of The Modern Bar Cart Podcast!
This time around, we catch up with our friend Mark Vierthaler (@whiskyicarus), who is the head distiller over at Tenth Ward Distilling Co. in historic Frederick, Maryland. Our conversation revolves around the history and craft of one of the world’s most controversial spirits: Absinthe.
Some of the things we discuss in this interview include:
How Mark came to be the head distiller at Tenth Ward Distilling Co., and why their innovative approach to distilling made absinthe a really attractive choice as an anchor point in their core collection of products.
What it’s like to build a flavor profile with herbs and botanicals that go through several phases of different distillation treatments. We cover where this can go wrong, and how to know when you finally get something right.
Then we jump into the murky history of absinthe, which begins in mainland Europe, makes a splash across the world in the post-phyloxera drinking landscape, and then is forced underground for much of the 20th century.
We teach you how to operate an absinthe fountain to louche and dilute your absinthe, with or without the traditional sugar cube.
We debate the costs and benefits of the absinthe rinse method vs. the atomizer approach when building a Sazerac.
And we even attempt to put to rest some of the apocryphal stories and malicious smear campaigns that kept absinthe out in the cold until very recently
This episode’s featured cocktail is the absinthe frappe. This classic drink – popular in New Orleans and the Southern U.S., is basically a quick and dirty variation on classic absinthe service. So instead of the fancy absinthe fountain with your slotted absinthe spoon and your sugar cube and your ice water drip, you make the absinthe frappe the way a bartender makes a shaken drink.
To create this cocktail, you’ll need:
1-2 oz absinthe
½ oz simple syrup
1-2 oz soda water
Combine the absinthe and simple syrup in a cocktail shaker with ice. Give em a quick, vigorous shake, then strain into your cocktail glass over crushed or pebble ice, top it with your soda water, and enjoy through a fancy straw.
There are a few acceptable variations on this drink where other ingredients are thrown in. Some versions call for muddling lemon and/or mint into the bottom of the glass before you mix the drink. And others even call for additional anisette ingredients, like Herbsaint or Pernod.
In the end, the Absinthe Frappe is a simple, refreshing drink that operates kind of like an old fashioned. The simple syrup is your sweetener, and your absinthe plays the role of both the spirit and the bitters due to the influence of wormwood as a flavoring and bittering agent.
The Sazerac. It was the cocktail that made me fall in love with absinthe. Visit Cane & Table or Bar Tonique for a good Sazerac in New Orleans.
Bitters. A little bit of me goes a long way.
My Dad, who passed away unexpectedly a couple years ago. Dad was a huge, huge supporter of me as I passed through four or five different careers. Dad was never a big cocktail guy…but as my professional life developed into distillation and cocktails, he threw himself into it.
The Drunken Botanist – Amy Stewart
Liquid Intelligence – Dave Arnold
The Distiller – Harrison Hall
The Flavor Bible – Karen Page, Andrew Dornenburg
Absinthe: History in a Bottle – Barnaby Conrad III
Absinthe: The Exquisite Elixir – Betina J. Whittles
The Absinthe Encyclopedia – David Nathan-Maister
The Wormwood Society Absinthe Association (Online Resource)
