The D.C. Craft Bartender?s Guild?s 2014 Rickey Competition on Sunday at Jack Rose Dining Saloon honored a new set of mix masters, tapsters and would-be sailors who successfully reinterpreted the city?s native cocktail.

When all was said and done, Lukas Smith of Daikaya beat out his fellow competitors with the ?Supafly Rickey.? Second place went to Dustin Beruta from Cashion?s Eat Place with the ?Vanilla-Key Rickey.? Third went to Casey Hristakos from Sixth Engine with the ?Rickey Del Mar.?

Supafly is a smooth blend of Half Moon Gin, sweet potato soda and rose blossom water. Sweet potato soda, you say? Yes, they used fermentation of the root vegetable to create the ingredient. A single (sometimes superfluous) blade of lemon grass served as garnish.

Lukas himself donned a soviet-era military hat and was surrounded by fellow bartenders dressed like loud, drunken sailors. ?Rum, sodomy and the lash? Winston Churchill said are the gist of British naval tradition. The handful of seamen behind the bar at Jack Rose seemed all too familiar with that grand tradition.

Guild president Owen Thomson and vice president Dan Searing were the masters of ceremonies. Searing held the trophy up for all to see as the winner and runner up were announced. Over 50 bars and restaurants participated from around the city.

It is difficult work judging that many cocktails. Guild organizers took nearly 20 days to round up participating bartenders to make their drink for the judges. The finalists were whittled down to seven for the main event.

?I had to drink 52 rickeys myself,? Thomson said.

2014 Rickey Competition Finalists

• Lukas Smith from Daikaya with ?Supafly Rickey?
• Dustin Beruta from Cashion?s Eat Place with ?Vanilla-Key Rickey?
• Casey Hristakos from Sixth Engine with ?Rickey Del Mar?
• Jo-Jo Valenzuela from Sixth Engine with ?Asian Wickey?
• Eve Maier from Hank?s Oyster Bar with ?Yabba Dabba Dorickey?
• Galen Odell-Smedley from Mockingbird Hill with ?High Rock Rickey?
• Brian Nixon from Rose?s Luxury with ?Rickey #7?

D.C. Craft Bartenders Guild President, Owen Thomson, holds up to the crowd a rectangular can the size of a deck of cards. A grin spills across his face. Thomson is about to reveal the next ingredient for the contest.

?Smoked sardines,? he says. The crowd collectively cringes.

That’s the kind of curveballs participants faced at last Sunday afternoon?s Negroni Throwdown at The Gibson. The winner, Chris Martino of Barrel, faced strong competition. In the end, he emerged the champion winning a bartending spot at this year?s Repeal Day Ball and all the shit-talking privileges thereto appertaining.

E.J. Apaga of Pearl Dive, Dave Lanzalone of Iron Gate and Julien Bourgon of TNT each fell to Martino despite the various obstacles thrown his way. Apaga certainly gave the crowd their ?money?s worth? (the event was free) in the Ramos Gin Fizz round when he opened a fully charged soda syphon sending streams of cream, egg whites and gin into the air.

Jack Rose bartender and Tiki Throwdown winner, Justin Hampton, judged the final products. The barman sampled each cocktail, looking pleased with some and wincing a little from others. Guild members Jamie McBain and Jo-Jo Valenzuela hosted the show. Valenzuela pulled the event together with sponsorship from Plymouth and Beefeater.

Each contestant went through a vigorous competition structured similarly to Cutthroat Kitchen. The Throwdown?s contestants used poker chips to bid on various sabotages against one another. One participant was handicapped by having no ice for his cocktail while another was denied use of his arm and a leg.

The back patio of the RAMMY nominated bar served as a serene setting for the raucous competition. Audience members filled up on bar-b-que ribs, sliders and mushroom fritters while sloshing around frozen ?Negronis and Cream? cocktails spun by Gibson general manager, Frank Jones.

When the jigger was eliminated from Bourgon?s use, he could be seen swiftly dumping spoonfuls of spirit into his mixing glass as time ticked away. Lanzalone made use of a reusable, refrigerated ice pack to chill down his drink since he was handicapped with no ice. No one was safe from the crippling obstacles thrown at them at the event.

Apaga dove right into the smoked sardines. He muddled a poor little fish into the concoction and scooped fingerfuls of oily red sauce out of the can and into his shaker. When asked what his bloody mary-like, sardine cocktail was called, Apaga smiled.

