LIQUID INTELLIGENCE

Cocktail-making tips from the top with Jack Sotti

For more than 100 years, classic cocktail recipes and styles were passed from country to country, down the generational bartender ladder, defining what a cocktail should taste like and how it is composed. Fruits like the humble lemon were propelled to stardom – now a staple on every cocktail list, in every bar, in every city in the world, whether it is native to the region or not.

The growing trend of locality is redefining the hospitality landscape, and regional flavours are starting to shine through. You now have distinctly Australian cocktails with all sorts of myrtles, wattleseed, finger limes and gums, and South American cocktails with their rich tapestry of corns and exotic fruits the likes of which have never been seen on the global stage. Locality is adding colour, depth and complexity to our little black book of drinks.

How do we create the ultimate local cocktail? Do you focus on local farms and foraged flora? Or if you’re in the city, do you utilise a waste stream from a local producer, like coffee chaff from your local roaster?

These are all great starting points but it is also worth noting that a local serve doesn’t necessarily have to mean local ‘to you’ – it could be local to the region of your base spirit or the style of cocktail you are trying to design.

The old adage “what grows together, goes together” has never been truer when it comes to cocktails. And this is because of the local microbiomes that exist around the world. The unseen underworld connecting plants and animals, diligently working away, decomposing and giving life to everything that grows. This is most evident in spontaneously fermented products like sourdough, some sour beers, mead, krauts, kimchis and more.

This inevitably leads us to raw honey. Captured within honey’s sticky confines is a host of bacteria, yeast and pollen from the immediate vicinity of where it was sourced, and by diluting honey it

Bee’s Knees

50ml Renais Gin

1 egg white

20ml fresh lemon juice

20ml acacia honey syrup

5ml Fino Sherry allows us to wake up these colonies and kickstart them into action, fermenting the sugars into complex flavours. These colonies can be further enhanced by utilising yeasts on freshly grown or foraged goods to infuse into your honey. All of this microbial action needs to be controlled and that’s where salt comes in, arresting the development of any nasties. A great base recipe for this Lacto Scented Honey can be found in the god of all books on the matter: The Noma Guide to Fermentation

Method: Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker filled with large chunks of clear, quality ice. Shake vigorously. Strain into a chilled coupette glass.

For a great way to use local honey in a cocktail, I use Renais Gin from Chablis and pair it with an acacia honey indicative of the region. See recipe on the left and use it as a base, swapping in your own local gin and honey.