Bennett Zerull Rhet 1312 Section 3 Dr.

Harris The Future of Cocktails How many cocktails can you name? Singapore Sling, Cosmopolitan, Dirty Martini Up, Blue Hawaiian, Lemon Drop, Kamikaze, Long Island Ice Tea, Tom Collins, Margarita, Old Fashioned, and countless more. The world of professional bartending is a world of numerous and ever changing drinks recipes. What is popular one day, is forgotten the next, only to be revived back into popularity years later. Just like in cooking, there is no right way to make a drink. The recipe can be varied, as long as the drink is mixed properly and consistent. This can be seen by going to the Food Network website. There are 167 different recipes for Sangria on this website alone (foodnetwork.com). All of these recipes are technically correct. Sangria is a red or white wine cocktail mixed with fruit juices. Depending on how it is made, Sangria can either be turned into a white wine peach Sangria, as well as a red wine mango Sangria. Both are considered correct. The knowledge behind making Sangria comes from Mixology, the art and skill of crafting alcoholic beverages (merriam-webster.com). Mixology itself is not so much a field of study as it is a passion. I have taken a class with the Arkansas Bartending School on mixology however, it was not a degree I earned, it was a certificate of completion. The class taught me proper portion amounts, gave me insight into what ingredients mix best with other ingredient, and different substitutions I could use in recipes that will still have a consistent taste. While I found the class useful, anybody mixing their own drinks at home can consider themselves a mixologist. Ultimately mixology is encouraging us to be creative and to invent new drinks. But what consists of a new drink? The Asian restaurant I work for asked me to create a happy hour signature drink that was Asian themed and unique, something a guest would not be able to find at another restaurant. I created a drink I named The Moment of Zen. The drink uses coconut rum, pineapple juice, sprite, and blue curacao to create a turquoise blue, coconut tasting cocktail. Im proud of what I came up with, however when researching how to market the drink, I found out

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Bennett Zerull Rhet 1312 Section 3 Dr. Harris that I had not actually created anything new at all. All I had done was reinvent the Blue Hawaiian with coconut rum. So my unique cocktail was actually just a variation on an older recipe. Upon doing more research, I found out that most new drinks are just variations of older ones. You can rename anything and say its new. But what if I want to make a cocktail that no one has ever even conceived of before. Is mixology capable of creating anything innovative that will change the way cocktails are made, or has the industry become stagnant? This question would soon pose easier to ask then answer. The first thing I did was I went to search the internet. This search was not helpful at all. After 3 hours of searching, all I was able to come up with was database, after database, showing off different variations on cocktails. I cannot count the number of recipes I found for a Mai Tai, and almost all were different from the recipe I know off the top of my head. I found so much information regarding new recipes and variations to cocktails that depending on which site I was currently on, the information contradicted other sites. So the concept of a new cocktail was maybe too vague to search for. I narrowed this search to innovative cocktails in mixology, and yet had no luck. For a second I thought that I had answered the question. The industry had become stagnant and too oversaturated with variation. Almost everything that was coming out was new, yet nothing was innovative. I almost scrapped this essay and started over, when I decided to give one last search, and try the UALR library databases. That was where I found my first useful information. It was a short article comprised mostly of pictures in Time Magazine, by Lisa McLaughlin. The article was titled Molecular Mixology, and it briefly described how molecular gastronomy was being used in mixology to create new alcoholic items such as whiskey marshmallows (McLaughlin, Time). The article was not too descriptive but it did give me a focus. I had heard of molecular gastronomy but Ill admit I knew nothing about it. So what is Molecular Gastronomy? Returning to the internet, Wikipedia says that Molecular Gastronomy is a subdiscipline of food science that seeks to investigate, explain and make practical use of the physical and chemical

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Bennett Zerull Rhet 1312 Section 3 Dr. Harris transformations of ingredients that occur while cooking, as well as the social, artistic and technical components of culinary and gastronomic phenomena in general. (Molecular gastronomy). Essentially molecular gastronomy is using science to cook food. The term Molecular Gastronomy was coined in 1992 by Nicholas Kurti and Herv This (Molecular gastronomy). The rest of the Wikipedia article talks about the history and precursors of molecular gastronomy, as well as its objectives, style in cooking, as well as chiefs building their fame in this field. The part I found most interesting was the tools, ingredients, and techniques coming out of the field. The site talks about Carbon dioxide sources, for adding bubbles and making foams, and how these foams can also be made with an immersion blender. That liquid nitrogen can be used for flash freezing and shattering food. It describes anti-griddles used for cooling and freezing ingredients, as well as thermal immersion circulators for sous-vide (low temperature cooking). As well as how food dehydrators, centrifuge and so much more are being used to create new tastes (Molecular gastronomy). While, all of this knowledge is fascinating, it does not bridge the gap between molecular gastronomy and mixology. So how are the two interconnected? Back at the UALR library databases, I found another article in the Atlantic Monthly titled The High-Tech Highball by Wayne Curtis. The article discussed the work of Craig Schoettler a cocktail chef at the Aviary in Chicago. According to the article, Schoettler is working on a cocktail development program that the author of the article, Curtis, describes as a Think Tank. (Curtis, Atlantic Monthly). Schoettler and the other bartender are undertaking Molecular Mixology, a branch of the cuisine trend molecular gastronomy, by researching how ingredients might work together to form new and interesting combinations. (Curtis, Atlantic Monthly). Curtis was given the chance to try some of Schuettlers work. He states, ...the Black -Truffle Negroni, a twist on the classic cocktail made with truffle-infused gin and served with a disconcerting bit of floating fungus...The first sip was like a step into an Arabian tent furnished with elaborate