?Fish 75.?

Please? Pretty please with sugar on top? Pretty please with rye and chartreuse on top?

Click here to vote for Scofflaw’s Den!!!

Pippali Pineapple

A few weeks ago, folks started sending me this link via Twitter regarding? a cocktail and mocktail competition hosted by the folks at Marx Foods. The rules were pretty simple. Once you sign up, they send you a sample of some of their spices. Using at least one of the samples per drink,you had to come up with an original cocktail and an original mocktail. It sounded like an interesting exercise, so I thought, what they hey, let’s enter this thing.

About two weeks after emailing my interest, I received a package containing my samples. It included dried pineapple, juniper berries, saffron, (Indian) long pepper, fennel pollen and dill pollen. I was super excited about the long pepper because I’ve always wanted to experiment with it in cocktails.

Long pepper is a little hotter than regular black pepper but has this beguiling aroma that is hard to explain. It’s almost sensual and velvety. And it just screamed TEQUILA! But I didn’t want to infuse tequila with the long pepper because I wanted to be able to control the overall long pepper use. Instead, I created a long pepper syrup.

Long Pepper Syrup
Take 8 long peppers and crush them in a mortal & pestle, a meat mallet or some other heavy object.
Add 1.5 cups of sugar, 1 cup of water and the crushed pepper to a sauce pan.
Bring everything to a boil, turn down the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
Allow to cool to room temperature.
Using a fine mesh strainer and some cheese clothe, strain out the solids.*
Add half an ounce of vodka to the syrup for preservative purposes.
Bottle. It will keep in the refrigerator for about 2 weeks.
*If after using the fine mesh strainer and cheese clothe there are still particles floating in your syrup, bottle the syrup and allow to settle for a few hours. Then carefully transfer the syrup into a new bottle keeping the sediment in the first bottle.

So now I had some damn tasty long pepper syrup. What else did I want to do? For the heck of it, I diced the dried pineapple and added it to 2 cups of tequila. A let it set for two days, shaking the jar twice a day, then strained out the solids. The drink I then came up with is:

Pippali Pineapple
1.5 ounces Pineapple-infused tequila
.5 ounce fresh lime juice
.5 ounce long pepper syrup
.25 ounce fresh pineapple juice

-Combine all ingredients into an iced filled shaker. Shake vigorously for a slow 10 count and double strain (using a Hawthorne and fine mesh strainer) into a chilled couple glass. Pour one drop of Peychaud’s bitters on the foam and run a pick through it for a quick design. See the photo above.

Now that we have the cocktail, time to turn our attention to the mocktail. There could be any number of reasons people don’t want to have an alcoholic beverage including religious, medical or moral. I’m sure some of these folks still want to head out to a bar with their friends or experience the scene at the hot new cocktail bar in town. Regardless, they shouldn’t be subjected to soda and a squeeze of lemon or soft drinks or fruit juice and soda water. They should still be able to enjoy all the complexity and balance that a proper cocktail provides. The mocktail should also be visually appealing, not just fruit juice and soda water.? So the first think I did was decide how to make it visually impressive without relying solely on run-of-the-mill fruit juices. After some thought, I went with beet juice. The bright red-purple juice is both earthy and sweet. Not as sweet as fruit juice, but I know it would provide a great flavor and a great color. In to the juicer four beets went.

So how do you get this complexity in a beverage without all the things the spirits bring to the table? I’ve found that if not using spirits to add the complexity, you have to turn to more labor intensive culinary tricks.? One of my favorite spirits, and one of the most complex, is gin. With it’s various botanicals and styles, gin adds so much to a cocktail other than alcohol. I knew I wanted to replicate the complexity of gin in my mocktail.

Here is where you need some special tools for this mocktail. First, think about botanicals that are commonly found in gin. Juniper berries (hey! I got some of these in my samples!), lemon, orange and coriander are common gin botanicals. Then you need a cream whipper. This iSi Whip Plus is the one I used, but whatever the brand you want to make sure it is charged using N2O gas.

