Episode 136

From Elixir to Mixers

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From Elixir to Mixers

Episode 136

What’s shakin, cocktail fans?

Welcome to Episode 136 of The Modern Bar Cart Podcast!

This time around, we catch up with drinks entrepreneur and spirits educator H. Joseph Ehrmann, proprietor of the legendary San Francisco bar, Elixir, and one of the driving forces behind Fresh Victor, an awesome, fresh-juice-based cocktail mixer line that’s been making waves in the beverage community.

Some of the topics we discuss with H include:

How he combined his culinary art, general contracting, and business administration, and PR skills to resurrect one of San Francisco’s oldest and most storied bars.
Some reflections on his career so far, from winning cocktail competitions, to becoming a certified Cognac and rum educator, to being featured on the cover of the New York Times.
The difference between generalists and specialists in the spirits and cocktail space, and why the best generalists are very often secret specialists and insatiable learners.
What it’s like to launch a juiced-based mixer company – focusing on his latest project: Fresh Victor.
Some thoughts on spirits judging: in particular, what we’re excited about at this year’s ADI annual judging of craft spirits.
The crazy reality of being able to trace a barrel shortage through the years simply by listening to your palate
And much, much more.

For info and updates, you can follow Elixir (@elixirsf) and Fresh Victor (@freshvictorcocktails) on Instagram or visit their websites by following the links above.

We love this drink because it’s very balanced–using intense flavors like smoke, grapefruit, and peppercorns and then integrating them into a classic sour cocktail. It showcase’s H’s background, but it also advances the conversation about using fresh ingredients to jazz up tried and true drink formats. If you head on over to Elixir, H’s bar in the Mission District of San Francisco, you can try this cocktail for yourself.

Featured Cocktail: Pamplemousse au Poivre

This episode’s featured cocktail is the Pamplemousse au Poivre, the drink that H created to win the cocktail branch of the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. To make it, you’ll need:

2 ounces good-quality mezcal
1 ounce Giffard Pamplemousse Rose (pink grapefruit) liqueur
1/2 ounce Marie Brizard Poivre de Sichuan (Sichuan pepper) liqueur
1/2 ounce lemon juice
1 dash grapefruit bitters (if you don’t have those, you can always substitute a dash or two of our Embitterment Orange Bitters)

Combine these ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake until well chilled, strain into a stemmed cocktail class, and garnish with a lemon zest cone filled with pink peppercorns.

Show Notes

Eric caught up with H at the American Distilling Institute’s Annual Judging of Craft Spirits, where distillers, bartenders, and spirits experts from around the world gather to evaluate products made primarily by small producers. The neat thing about this judging event is that judges provide detailed feedback to producers, which can really help new operations improve the quality of their products and keep craft spirits competitive.

Fresh Victor

H has spent a lot of time recently helping to grow Fresh Victor, a line of fresh-juice-based cocktail mixers designed to create delicious, high-quality cocktails even in higher-volume settings. Fresh Victor eliminates the need to have staff members spend hours behind the bar juicing citrus and fresh ingredients by hand. With the perfect ratio of sweetness, citrus, and herbal notes, you can simply combine Fresh Victor mixers with spirits at a 2:1 ratio (mixer : spirit), or use them in combination with other ingredients to create your own mixological creation.

Check out this info deck to learn more about Fresh Victor, and keep an eye out for these products behind the bar at a venue near you. You can download a PDF version of this deck here.

From Elixir to Mixers

Featured Cocktail: Pamplemousse au Poivre

Show Notes

Fresh Victor

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