Episode 238

From Sorghum, with Love

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From Sorghum, with Love

Episode 238

What’s shakin, cocktail fans? Welcome to Episode 238 of The Modern Bar Cart Podcast!

Thanks for joining us for another interview episode, where we track down the best and brightest minds in the spirits and cocktail world so that we can share their secrets with you. This time around, I’m joined by Lars Williams and Mark Emil Hermansen, the co-founders of Empirical, a company that makes category-defying spirits designed to evoke poignant memories and spur positive change on a whole bunch of different levels.

In this wide-ranging conversation with Lars Williams and Mark Emil Hermansen of Empirical, some of the topics we discuss include:

How Mark and Lars met and bonded while working at the world-renowned Nordic Food Lab at the Michelin-star restaurant, Noma, and then spun their passion and expertise into a project that bottles flavorful memories.
Why Empirical is referred to as a “Flavor Company,” as opposed to a distillery, rectifier, spirits purveyor, or any other typical moniker.
The research and flavor building process that led to the development of their newest product: Soka, a spirit made using the fresh-pressed juice of sorghum cane, which they’re using as a way to spread the word about this regenerative, nitrogen-fixing crop.
Why the density of flavor packed into these Empirical spirits impacts the way that they can be used in cocktails, specifically where sweetness is concerned.
How Lars and Mark think about scaling the impact of their partnerships with farmers, using their adventures in Oaxaca as a case study for creating spirits that not only capture the flavor of a place, but also find ways to give back to it.
Along the way, we explore sensory pathways in the brain, the importance of a beginner’s mindset, the socioeconomics of pasilla chiles, and much, much more.

Featured Cocktail: The 21st Century

This episode’s featured cocktail is a riff on a post-Prohibition, but still classic cocktail called The 20th Century Cocktail. Basically, we had an idea for a drink using the Soka spirit that we taste in this episode, but we wanted to see if there was already a template out there for it. And there kinda is, so we took it and modified it for our purposes.

The original 20th Century Cocktail was first published in Billy Tarling’s Cafe Royal cocktail book in 1937, and created by British bartender C.A. Tuck in honor of the 20th Century Limited Train that ran for decades between New York and Chicago. The original version contained gin, Lillet, creme de cacao, and lemon juice. But taking a cue from some pointed advice from Mark that we’ll hear later on, we decided to dial down on the sweetness. So to make my version of this drink, which we’ll just lazily call the 21st Century Cocktail, you’ll need:

1.5 oz Soka Sorghum spirit
¾ oz of Lemon Juice
¾ oz of Lillet Blanc or a similar lightly sweet, grapey aperitif
A few dashes of our Embitterment Lavender Bitters

Combine these ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice, give em a good, hard shake, then double strain into a chilled coupe glass, garnish with a lemon twist, and enjoy.

Essentially, this is a simplified 20th century cocktail without the creme de cacao and with the Soka in place of gin. Finally, we opted for the lavender bitters as a finishing touch, where the floral note plays well with the bouquet of verdant flavors in the Soka. Overall, if you do end up playing with the Soka, you’ll probably want to immediately experiment with it in your favorite gin, rum, and agave sour cocktails…and you absolutely should because it’s fantastic. So be sure to tag us on Instagram @modernbarcart with your creations, whether you decide to try this rendition or strike out on your own adventure.

This episode was made possible with editing and sound design by Samantha Reed and flavor insights courtesy of Lars Williams and Mark Emil Hermansen, co-founders of Empirical. This has been a Modern Bar Cart production, copyright 2022.

This episode is also brought to you by Near Country Provisions. If you live in the Mid-Atlantic and want to enjoy ethically raised (and delicious) meat from local farmers delivered to your door every month, then you need Near Country in your life.

Head over to NearCountry.com and enter the code BARCART when you sign up for your subscription to receive 2 free pounds of bacon or ground beef in your first delivery.

From Sorghum, with Love

Featured Cocktail: The 21st Century

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