Cocktail Confidential Vol. 9: Stout Syrup + Some Thoughts on Service
A Newsletter Built Like Me: Short and Stout
First off, I think I owe all of you an apology for disappearing for two weeks without notice. I didn’t really disappear, I just went on vacation, which included a break from writing this newsletter. I know it isn’t important and most of you probably didn’t care or even notice, but for consistency’s sake, that’s my bad.
I went over to London for a few nights and popped down to Brighton as well as out to Kingston. Lovely places and highly recommend visiting if you haven’t. I saw a play in the West End that tore me to pieces, had some wonderful laughs with old friends and shopped for records in a sleepy seaside town. While I was over there I visited a few restaurants which highlighted to me that European restaurant service is vastly different from America, both in good ways and bad. I also spent time in a couple pubs and had a half pint of Guinness which was so delicious I thought I might talk about turning it into a cocktail syrup.
Stouts are dark beers that get their name from the strength of the flavor compared to your standard ales and lagers. They are brewed with heavily roasted barley which gives them their distinctive dark color and toasty notes of chocolate, coffee and toffee.
I absolutely love stouts for a variety of reasons, but mainly because you can drink one over a long period of time and it is still enjoyable after 20 minutes compared to a light beer that tastes like piss as it warms. They also can have coffee or oatmeal added in the brewing process which will change the flavor profile or texture of the beer.
Pick your favorite stout for the recipe below. It is a super easy one, so try it with different brands if you’d like!
Let’s get it
As stouts tend to have very distinct flavor notes, the beer you choose is going to determine the flavor of the syrup. Chocolate, coffee, prunes, figs, toffee, toffee and caramel are all notable flavor notes that stouts can impart.
What you’ll need:
Ingredients:
1 can or bottle of a stout of your choice
An equal amount of white sugar (12 oz sugar for a 12 oz can, 16 for 16, etc.)
Making the Syrup:
I’m not even gonna complicate this one… just add the sugar slowly to the stout in a mixing bowl and whisk it together until the sugar is dissolved.
That’s it. You did it! You made stout syrup!
Now, let’s drink.
This is cool and all, but I’ve only ever made drinks a couple times: Old Fashioned
If you made the syrup with a chocolatey or coffee stout, this drink will slap hard.
2 oz Dark Rum such as Santa Teresa 1796 or Privateer New England Reserve
.5 oz stout syrup
2 dashes Angostura Bitters
Add all ingredients into a double old fashioned glass, add ice and stir for 15 seconds. Top with a few more cubes and garnish with an expressed orange twist.
Sipping Soundtrack: Shlohmo - Dark Red
I have a setup at home. Give me something I can impress with: Espresso Martini
2 oz vodka, but feel free to use aged rum, reposado tequila or whiskey
1 oz espresso
.5 oz stout syrup
2 dashes Angostura cocoa bitters
Add all ingredients to a shaking tin, add ice and shake for 15 seconds. Double strain into a chilled coupe glass and garnish with a couple of cute little coffee beans.
Sipping Soundtrack: Various Artists - Last Night In Soho (OST)
Sound the cool guy alarm, because I have a full home bar: Whiskey Sour
Egg whites aren’t weird to put in your drink. They add amazing texture to a drink and this one mimics of the frothiness of a stout but in a whiskey sour cocktail. The trick to egg whites is to add them first to your shaking tin so if you get some yolk or shell in there you can start over without wasting it. You also want to dry shake first meaning you shake all the ingredients without ice in order to froth up the egg white.
2 oz bourbon, preferably Four Roses Yellow Label
.25 oz Meletti or a comparable amaro such as Montenegro or Nonino
.75 oz stout syrup
.5 oz lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1 egg white
Crack your egg on the rim of your cocktail shaker, ideally making a pretty evenly split eggshell in the process. Carefully toss the yolk back and forth until the egg white is in your cocktail shaker. Add the res of the ingredients and shake without ice for 10 seconds, then add ice and shake for 15 seconds. Strain into a rocks glass over fresh ice and garnish with a skewered maraschino cherry and lemon wedge. Or just drink it.
Sipping Soundtrack: Yard Act - The Overload
I don’t feel like drinking today: Coffee!
Guinness makes a delicious NA stout that tastes pretty much the same as a boozy one, so use one of those to make the syrup!
Basically all you gotta do is add some of the syrup to your coffee or latte and it will add a delicious, sweet richness to your morning beverage!
Sipping Soundtrack: Buena Vista Social Club - ST
On Service - a couple observations from a recent trip to England
Every time I travel, I am always interested to see how other places treat hospitality in restaurants and bars. I’m not even talking about heading overseas where the differences are very noticeable, but even in other domestic cities where maybe the food and drink scene is still blossoming into something more serious.
For instance, I had the best time drinking and eating my way through Detroit a couple years ago. My friend and I started with dinner at the bar at Standby, Michigan’s only James Beard nominated restaurant at the time, before heading to The Keep, a dimly lit, cavernous, underground bar where they were having a weekly movie night event. This particular evening, they were screening Mandy, a Nicolas Cage psychedelic horror film tour de force that I love, which was accompanied by popcorn and a cocktail menu developed completely around the characters, places and ideas in the film. Afterward, we ended up next door to where we started in a blacklight lit basement where a group of young folks were throwing a drag show.
