So imagine my delight when I was flipping through my social media account and discovered that they were offering a cocktail class at the end of the month! On Halloween evening, to be precise. Fortunately, I haven’t seen any trick-or-treaters at my house on Halloween in the past four years, so I felt free to call the bar and put my name on the class list.
Of course, shortly after I registered for that cocktail class, I discovered that there would also be a holiday cocktail class at the local distillery I visited with Little Z earlier in the month. Since that is one of my favorite places in the area, I registered for that class as well! I reasoned that it was okay to register for a second cocktail class because one would focus on classic craft cocktails and the other would focus on cocktails made with the distillery’s unique collection of spirits. Then again, the second class didn’t conflict with anything important on my schedule, so why not get out of the house for an evening?
Since the class at the local bar was on Halloween, there was really nothing keeping me late at the office that evening. I was among the first to arrive, so I picked an empty seat in the designated section. Almost as soon as I got settled, the woman two seats to my left beckoned me to sit right next to her so she had someone to talk with. I wasn’t really into that, but I figured I shouldn’t be rude. So I moved over and held up my end of the conversation.
The set up for the class was quite simple. They had designated about three-quarters of the bar area seating for the class, with a fancy coupe glass, a bag of candy, and two recipe cards set at each place. I’d say that, all said and done, about seven people participated in the class, which was just about the right number for each of us to get behind the bar and mix our drinks without the others getting too bored.
The format for the class was also quite simple. Matt, the cocktail expert, would talk for a few minutes, then show us how to mix one of the recipes, and then let us behind the bar to mix that recipe with their fancy booze and professional equipment. It was really just what I was hoping for!
Last Word
Once everyone had arrived, the class started with Bryson serving each of us a slender shot glass of Last Word. Matt advised that we sip on it (rather than shoot it) and explained how it was an equal parts cocktail composed of gin, lime juice, chartreuse, and maraschino. I had made one at home about two years ago, and declared that it wasn’t a joy to sip. But this one was! I suppose the difference between the two cocktails was that Bryson had shaken ours with ice, so it was both properly chilled and properly diluted. Since I tend not to have ice in my freezer, mine was neither.
After a few minutes of talking to establish his credibility behind the bar, Matt started us off with the Gin Martini, which he declared to be the original (and proper) way to make a martini. The recipe we would be using was a ratio of five parts gin to one part dry (white) vermouth. The bar’s standard Gin Martini was made with Tanqueray Ten, which Jen informed us was made in the number ten still at Tanqueray, but had only eight botanicals. However, Matt said that Plymouth Gin or Beefeater would be more affordable substitutes for use at home.
Because the cocktail was all spirits, we were going to learn how to mix it in a mixing glass. Matt did say that we didn’t need to use a professional or fancy mixing glass at home; we could just use the glass half of a Boston shaker. For a single drink, the ratio translated into two and a half ounces of gin to one-half ounce of dry vermouth. I started with healthy dash of orange bitters into the mixing glass. Since vermouth was the cheaper spirit, I measured that into the mixing glass next. Then I measured the gin. Matt filled the mixing glass with ice almost to its top. After a brief tutorial on how to mix with a bar spoon, I then stirred my mixing glass until the ice was down to the same level as the spirits. This was supposed to achieve the proper level of dilution. It was only supposed to take ten seconds to properly mix and dilute the drink; however, it took me longer because I had yet to perfect my technique with the bar spoon. Once the drink was properly mixed, I strained it with a julep strainer into a really fancy coupe glass so that the drink would not be unnecessarily warmed by contact with my hands.
I thought the Gin Martini was a very strong cocktail, or “spirit forward” as Matt called it. I did enjoy it while it was cold, which seemed to dull the alcoholic bite of the gin. That almost makes me rethink my attitude toward using ice to mix my drinks.
The set of ladies after me declared that they didn’t like gin and wouldn’t drink their Gin Martinis. Rather than have them waste alcohol, Matt easily found alternatives for them. One of the ladies liked vodka, so Matt had her mix a Vodka Martini, with a four to one ratio between vodka and dry vermouth. Since the other lady liked neither gin nor vodka, Matt had her mix a Manhattan, which was a five to one ratio of whiskey to red vermouth. While I wanted to really pay attention to what substitutions Matt was making, the woman next to me was intent on talking with me and I couldn’t be (too) rude to her.
Once we each had a turn behind the bar to mix our Gin Martinis, Matt moved on to the other cocktail on our recipe cards. While the origin and inventor of the Gin Martini are shrouded in mystery and pretty much lost to the sands of time, the Paper Plane has a distinct inventor and a short history. Sam Ross, the bartender who invented the Penicillin cocktail, invented the Paper Plane about ten years ago for the opening of the Violet Hour in Chicago. It was another equal parts cocktail like the Last Word, except it was composed of bourbon, lemon juice, Aperol, and Amaro Nonino. Since none of us had ever tried Amaro Nonino before (I was the only one who hd actually heard of it), Matt poured a shot glass of the straight amaro and let us pass it down the bar to taste with straws. I actually liked it; I thought it had a complex flavor that was reminiscent of bitter caramel and weak coffee. (Okay, that doesn’t sound appetizing, but you’ll have to trust me on this one.)
Because of the juice, the Paper Plane is shaken with ice and then strained with a Hawthorne strainer. I was pretty nervous about attempting the Paper Plane because I had never worked with a Boston shaker before. I have a cobbler shaker with an etched glass mixing cup at home, but it doesn’t seal all that great so I always shake it over the sink. So how was I supposed to have faith that I was going to get liquor all over the place by banging two stainless steel cups together? Fortunately, I got a great seal on my Boston shaker - and was actually able to bang the thing open after I had shaken my drink to death.