Non-Alcoholic Gin
.75 ounces, by weight, juniper berries
.5 teaspoon dried lemon peel
.5 teaspoon dried orange peel
8 cardamom seeds
2 allspice berries
25 coriander seeds
3 black peppercorns
25 fennel seeds
8 saffron fronds (also included in sample box)

Take all of these botanicals and crush them in a mortal & pestle or with some other heavy tool. Add the crushed botanicals to the whip cream canister. Add three cups of filtered water. Apply the lid and charge using a N2O. Gently swirl the canister for 30 seconds and then allow to set for 30 seconds. After that, quickly release the gas from the canister.? For a more detailed set of instructions and explanation of the science, check out this article. Once you’ve vented the gas, strain out the solids. What you’re left with is water flavored with traditional gin botanicals, or, non-alcoholic gin!

Beet Me to It
1.5 ounces non-alcoholic gin
.5 ounce fresh lemon juice
.5 ounce simple syrup
.25 ounce fresh beet juice
soda water

-Combine 1 tablespoon granulated sugar with 1 teaspoon fennel pollen.
-Prepare rocks glass by rubbing one-half of the outside rim glass with a slice of lemon. Using a spoon, dust this part of the glass with the sugar-fennel pollen mixture. Fill the glass with ice and place? in the freezer while preparing the rest of the drink.
-In an ice filled shaker, combine the non-alcoholic gin, lemon juice, simple syrup and beet juice. Shake vigorously for a slow ten count.
-Strain into your prepared rocks glass and fill the rest of the way with soda water. Gently stir.
-Garnish with a fresh mint sprig.

There you have it. A beverage containing the complexity of gin, the flavor and visual appeal of a great cocktail without the alcohol!

Thanks to Marx Foods for letting me compete in this contest. If you try either of these drinks, please let me know in the comments what you think.

Cheers!

Annnnnnndddddddd . . . we have a winner!? The rules were pretty simple.? Tell me how you started down the cocktail path, the catalyst if you will, and tell me your favorite cocktail.

And the winner is Helena Tiare Olson from Stockholm, Sweden.? Tiare is also the writer of A Mountain of Crushed Ice.? And without further ado, here it Tiare’s story:

For me it started with a tiny mini bottle of El Dorado 15 year old demerara rum.

It’s a bit odd, I know but that?s what happened. I got that bottle from God knows where and drank a little bit of the rum and discovered that liked it, no – I mean really liked it. Its not the first alcoholic thing I had of course but it was the first alcoholic beverage that really opened my eyes and led me to discover the world of cocktails and this evolved to be where I am today.

This happened a couple of years ago.

So I tasted some of that rum neat and then I took the rest and mixed a ?tropical drink? having not much clue how to mix a proper cocktail – even though I had some vague idea still after my years in the restaurant business. But I threw together some fresh fruit juices, a little simple syrup and the rum with plenty of crushed ice and made some kind of elaborate fruit garnish. All happily served in a hurricane glass!

After that I got myself a big bottle of El Dorado and now I started to experiment more seriously.

I searched the net which eventually led me to tiki drinks,The Ministry of Rum and some of the cocktail blogs where I was a lurker for quite a while, without commenting – I didn?t dare to…but reading and absorbing everything I came over that interested me. I kept experimenting at home with cocktail mixing and ingredient making and garnishing. Eventually the whole thing grew to a lifestyle and I became a cocktail geek.

Then one day (a year ago) I started to write my blog, and the rest is as we say ? history.

Today I’m much more into learning the classics, so i have started in a bit of an odd way, otherwise i believe tiki drinks is maybe not usually the first type of drinks you start with.

I will never abandon my first love ? the Mai Tai, it will always be my favorite cocktail, but only if its made the way it should be and with good rum. The recipe I use is Trader Vic`s and I use either Appleton Extra, Havana Club 7, St James Hors d?age, Clem?nt VSOP and various demerara rums.

Why do I love cocktails? Oh – its the craft, the art, the culinary and experimental aspect, and of course the aroma and taste ? and then, they do look so beautiful! And a well crafted cocktail really is something very special.

When I think back I`m quite amazed myself how it all started with a tiny mini-bottle of El Dorado.

Mai Tai
1 oz dark Jamaican rum
1 oz Martinique rum
1 oz fresh lime juice (one lime)
0.5 oz orange curacao (or Cointreau)
0.25 oz each of orgeat and simple syrup

Mix all ingredients and shake with ice.Strain into a double old fashioned glass over crushed ice.Garnish with lime shell and a sprig of mint.Serve with 2 short straws placed near the mint.

Great story Tiare.? Congrats on your win and I hope you enjoy the 2009 Tales of the Cocktail Recipe Book!

