Cheers

www.cheersonline.com 29 APRIL 2014 | cocktail ($17) mixes rum, simple syrup, Peychaud's bitters and drops of Fresno tincture with claried lime and watermelon juices. "e drink is see-through, but still bright red as watermelon," Melton says. MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE "Molecular mixology is a tool we can all use to deliver a fantastic eect into a cocktail to enhance the experience of the guest," says Juan Coronado, cocktail innovator for the 16 concepts of chef José Andrés' inkFoodGroup. Coronado strives to incorporate innovative and striking techniques in relatable ways for the guest. At Barmini, the 23-seat bar adjacent to Andrés' molecular gastronomy-focused restaurant Minibar in Washington, D.C., several cocktails on the 100-drink menu use scientic techniques. One is a variation of the reverse-spherication technique created by El Bulli chef Ferran Adrià in 2003. Reverse spherication requires no special equipment, but it does call for some chemicals not typically found at the bar. To make the garnish for the La Bionda cocktail ($15), Barmini bartenders puree re-roasted red peppers and mango and add to water, sugar and calcium chloride. ey then spoon the puréed mixture into a bath of water mixed with sodium alginate powder. e purée reacts by forming a thin, neutral-tasting membrane around itself, trapping the liquid inside. Spheres can be prepped in advance, stored in the same liquid used to make them, and removed with a slotted spoon as needed when mixing a drink. Guests sip the cocktail, and then eat the sphere at the end. SPHERIFIED SHOTS AND BOMBS Another D.C. spot, the 90-seat Izakaya above ramen house Daikaya, oers speres called Dai-drops. Chef Katsuya Fukushima, who worked at Minibar with Andrés, came up with the idea of molecularizing the Sake Bomb. He created Dai-drops by adding yuzu juice to Geikkeikan sake to impart opacity and citrus avor. e mixture is reverse spheried, and frozen into semispheres with a pastry mold. e frozen sake mold is then immersed in an algin bath to make gelatin spheres. Priced at $7 (or six for $35) the Dai-drops are served either in a short glass of Sapporo lager, or in house-made ginger beer with Angostura bitters. Guests are instructed to bite down lightly on the sphere when taking the last sip, so that the sake mixes with the beer. Daikaya bar manager Lukas Smith makes the spheres in advance for instant gratication for guests. "Sure, it's 'fancy' and texturally quite dierent than what they're used to," he admits, "but it also means the guests don't have to wait." Smith estimates that he explains the process of spherication about 30 times a week to guests whose interest in piqued in what they just tasted. e reimagining of a shot and a chaser is a current molecular mixology trend, says Marcos Tello, partner for Los Angeles- based cocktail consulting rm Tello Demarest Liquid Assets. Also the brand ambassador for Mezcal El Silencio, Tello is currently working on a spheried sangrita chaser dropped into a shot of mezcal. is is just one example of how "molecular mixology is the science of changing the format of how we normally drink something," he says. In this case, what's generally poured as a liquid is instead served as a solid, Tello notes. PEARLS OF WISDOM Spherication can also create gel-like "pearls" or "caviar." Coronado uses a syringe, pipette or a glass jar with a metal lid (typically used for red pepper akes or parmesan cheese) to dispense a liquid mixture into the sodium algin bath, which then become small balls. ese pearls can be added to sparkling wine or other cocktails to great visual eect and avor. At McCrady's, a 170-seat modern American restaurant in Charleston, SC, bartender Ryan Casey creates pearls of St. Germain, rhubarb liqueur and beets for his State Street Pearl cocktail ($14). "We start with dried tapioca pearls, and through a proprietary process, ll them with full-spirit alcohol; each batch takes three days to properly prepare," he says. e pearls are then dropped into the drink, which is made with gin, Aperol, Mountain Dew vinegar and lemon, and The garnish for Barmini's La Bionda cocktail (above) is a sphere filled with a fire-roasted red pepper and mango puree. THINK FOOD GROUP 28-31 molecular mixology CH0414.indd 29 4/4/2014 11:21:20 AM

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