www.cheersonline.com
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APRIL 2014
28
Enhance the customer experience with
molecular mixology techniques
By Kelly A. Magyarics
F
rom foams and airs to gel-like spheres and dry ice-induced
clouds, molecular mixology is heating up bars nationwide.
While some processes involve expensive and complicated
equipment, you can accomplish science-inspired cocktails with
a few common kitchen tools and easy-to-order ingredients.
Just as bartenders are learning more about molecular
mixology, guests are increasingly savvy about and excited to
see these techniques in action. And experts say that you can
add modern, avant-garde air to libations, no matter the size or
scope of a bar or drinks program.
"Molecular mixology is using culinary technique to add
experiential elements to cocktails," explains Micah Melton,
chef de cuisine at e Aviary in Chicago. e 85-seat, culinary-
focused bar oers a prix xe menu of ve cocktails ($135) or 10
cocktails ($165), each paired with a small dish.
Many drinks on the menu use molecular mixology techniques.
Melton believes clarication and distillation are the category's
latest trends.
Distillation, for instance, has the capability to completely
change a avor. For his One Horned Wonder ($20), a 22-oz
beer cocktail, Melton juices Fresno peppers and places them in
a rotary evaporator, which boils the juice through vacuum and
heat. e steam travels into a column, where it is cooled and
condensed into a crystal-clear liquid.
Color, acidity, salt, sweetness and spice do not vaporize, so all
that remain are the volatile aromas and avors. e end result is
a liquid that tastes like biting into a chili pepper that has great
avor without the heat, he says.
Melton uses the same technique for his Root Beer cocktail
($17); the spicy soda is distilled until clear, and then mixed with
rum, Fernet Branca, sassafras caramel and Angostura bitters.
e Aviary also claries juice by either adding gelatin or agar
agar, which turns it to gel. Freezing and thawing the gel allows
the solids to become suspended by the gelatin or agar agar, and
the water drips away.
Clarication results in transparent, not cloudy, juices that
don't oxidize as quickly. For instance, e Aviary's Dune Buggy
Science-Inspired Sips
The Italian Stallion cocktail at The Aviary in Chicago, made with
frozen blood orange, apertivo, fernet, egg white, mezcal and rye.
THINK
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