The Paper Plane was really good! At first, it tasted sour like the lemon juice, but then it tasted rather well balanced: not exactly like bourbon nor like any of its other parts. I would have never thought to mix Aperol with bourbon, but it really worked.
The Hartford Flavor Company Class
The cocktail class at the local distillery was held in the tasting room in the back, which was the same place that they held all their liqueur tasting panels. They had set up four folding tables, with seats for five or six people at each table. On each table were three unopened bottles of different liqueurs, as well as adorable little bottles of spirits and lengtheners. Glassware and plastic cups were arrayed at each end of the table so that we could drink the cocktail out of the proper glassware if we were so inclined.
Our hostesses for the cocktail class were Hilary, the Lady of the Lair, and Meaghan, the Spirit Synergist. They started off the session with an explanation of how the distillery came into being and an overview of their philosophy in making spirits. Basically, LeLaneia, the company founder, was getting sick from drinking cocktails because of the gluten and the additives in the spirits and mixers. So she used a recipe from the local newspaper to make a cranberry liqueur in her home, and eventually adapted that recipe to make a lavender liqueur using the herbs from her garden. One thing led to another, and she decided to devote herself to making gluten-free and additive-free liqueurs with unique flavors. Of course, after this introduction, Meaghan poured us each a sample of each of the seven flavors of liqueurs that the distillery produces. As usual, my favorite was their seasonal cranberry.
After the liqueur tasting, Hilary launched into the cocktail class, explaining that, traditionally, a cocktail is a drink composed of spirits, sugar, water, and bitters. However, making a cocktail nowadays basically involves taking a spirit, adding a liqueur (which counts as both the water and the sugar), and possibly adding a lengthener, such as seltzer, tonic, soda, or juice. Typically, drinks with juice, egg whites, or dairy are shaken and drinks with spirits only are stirred. That pretty much aligned with what Matt had said at Conspiracy, but it was good to hear it again.
Spiced Sangria
Our first drink used the Wild Moon Chai Spice liqueur. I was hopeful that I would like it because I had most of a bonus bottle at my house due to a lucky find at a liquor store near the office. The drink came together quite quickly. First, it started with the glass side of a Boston shaker being filled with ice. Then we added the liqueur, apple cider, red wine, and a squeeze of fresh orange. After sealing the tins together, the other woman on our half of the table gave it a good shake. I helped her unseal the tins using the trick that Matt had shown us in the other class. She was very good about evenly dividing the contents across the three of us.
I really liked the Spiced Sangria, although I thought it tasted more like a cold gluhwein than a sangria. Hilary agreed with me, that it also reminded her of the gluhwein served at the Christmas markets in Germany. In fact, she recommended making a batch of the drink in a low heat crockpot for winter holiday parties. (Fortunately, the recipe booklet included the scaled up version for the crockpot).
First Snow
The next cocktail that we mixed used Wild Moon Cucumber liqueur and vodka. Personally, I liked the cucumber liqueur in a Bloody Mary, so I knew it mixed well with vodka. The other ingredients in the drink included white cranberry juice, lemon juice, and rhubarb bitters. Unlike Matt’s recipes, this recipe wasn’t fussy about the order in which the ingredients were added to the glass portion of the Boston shaker. As long as the ice went in first! And it got shaken well…
I enjoyed the First Snow, which was a beautifully clear cocktail. The taste of the cucumber liqueur was pretty prevalent. At first I was unsure how I felt about the cucumber and the cranberry juice, but it began to grow on me.
Mistletoe
Our final cocktail used my favorite Wild Moon flavor, the seasonal cranberry. We were given a rosemary infused blanco tequila to mix with that, which smelled great. The drink was lengthened with both sour mix and lime juice, so it was much like a margarita. In fact, the drink was finished with a few dashes of orange bitters as a nod to the triple sec in the traditional margarita recipe. This was another recipe in which the glass portion of the Boston shaker got filled with ice, everything got added, and then it all got shaken to death. I actually shook it so much that it chilled to extent that we had to ask Hilary for help in cracking the shaker tins apart.
This was unquestionably my favorite cocktail because it reminded me so much of a good margarita, but wasn’t as sweet. Unfortunately, the amount of tequila used means that it will be too boozy to mix up as the aperitif at my family’s Thanksgiving. We’ll just stick with the mixture of cranberry liqueur, prosecco, and San Pellegrino limonata that we used last year.
The Verdict
During the cocktail class at my local bar, I had a great time talking with the ladies around me, picking Matt’s brain, and mixing cocktails behind the bar. And I loved the snacks that they served during the transition points in the class. Afterward, I chatted with the bartenders for about half an hour and then treated myself to a leisurely dinner at a Mexican restaurant downtown. I enjoyed the class so much that I would definitely work my schedule around attending the next one, if they make the class a monthly event.
I also had a great time during the cocktail class at the local distillery. One of the gentlemen at my table was a hilarious Englishman, who was attending the class solo because he got volunteered to bring cocktails to both his girlfriend’s family’s Thanksgiving feast in Massachusetts as well as to his family’s Christmas feast in England. I really enjoyed how cordial the three of us were down at our end of the table, and how generously we all shared in making and pouring the drinks. The other two were quite interested in the cocktail class that I had taken at the local bar, so I wouldn’t be surprised if I met them again at a future event there.
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