Detroit, with its essence of DIY mentality, made Boston feel so boring. The hospitality felt very communal. Everyone there seemed enthused to pass along the places they frequented or where their friends worked or just where interesting things were happening.
“Oh, this bar is doing [insert cool event here] tonight. My friend Mike runs the bar. Check it out if you can.”
“There’s an industry night at this spot you should check out. Every bartender in town will be hanging there.”
“Get a veggie burger here before you call it a night. You gotta try it!”
The hospitality in the whole city was warm.
Contrarily, I have never found the service in Boston to be altruistic. Workers are kind, but seem focused on their own restaurant and job like it is the universe they exist in. How do I make this restaurant the best versus how do I see my city’s scene thrive? It seems to be the next step once a city has established a buzzing food and drink landscape. I have found the same in New York City for the most part. I recommend places when asked, but it is a list of the three restaurants I eat at regularly and a couple bars I’ll hang at with friends if they drag me out of my house after 10 PM. A lot of people gate keep their favorite spots, even.
When I was in London, I noticed that the service at restaurants was much more transactional, and quite frankly, I didn’t mind it at all. I even enjoyed it. Working in restaurants has essentially depleted my tolerance for over the top, charismatic service.
How’s this? How’s that? Did you like these? Want more of that? Leave me alone!
I like chopping it up with friends who work behind bars, and I enjoy the personality of my favorite neighborhood joints, but for the most part, I am going to restaurants to eat excellent food that I am already familiar with and talk to my friends I am sharing the meals with. I can happily go without the constant check-ins, in-depth descriptions of dishes and drinks and the upsells on more cocktails.
I really liked the nonchalant approach to it all. Everyone was very nice, polite and very knowledgable but didn’t spend time inquiring how every bite of food went down, or if every sip of wine made you appreciate the meal more. They just let it be. And people seemed to trust restaurant workers more there. There was zero stress amongst anyone while they were in the waiting area sipping on wine before their table was ready. There also wasn’t a dependence on the staff to be an integral part of the meal to the point it felt like someone else was at the table with you. People kept themselves entertained with lively conversation amongst their party and the people around them. It was very refreshing to see.
Every restaurant we went to hit the necessary steps. We were asked about allergies everywhere. Drinks hit before food. The meals were outstanding. We got everything we asked for and didn’t really need anything beyond it. And we didn’t get it. I enjoyed the experience.
FAQs
You’re talking a lot about cocktail tins and .75 oz and other stuff I’m unfamiliar with. Can you elaborate?
So in order to make these cocktails, you’ll need some basic bar tools. You can usually purchase these in a set with a cocktail shaker, a jigger (measuring tool), a barspoon for mixing, a Hawthorne strainer and a mixing glass. Jiggers typically have a 2 oz side with a 1.5 oz line, and a 1 oz side with a .5 and .75 line.
I don’t have a bunch of these cocktail tools, but this seems interesting. Where can I get all this stuff you’re talking about?
I personally would recommend checking out Cocktail Kingdom’s complete sets. They’re very high quality and beautifully crafted.
You’re talking a lot about glassware. What’s the difference between all of them and what would typically be served in them?
There are three primary cocktail glasses that every home bar should have - highball, double old fashioned and coupe.
Highball - Ever order a vodka soda close it? Jamo ginger? That is a highball glass! Tall and thin, usually 12 - 16 oz in volume.
Double Old Fashioned - The style is in the name! Old Fashioned! Other names include ‘rocks glass’, ‘tumbler’ or ‘low ball’. They’re short and sturdy and usually 10 - 12 oz in volume.
Coupe - This is a stemmed glass that has a broad, shallow bowl to sip your concoctions out of. Think martini glass but you don’t have to be scared of the physics behind drinking out of it. 6 - 8 oz in volume is the typical size.
My cocktail doesn’t seem ‘balanced’. What should I do?
Bartenders love getting into discussions about the ideal build for a classic gin gimlet or whiskey sour. Some prefer a 2:1:1 build which would mean 1.5 oz base spirit, .75 oz citrus juice and .75 oz bar syrup, while others prefer a 2:.5:.5, which would mean 2 oz base spirit, .5 oz citrus juice and .5 bar syrup. Some might even go 2:.75:.5. But the point is, people have different preferences and you can feel free to adjust. If you want more of an acidic pop, add more lemon or lime juice. If you want it a touch sweeter, add more bar syrup.
Why is there a ‘Tip Your Bartender’ button on here? Can’t you just make it a paid subscription?
Yes, technically I could. But unfortunately the minimum charge is $5 a month, and quite frankly I find that too steep. I’d like this to be accessible to everyone who wants to mix drinks at home, so I thought a ‘pay what you’d like’ system makes the most sense for this newsletter. Tips are absolutely not necessary but always appreciated!
What’re you concocting and talking about next week?
I dunno, that’s for next week. Stay tuned!