Cheers!

What you do!? (aka The Rules)
1) Email me your story.? Include your favorite cocktail along with a recipe and a picture.
2) Please keep your story to 500 words or less.
3) The contest is open to anyone.
4) The deadline is midnight, August 31st.

What I do!? (aka The Judging)
1) Which ever story I like the best will win.
2) I will be the only judge using a wholly unscientific analysis.

What you get! (aka The Prize)
1) The winner will have their story, photo and recipe published on Scofflaw’s Den.? AND
2) Will receive a copy of the 2009 Tales of the Cocktail Official Recipe Book.

Then I started thinking, why do other people love cocktails?? Is it based on the same reasons I give?? Is it simply that cocktails seem more mature to drink than PBR and a shot of Jack?? Is it following a fad?? Inquiring minds want to know!

Well, at least I do!? So here is the deal, I want to hear your story.? How did you come to enjoy cocktails?? Was there one particular cocktail that gave you that enlightenment moment?? Was there one particular bar or bartender that showed you the path?? What cocktail is your version of cocktail nirvana?

What you do!? (aka The Rules)
1) Email me your story.? Include your favorite cocktail along with a recipe and a picture.
2) Please keep your story to 500 words or less.
3) The contest is open to anyone.
4) The deadline is midnight, August 31st.

What I do!? (aka The Judging)
1) Which ever story I like the best will win.
2) I will be the only judge using a wholly unscientific analysis.

What you get! (aka The Prize)
1) The winner will have their story, photo and recipe published on Scofflaw’s Den.? AND
2) Will receive a copy of the 2009 Tales of the Cocktail Official Recipe Book.

The recipe book is really neat.? It is about 600 recipes from all of the participants from Tales 2009.? Yours truly has a recipe published within, along with recipes from the best bartenders and cocktail writers on the planet.? Many of the recipes were created for Tales and you won’t find them any where else.? Truly a unique book!

There you have it.? A simple contest with an awesome prize.? If you have any questions, feel free to ask either in the comments or via direct email.? I can’t wait to hear/read your stories.

Cheers!

The rules were pretty simple.? We had to create an infusion using Oval and come up with a unique cocktail using at least 1.5 oz of the infusion.? The infusions were to be judged during Tales of the Cocktail by Rick Stutz, Gabriel Szaszko and Chantal Tseng.? The judging criteria was based on infusion aroma, infusion taste, infusion creativity, cocktail taste, cocktail balance and cocktail creativity.? The winner of the contest would have two nights of their stay paid for by Oval.

It sounded like a lot of fun and I jumped at the opportunity.? But then came the “what-the-hell-do-I-make” panic.? I ended up with two infusions.? The first was a clementine infusion using fresh clementines.? The aroma and color was redolent of fresh clementine.? But, a basic orange infusion wouldn’t win on creativity and seemed to run of the mill.? I had been playing with coconut water lately as a cocktail ingredient and decided I wanted to use it as a mixer.

When I think of coconut, I think of tiki drinks, frozen slushy drinks, islands, the sea and Thai food.? Ohhhh . . . thai food.? That would certainly be original!? Next was to think of the flavors associated with thai food and island/Polynesian-type drinks.? Lime?? Ginger?? Spices?? Check, check, check.? But I wanted something a little more obscure.? Lemongrass!

So here is my infusion:

Thai-Spiced Oval Vodka
16 oz Oval Vodka
1 9-inch stalk of lemongrass, cut into small rounds
2 quarter-sized rounds of fresh ginger
peel of 2 limes
1 2-inch piece of cinnamon*
4 cloves

-Place everything in a container and infuse for one week shaking once a day. After a week strain all the solids and re-bottle.

*After the contest, I was speaking with Chantal looking for critiques and her main thought on my infusion was that the cinnamon was too strong.? I tend to agree with that assessment.? In the future, and if you’re making this yourself, I would remove the cinnamon and cloves after three days.

For the cocktail, I came up with:

Andaman Sun
1.5 oz Thai-spiced Oval Vodka
1.5 oz coconut water
1 oz Piloncillo** syrup (1.5:1 strength)
.5 oz fresh lime juice
.25 oz coconut cream

-Shake everything with ice and strain into a chilled glass.? Garnish with a lime wheel.
**Piloncillo is South American unrefined brown sugar.? You can find it in ethnic markets.? If you can’t find it, you can substitute simple syrup made from dark brown sugar (1.5:1 strength) or you can substitute .75 oz simple and .25 oz molasses.? It won’t be exactly the same with the substitutions but you’ll still have a tasty drink.

