What's a difficult cocktail to make?

Beer and Spirits
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I have idea for a blog. One feature will be a video of someone performing something difficult, like deboning a chicken without breaking the skin.
What are some mixed drinks that require some sort of trick to make, something I can a local bartender to demonstrate?

2

Are there any layered cocktails? (like a “Black and Tan” with beer) If it’s flaming I suppose that adds another level of difficulty … or at least danger. [wow.gif]


I’m not a big cocktail guy, so am not qualified to say what I’m about to say but I’ll say it anyways: cocktails seem to be more about knowledge of ingredients and proportions than mastery of “tricky” skills. De-boning a chicken w/o breaking the skin – I’d like to see that!!

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I was a bartender for a million years (don’t want to give away my age!), and layered drinks are a bit tricky if you don’t take your time, but they are not that hard. There is one drink that I made perfectly ONCE but could never recreate perfectly again. I think it was called a Bloody Brain- but the problem with drinks is that sometimes there are many ways to make the same named drink, and a lot of times they are regional. If I remember correctly, it was tequila with a thin layer of cream on top, then you filled a stir-stick with grenadine and plunged it though the top and released it. The perfect one I made had the greadine in the perfect shape of a brain. Never could get it to look anything other than like an amorphous blob after that.

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I just looked it up online, and the other recipes used Peach Schnapps instead of the tequila, and Bailey’s instead of regular cream. They just dripped the grenadine in, but plunging it in with a stir stick made a perfect brain stem plus the brain structure. Another recipes listed on one site was Aborted Fetus. Sounds appetizing, eh?

5

Years ago we used to drop by the bar at Le Virage in Walnut Creek for a drink called a “puscafe”. I don’t know if that’s the correct spelling. It had seven layers. Thinking back, I’m sure the bartender must have cringed whenever he saw us coming. Here’s the only rendition I could find of something similar. If I recall, he flamed the last layer of ours.

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EDIT: It’s called a Pousse Cafe. Here’s an article about it. Evidently it’s no longer popular. People ordering it probably got discouraged by the bartenders’ scowls and it probably didn’t taste that great either.

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That is just a more elaborate version of some of the popular ones today. The one I made the most of was a B-52, which is just 3 layers. Two-three layers are most common these days.
BTW, there already seem to be a lot of videos out there on how to make these.

7

I’ve got a friend who’s already put out a DVD showing this, among other things. He’s agreed to do it for my blog next time he’s in Reno.

8

If you remember to do so, please post a link to your blog here once you get it up.

9

The funny thing is that “pousse café” literally means “[something] to push the coffee [down]”, an expression used in French for a strong drink coming after the coffee at the end of a meal - can also typically be called “digestif” (something to help you digest). Usually eau-de-vie (very strong pear or plum alcohol), cognac, armagnac and so on. Nothing at all like the layered stuff it’s come to mean in the US.

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Coming back to the discussion, a difficult cocktail to make would be a… margarita. So easy on paper, yet so hard to make a truly great one. But that might not impress your audience so much. Layered or burning cocktails are probably going to be good for their technically impressive aspect. Or maybe even combining both: Make a Liquid Layers Density Column" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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When I was the Beverage Director at Antoine’s in NOLA we used to make loads of Pousse Cafes. We had a chart from DeKyper or maybe Marie Brazzard with the relative specific gravities of about 50 different kinds of booze and a small plastic funnel like device that you would pour the liquor into starting with the LIGHTEST and each successive one would go down the tube and come out UNDER the last one.


11

That’s cheating!

12

You try making those for a party of 20!

13

Making a martini with GIN, vermouth, an olive and nothing else would probably be a revelation to a lot of folks these days…

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In college we called these a “Brain Hemorrhage.” It was difficult to get the grenadine to make the perfect brain.

15

That was one of my tasks at when I worked in the kitchen of a “real restaurant.” It is actually not that difficult. All sharp knives and understanding chicken anatomy.
T.

16

Well, the Blue Blazer is notorious, but perhaps not one you want to mess with yourself!

Beyond layering, I think what makes most cocktails difficult isn’t so much mechanics as proportions, and it’s hard to convey that via a one-way presentation.

17

I once asked a bartender in Boston if he knew how to make a B-52. I can’t remember his three ingredients, but according to him one of them was Sloe Gin. [barf.gif]And I’ve never known a bartender who didn’t cry at the prospect of making a Ramos Fizz.

18

No bar (without a restaurant attached) I have ever worked at kept eggs on hand (much less orange flower water), and I seriously doubt if most places these days would welcome serving raw egg to anyone. Too chancy if anyone got sick. As far as difficult? Unless you find separating an egg difficult, not so much, for me at least. Just time relatively consuming.

Sloe gin in a B52? Sacrilege! [shock.gif]

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