Spring Mixology Class at the Local Distillery

Since I didn’t want to end the fun of my California wine tasting adventure with the girls, I booked myself into a springtime mixology class at my local distillery for my first evening back in town. It wasn’t the most intelligent decision of my life, as I would be flying out on another trip at the crack of dawn on Saturday. I really should have gone home to unpack, run laundry, and repack in a leisurely fashion. But by the end of the work day, I still felt it might be a good idea to head out to the distillery (instead of back home).

The Event

Because the Capitol traffic was light, I arrived at the distillery about fifteen minutes early. But one of my favorite college friends called me as I was pulling into the distillery lot, so I parked and chatted with her until she arrived home. By the time I entered the distillery, the production space was all set up for the event, so I was able to pick a seat at the corner of a five person table and stay fairly out of the way. Shortly after I got settled, The Marys arrived and arranged themselves at the bench. The two ladies were very nice, but very quiet - right up until the end of the evening. A woman whose name I didn’t catch took the other end of the table. She was as loud as the Marys were quiet! But she was a former bartender and very local to the distillery so she knew lots of stuff…

This event was structured very similarly to their Fall mixology class and their St Valentine’s Day mixology class, which made me feel very comfortable. Hilary and her assistant Kelly poured each of us a sample of one of the liqueurs, then explained about the liqueur, and concluded with what other liquors that liqueur paired well with. For example, the cucumber liqueur is good for lightening up a darker spirit and the birch liqueur nicely complements aged spirits. When tasting these liqueurs I tried the “booze yoga” that Michael taught us during our visit to Napa Valley Distillery. Wouldn’t you know, it really worked! The flavors of the liqueur were surprisingly forward, which was pleasant because I usually taste the base alcohol when I drink the liqueur straight.

After we tried all the liqueurs, the class progressed into some mixology basics and demonstrations before we practiced mixing the recipes in the hand out. Because this was my third class, I pretty much knew the spiel. But I was polite and stayed quiet so that the Mary’s could learn something new.

The Lavender Spritzer

We started the evening with a Lavender Spritzer, which was built in a highball glass. Since the Mary nearest to me had never been to a cocktail class, I let her mix this drink and then separate it into two compostable plastic cups for each of us to enjoy. It was super simple to make; it began with muddling lemon wedges and mint leaves. The key was to muddle the mint leaves enough to release the flavorful oils, but so much so as to break the cell walls and release the chlorophyll. That’s what makes a muddled drink taste grassy. Once the muddling was complete, it was just a matter of adding in the lavender liqueur, the vodka, and the club soda. It was okay to add the club soda with the other ingredients because the drink was stirred in the glass rather than shaken in a cocktail shaker.

The Lavender Spritzer was a very pleasant drink. It was nice and light; the lavender and vodka were present but not overpowering. By the end of the night, the Mary nearest to me declared that this drink was her favorite. And the recipe is super flexible. If you substitute rum for the vodka, the drink becomes a Mojito. It is also possible to substitute basil or thyme leaves for the mint leaves, if that would better suit your tastes. I personally believe that the lavender liqueur could be replaced by one of the lighter liqueurs - rose, cucumber, lime - to personalize the drink even more.

The Emerald Isle

The distillery’s fresh twist on the Whiskey Sour was our second drink. I asked the Mary nearest to me if she wanted to mix the drink, but she deferred as she seemed to be intimidated by the Boston shaker. The drink was another very easy one. After filling the glass side of the shaker with ice, I added the cucumber liqueur and the Irish whiskey. My Mary selected a hearty sprig of tarragon and added that into the shaker. I then gave my Mary a brief tutorial on how to use a Boston shaker: take the glass portion of the shaker off the table, slap the metal part down onto the glass part, flip the shaker over, shake over whichever shoulder is comfortable, end with the metal part on the bottom, whack the junction of the two shakers to break the seal, lift the glass shaker off. Then we used the hawthorne strainer to separate the drink into our separate ice-filled plastic cups.

The Emerald Isle was almost my favorite drink because I love a good whiskey sour, even one made from my Mom’s frozen lemonade recipe. The tarragon flavor was quite faint - even with the full sprig of tarragon. In fact, the other side of the table mixed their cocktail with basil leaves, and theirs tasted no different. If I were to make this again, I would definitely use more herbs and shake more vigorously to ensure that the herbal flavor came through. Much like the Lavender Spritzer, the herbs could be varied to suit personal tastes. Tarragon and basil work the best, but that recommendation should not stifle creativity.