The contest judging occurred at the Mixoloseum house in New Orleans.? Each of the entries were made by Chris Stanley, a very talented mixologist at the Clover Club in New York City.? Chris worked behind the bar at the Mixo house several nights during Tales.? His drinks were some of the best I had during the entire week.

And the results of the contest?? I WON!!!!

Woot!? Thanks go out to Sam, Chantal, Gabe, and Rick!? And thanks to Oval Vodka for the opportunity! And a special thanks to Steve Raye who offered to pay for the entire cost of two nights at the condo, rather than just my half of two nights.? You can read Sam’s write-up of the contest here.

What a great event and a great surprise during Tales!? Cheers!

And yes, I realize that it is now June and spring and sprung and we are on the verge of summer.? Well, sue me.? But the good news is we now have the winners!!!

Before announcing the winning cocktails, a note about the grading process.? Each submission was graded on a ten point scale for the following categories:

-Does the cocktail have a spring theme?
-Is it a rye whiskey base?
-Taste
-Color/Presentation
-Uniqueness

Sean and I both tasted and judged the cocktails on the aforementioned scale.? This meant each cocktail could score a maximum of 100 points total.? When Sean judged the cocktails the only info he was given was the name of the cocktail and the recipe, he didn’t know who submitted what drink.? The combined scores determined the winners.

And now without further ado:

Third Place Prize – Recipe and photo featured here.

The Revivalist by Gabe Szaszko
2 oz Rye
.5 oz Tarragon-Bergamot Syrup*
.5 oz Amer Picon
.25 oz lemon juice
.25 oz Maraschino liqueur

Shake all and double strain into a chilled cocktail glass.? Twist lemon peel over drink and garnish with a lemon peel

*Bring simple syrup (1:1) just to boil and remove from heat.? Add tarragon and bergamot leaves and leave to sit and cool in syrup for at least one hour.? Strain all into a sterilized container.

The Revivalist

Second Place Prize -? Same as third place and a 50ml bottle of ?Marshall?s Mountain Moonshine Bitters.?

The Capone Sour by Jeff Fulcher
1.5 oz Rye
1 oz grapefruit juice
1 oz brown sugar syrup
1 bar spoon orgeat
1 dash Angostura bitters
2 dashes orange bitters (I used Angostura Orange)

Shake all with ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

The Capone Sour

First Place Prize – Same as third place and a 100ml bottle of ?Marshall?s Mountain Moonshine Bitters? and a bottle of Templeton Rye.

Jetpack by Craig “Dr. Bamboo” Mrusek
1 oz Rye
1 oz Zubrowka Bison Grass vodka
.5 oz Schladerer Kirschwasser (I used Clear Creek)
.5 oz simple syrup
.5 oz lime juice
1 dash Fee’s Mint Bitters

Shake all with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

The Jetpack

Congratulations to Craig, Jeff, and Gabe!!!

There you have it.? Mix up one or all of these drinks and let us know what you think in the comments.

Cheers!

The What

Submit a recipe for an original spring cocktail with a base of rye whiskey and a photo of said cocktail by April 20th.

The Who

You, knucklehead. (Except for Sean – sorry, Co-Scofflaws are not eligible.)

The How

1.? Create your cocktail and snap a photo of said cocktail.
2.? Email me (Marshall@Scofflawsden.com) your recipe and photo.? Only one entry per person!
3.? Leave a comment to this post that you have submitted a cocktail.
4.? Polls close at 12:00AM April 20th, i.e. the stroke of mid-night April 19th.

Out of all the submissions, I (and maybe Sean if he wants to help) will pick the top three cocktails based on taste, presentation (partly where your picture comes in) and adherence to the spring-time theme.

The What

And now what you’ve been waiting to see, the prizes.

Third Place Will have his or her cocktail featured on Scofflaw’s Den in a Contest Results post, including the photo submitted with the recipe.

Second Place: Same as third place and a 50ml bottle of “Marshall’s Mountain Moonshine Bitters.”

First Place: Same as third place and a 100ml bottle of “Marshall’s Mountain Moonshine Bitters” and your very own bottle of Templeton Rye.

Cheers!