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Bennett Zerull Rhet 1312 Section 3 Dr. Harris carpets and tassels... (Curtis, Atlantic Monthly). He discussed how Schuettler plays with the taste of these drinks to allow them to change overtime. He describes, One memorable drink, called the Blueberry, was served out of an elegant flat-sided carafe called a porthole. The carafe was filled with herbs, spices, dried citrus peels, and tea leaves before being topped off with rye whiskey, vermouth, and verjus, a sour juice pressed from unripe grapes. On the table, the potion had the look of a steampunk Victorian horticultural display, on the palate, it grew more powerful and complex by the minute. (Curtis, Atlantic Monthly). The way Curtis describes Craig Schoettlers work is almost unreal. Ive worked as a bartender for 2 years now and I have no idea how to make a drink that, in Curtis words, ...evolved as I drank it. (Curtis, Atlantic Monthly). This article was published in September of 2011, so almost exactly two years later was when I found it. Lots of things can change in two years and this leads me to wonder, where is Craig Schoettler now, and is his work becoming the future of Mixology? Fortunately, finding Craig Schoettler is significantly easier than finding new cocktails on the internet. Just typing his name into a Google search will pull up a Twitter account full of photos of fantastic cocktail creations by the mixologist master himself. I also managed to find an article published to the Vegas section of eater.com. The article is called Aria's Cocktails Are Getting a Craig Schoettler Makeover, by Susan Stapleton, and was published on July 12, 2013. Eater.com is a website with articles for food industry insiders about new resturants, famous chefs, and up incoming chefs to watch. The article talks about how Schoettler has left his job at the Aviary in Chicago and had moved to the Aria in New Vegas. The author, Stapleton, calls Schoettler The man with an encyclopedic knowledge of classic cocktails and how to tweak them. (Aria's Cocktails Are Getting a Craig Schoettler Makeover). She states that he brought over some of the nifty bartending tools he commanded a liquid nitrogen tank, an immersion circulator and vac-pots. He developed an ice program. He redid the entire cocktail program with thoughtful drinks such as grower Champagnes, cordials, rare bottlings from the members-only

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Bennett Zerull Rhet 1312 Section 3 Dr. Harris Scotch Malt Whisky Society international microbrews and esoteric wines." (Aria's Cocktails Are Getting a Craig Schoettler Makeover). It is quite clear that Craig Schoettlers career has taken off, as he moves from one large market to another. His research at the Aviary has led him to bring all sorts of high tech equipment for making cocktails with him. This 26 year old bartender has reached heights his career that makes me, a bartender at 23 years old, look pathetic as I stand humbly behind my bar with my knock off Blue Hawaiian signature cocktail. What consists of a new drink? Can it really be as simple as the equation alcohol plus mixer equals cocktail? I would like to think that it is a bit more involved than that. The work of Craig Schoettler and others continuing to find new ways and making new advances in Molecular Gastronomy/Mixology would suggest that the industry is in fact making new advances and therefore is not stagnant. I feel as though it is easy to say that the alcoholic beverage industry has become stagnant by living in a smaller market such as Little Rock, Arkansas. Unless it is a larger city like Chicago or New Vegas, most places do not get to see things like Molecular Mixology in restaurants. It is the same drinks, just with different variations in almost all restaurants in Little Rock. It makes one forget that there are untold amounts of creativity in the world and if somebody can imagine a taste for something, they can create it. I feel like its going to be a long time in the future before we are all drinking Blueberry cocktails out of porthole carafes, with vanilla infused ice cubes and whiskey marshmallow, but it is definitely a future I am looking forewords too. Until then, Cheers. Work Cited foodnetwork.com. Television Food Network, 2013. Web. 15 Sept. 2013. merriam-webster.com, Marriam-Webster incorporated, 2013. Web. 15 Sept. 2013. McLaughlin, Lisa. "Molecular Mixology." Time Apr. 2008. Academic Search Compleate. Web. 10 Sept. 2013.

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Bennett Zerull Rhet 1312 Section 3 Dr. Harris wikipedia.org. Wikipedia, 2013. Molecular Gastronomy. 2 Sept. 2013. Web. 10 Sept. 2013. Curtis, Wayne. "The High-Tech Highball." Atlantic Monthly Sept. 2001. Academic Search Compleate. Web. 10 Sept. 2013 Stapleton, Susan. Aria's Cocktails Are Getting a Craig Schoettler Makeover. vegas.eater.com. Curbed network. 12 July 2013. Web. 15 Sept. 2013.

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