The Peach Blossom

Our third and final drink was extremely similar to the third drink - the Love Potion - at the previous mixology class on St Valentine’s Day. The primary ingredients were reposado tequila, rose liqueur, and the lemon juice. That all got measured over ice in the glass potion of the Boston shaker and shaken hard. Even though I had given my Mary a basic tutorial on the shaker, she still preferred that I shake the drink. So I did! After shaking the drink like a crazy woman, I added the peach soda to the shaker and then strained the drink into our separate plastic cups.

This version of the drink was so good! The shifted proportions of tequila and rose liqueur made the drink taste less strongly of tequila, which was what kind of put me off of the Love Potion. But the addition of the peach soda was what really took it over the top. It was just a normal brand of peach soda, which Hilary said was available at local supermarkets, but it was so good that I asked if I could take the rest of the bottle home with me. I may have to add that to my grocery shopping list on my next trip!

New Experiments at the Distillery

As usual, the best part of the mixology class was talking with Hilary about the new projects.

Hilary talked about the distillery’s barrel aging project to the entire group. The production space had been rearranged to move the stainless steel production barrels off to one side and to place three wooden barrels in the center of the space. One of the barrels was a wet charred American oak barrel from the Litchfield Distillery leftover from their bourbon aging process. That barrel was being used to create another batch of barrel aged birch. The first batch was released the same day as the Chocolate Chinese New Year dinner party, and I couldn’t resist ducking out from party preparations to pick up two bottles - one for me and one for Bea’s whiskey loving sister. The second barrel was a Laphroiag barrel, which is a super peaty Islay Scotch. This barrel was refilled with cranberry liqueur, which makes sense because of the recommended pairing of cranberry and whiskey. The third and final barrel was an aged tequila barrel, which was refilled with rose liqueur. I’m particularly looking forward to that one because I’ve really enjoyed the two rose and tequila cocktails that I’ve learned in the mixology classes. The target release date for all three barrel aged liqueurs is early May 2019.

After the mixology class finished, and the other tables moved on to playing with the spirits and liqueurs, I managed to corner Hilary and ask about the progress about bringing the new flavors to market. Much to my delight, Hilary ushered me to the back of the production area into an expanded research and development area. She was super excited to show me the approved logos for Wild Moon Botanics. Apparently, they couldn’t launch a completely new line, so they incorporated the Wild Moon name into the logo. Since I last talked with Hilary at the St. Valentine’s Day class, the four new flavors are still the seven lemons, sumac, roasted dandelion root, and I’m struggling to recall the fourth liqueur. Recipes for all four of these new flavors have been approved by the FDA; however, the labels are still under review. According to Hilary, it recently took approximately nine months to launch their lime flavor, and about four months of that time was required for FDA label approval. The plan is to have the recipes produced, bottled, and labeled by the summertime. So there may be a launch party in my future!!! Although I’m not really too thrilled about roasted dandelion root, which I thought was repulsive at the final tasting panel last fall.

Before she returned to the rest of the group, Hilary directed my attention to the newest batch of anti-inflammatory experiments that were stacked on top of the refrigerator. The new research brought back two of the experiments from the May tasting panel: turmeric and orris root. Although Hilary didn’t show her cards about the new turmeric formulation, she was effusive about the new orris root formulation. To my best recollection, orris root is supposed to have a delicate violet flavor, as it was used in violet hard candies in Victorian England. What Hilary got me excited about with the new formulation of the orris root liqueur was the addition of butterfly pea flowers. Butterfly pea flower extract is what gives Empress Gin its beautiful deep purple color: therefore, its inclusion in the orris root formulation also turned that liqueur a stunning royal purple. The most stunning aspect of the butterfly pea flower extract is that it transforms into a bright pink color when it comes in contact with an acid, like tonic water or lemon juice. In fact, Hilary recommend that I come back for another distillery tour so that I can try their Metamorphosis cocktail, which uses a butterfly pea flower gin and is served with a lemon wedge on the side so that the drinker can control their own color change experience.

The Verdict

I was glad that they kept the same format as the previous two classes, as it worked out really nicely for me. By now, I’m pretty well versed in the history of the company (it started because the founder had to keep gluten free) and in the different liqueurs (cucumber uses 250 pounds of South Glastonbury cucumbers, which means that there is about one and one half cucumbers in each bottle). But it is fun to meet new people and see how they react to the different liqueurs. And I absolutely love getting the inside scoop on what is going on at the distillery.

In the end, I was happy to have gotten out of the house for a few hours to learn some new things and to meet some new people. Especially since I’d probably consider making all three of the recipes at home. I have all the bottles that I need!