Strange Cocktail Ingredients

Today’s topic is unusual cocktail ingredients – either those you’ve tasted in a cocktail, or those you’d like to see used more often.

I think many of us have had the experience of sitting down at one of the more experimental cocktail bars in our area, looking at the menu, and saying: “You’ve got to be kidding me. How the heck are they gonna use that in a cocktail?” And the results – in reality – are usually mixed. Sometimes the unusual ingredients are well-incorporated, and the drink is tasty, and sometimes it’s just there for the novelty factor, and the drink isn’t balanced.

Our guests for this episode include:

• Charlie Berkinshaw of Element Shrub
• Josh Wulf of the Wulf Cocktail Den
• Maria Littlefield of The Owl’s Brew
• Chris Kiertz from Socktails
• Valerie Echeveste from Cocktails + Craft
• Jordan Wicker of the Speaking Easy Podcast

“Balancing salt with different flavors in a way that is palatable is something I’m interested in because I haven’t done well with it myself, but I’m also highly critical of it when I purchase a drink at a bar.”

— JORDAN WICKER

“I don’t have a bartending background, so a lot of our cocktails are inspired by the food that we make, and so I wanted to do a fun riff on a chicken soup.”

— CHARLIE BERKINSHAW

“I’ve had a sesame old fashioned, and that’s one of the best drinks I’ve ever had. You really don’t need a whole lot of sesame to make it come through.”

— CHRIS KIERTZ

“I had a bone marrow Negroni once, and I think that’s probably the most unusual thing I’ve ever had.”

— MARIA LITTLEFIELD

“Horseradish is and can be a beautiful thing. But like many ingredients, you’ve got to be judicious about how much you use, otherwise it can ruin everything. ”

— JOSH WULF

“I’ve seen pine needles used in cocktails. And so I’m really interested in bringing more of an earthy, kind of holiday feeling into the glass.”

— VALERIE ECHEVESTE