THE BLENDS OF THE WORLD FANCY FREE

FANCY THAT, IT’S A WRAP

FANCY FREE RECENTLY WRAPPED UP THEIR AUSTRALIAN TOUR ‘POUR DECISIONS’. AS THIS YEARS FIRST INSTALMENT FOR THE BLENDS OF THE WORLD, BY BEAM SUNTORY. THEY TOURED AROUND AUSTRALIA HOSTING SESSIONS IN SIX LOCATIONS, TALKING ABOUT ALL THE UP’S AND DOWN’S OF OPENING UP A BAR AND GIVING EXPERT ADVICE THROUGH PERSONAL STORIES, TIPS AND TANGENTS.

For those of you who don’t know, the brains behind the Fancy Free brand is made up of Rob Libecans, Ryan Norieks and Matthew Stirling. Each member of the team has a range of undeniable talents and successes. Under their belts are acclaimed venues and businesses such as The Black Pearl, The Baxter Inn, Romeo Lane and Sabi Studios.

The tour went to Melbourne, Darwin, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane where they completely opened up to the audiences about their experiences. They were raw and genuine in their approach, talking about the physical challenges they faced such as the journey of finding the right venue, licensing, branding, building, unforeseen costs and everything in between.

Their presentations also touched on the intangible, hurdles people would forget to consider, such as the team’s strengths and weaknesses, motivation, inspiration and the creative process in producing the bar. Being both educational and interesting to hear, which created food for thought.

The Fancy Free team are not only business partners but also great friends. Which can either help or hinder a business. For the Fancy Free team, they utilised this relationship by having total trust in each other. Matthew Stirling said, “ We’ve had to ensure we delegated our roles from the start. If we always discussed every single aspect of one of our pop-ups, we’d only get one done a year! We rely on each other to excel at their individual strengths (and hopefully make up for each others’ weaknesses!)”.

The audience was also given the opportunity to taste some of the original cocktail menu creations made by the team. It was clear that the Fancy Free team have spent a lot of time in tweaking and perfecting these cocktails and what they plan to serve at their bar. Keep reading to see what this bunch of creative guys came up with.

BURNBACK COLLINS

GLASSWARE: Collins

GARNISH: Eucalyptus Leaf

INGREDIENTS: 45ml Canadian Club 8 Year Old 15ml Burnt Eucalyptus Honey Water* 60ml Soda Water

METHOD: Build, stir gently

*BURNT EUCALYPTUS HONEY WATER 100g Fresh picked eucalyptus leaves 500g tap water

METHOD: Set each leaf over a gas flame until on fire, allow to burn and put directly into the water to extinguish flame. Place water, leaves and water container into a refrigerator and allow to chill. When the liquid has cooled, remove any oil that sits on top. (This oil is toxic and should be removed before consumption at all costs). DO NOT filter the carbon left over from the leaves as this adds not only flavour but texture. Add 500g of burnt eucalyptus water to 1kg of red gum honey. Allow to bond by stirring not adding any heat or blending causing aeration. Bottle and date.

A recommended maximum shelf life of one month.

GRAPE & GRAIN

GLASSWARE: (Dusty Pink) Old Fashioned

GARNISH: Grape Slithers

INGREDIENTS: 45ml Auchentoshan American Oak 30ml Berry Sherry*

*BERRY SHERRY (makes one litre) 1 litre room temp water 200g apple wood chips

METHOD: Add chips to water and let sit for 1 hour. Remove chips after set time, (loss of 10% > 20% through absorption) Once strained, add 400g of white sugar allow to dissolve. Add 200ml white verjus in a sous vide bag add verjus, sugar and wood chip H2O, 3 strawberries, 5 blueberries, 2 raspberries, 3 blackberries (all berries purchased as a frozen mix bag from coles). Seal and sous vide for 2 hours at 50C. Remove and strain. Add 30ml of NGS/Vodka at 40% abv and bottle.

PET NOT

GLASSWARE: Wine

GARNISH: Nude

INGREDIENTS: (Makes five serves) 225ml Jim Beam Black Label 350ml Clarified apple juice – juice whole fruit and filter 50ml Clarified strawberry juice - juice whole fruit and filter 100ml Jasmine tea 25ml Fermented grapefruit sherbet*

METHOD: Add all to sterilised ISI or corni keg to carbonate and then bottle and cap. Pour 120ml from bottle into glass

*SHERBET 200g Grapefruit peel 1kg Caster sugar 1 litre Grapefruit juice

METHOD: Add 6g of turbo yeast and ferment in a fermentation tank for 48 hours until reaches 20% abv which is when the yeast reach their peak and all sugar is spent. Pasteurise by taking the liquid to 64C. Filter immediately and add to a sterilised bottle and allow to cool.

FANCY MARTINI

GLASSWARE: Coupette

GARNISH: 5ml Kalamata Olive Oil / Red Amaranth Leaf

INGREDIENTS: 45ml ROKU Gin 45ml House Vermouth Good quality olive oil is a must for this drink. We source ours from a local supplier where we are allowed input into the production and overall final product.

METHOD: Stir, strain

R&C

GLASSWARE: Pink Old Fashioned

GARNISH: Maple Leaf

INGREDIENTS: Milk Punch* Pine smoked vanilla & raspberry**

METHOD: Pour, stir, layer

*MILK PUNCH 1L Maker’s Mark 100g Burnt corn 800ml Full fat milk 200ml Japanese green tea 800ml Boiling water 200ml Lemon sherbet*** 50ml Fresh lemon juice

METHOD: Start the batch by adding all the tea, the sherbet, the spirit and the lemon juice to a pan. Last, add the boiling water, cover and let rest for at least 6 hours. On the side simmer the milk, very important the milk is hot at this point as the protein in the milk (usually they repel each other but the increased acidity of the punch base allows them to attract each other and curdle when warm they move around faster and it becomes easier to achieve). Add the milk to the rested batch and let it curdle. Filter it all through a super-bag to eliminate most of the solids. Refrigerate and then filter it with a coffee filter, if possible, twice, with the same filter, the build-up residue will help clarify it even more. It`s now ready to be served, store it in a glass bottle and keep it in the fridge.

***Lemon sherbet 200gr of lemon zest, 1KG of caster white sugar, 1 litre of lemon juice. Carefully put the lemon zests in a vacuum pack with the sugar and let them infuse for 6 hours. At that point add the lemon juice and strain the zest out. Keep it in the fridge.

**PINE SMOKED VANILLA & RASPBERRY 2 x Vanilla pods whole sliced through the middle 100g pine branch, bark on and dried

METHOD: Set the pine alight and place in a container with vanilla pods and close lid and leave for 24 hours. 500g white sugar, 800ml water & two smoked vanilla seeds into a blender and blitz. Do not strain. Juice enough raspberry to yield 200ml of juice and add to the sugar blend. Finally add 1g of ascorbic acid and 60ml of gin. Shake before layering.