Out of a whole lot of entries these TWENTY (20)* cocktails Transcend the Unusual in keeping with our judges! (*Finalist cocktails will likely be introduced FIVE (5) per week in no order, for a complete of TWENTY (20) Finalists cocktails.
Thanks to all of the bartenders who participated. Keep tuned for announcement of 5 Bartender Finalists chosen by our judges to compete for Money Prizes coming quickly.
Michael Vanderhorn
The Over-Soul
Transcending the Unusual is often a high precedence for me on the subject of cocktails. After all, I really like a traditional Margarita or Negroni however my inventive aspect shines by way of my cocktails. For this cocktail I delved deep into the phrase “Trascend” and landed on Ralph Waldo Emerson’s The Over-Soul. Specializing in the soul of the drink (and the spirit) I wished to push previous the bizarre affiliation of earthy spice flavors and orange liqueur pairings and attain for one thing much more fascinating: the floral and citrus undertones of Santo Blanco. An unorthodox break up base with a nice Sardinian citrus gin pulls taste from reverse sides of the world from Mexico: Eire and Asia. Along with the freshest lime juice the asian spices and sardinian citrus elevates and helps the heavier pour of the tequila with out overpowering it. Italicus, hibiscus agave syrup and lavender bitters shine collectively to empower the citrus and floral undertones of the tequila, including a slight bitter/bitter edge whereas balancing with rosey sweetness and a contact of caramelly agave. This cocktail Transcends the Unusual and expectations for a tequila tipple, particularly leaning into the citrus and floral flavors whereas not bullying the earthy spice flavors away fully; quite, the cooked agave makes approach for the deeper flavors because the ego ought to for us in order that our Over-Soul can shine. Cheers!
Substances:
- 1 1/2 ozSanto Blanco Tequila
- 1/2 ozDrumshanbo Gunpowder Sardian Gin
- 1/2 ozItalicus Rosolio di Bergamotto
- 1 ozLime Juice
- 3/4 ozHibiscus Agave Syrup*
- 2 Dashes Scrappy’s Lavender Bitters
Preparation: Add all elements to a shaker tin with ice and shake properly. Double pressure right into a coupe glass. Garnish with a carnation *Hibiscus Agave Syrup: Add 30g Dried Hibsicus Flowers to 200g heat water. Let sit for two hours to extract taste. Pressure and add 600g Blue Weber Agave nectar to a saucepan and warmth gently, stirring to mix. Garnish with Carnation.
Kristen Begley
It Doesn’t Get A lot Beeter Than This
I wished to take an strategy to this competitors through the use of unordinary elements to make this cocktail. I used to be fascinated by messing round with pandan, I ordered a number of kinds of pandan to play with to discover a good steadiness in cocktails. I additionally wished to make use of beets for the earthy taste and colour that it might convey to the cocktail. These are two elements I’ve by no means utilized in a cocktail earlier than, and the flavors meshed so properly that I wished to make this drink for the competitors.
Substances:
- 2 ozreposado santo tequila
- 1 ozlime
- 1/4 ozbeet juice
- 3/4 pandan easy syrup
- 2 dashes hellfire bitters
Preparation: I hand juiced recent lime juice in a juicer, then I juiced the beets by operating them by way of the press juicer. For the pandan easy syrup I made 1qt of straightforward syrup and added one tablespoon of pandan powder I obtained off Amazon. Edible flower for garnish.
Danyele Brickner
Crystal Clear
I used to be impressed by the best of getting one thing that appeared like one factor however tasted like one other. On this recipe, I took the thought of a clarified milk punch and utilized it to a margarita, which resulted in a cocktail that’s an sudden as it’s scrumptious. The innocuous look of the cocktail, like a glass of water with the trimmings of a traditional margarita, contrasts the extraordinary expertise on the palate. I included a home made citrus-cardamom easy syrup to spherical out the brilliant taste of the lime juice and add refined complementary natural and floral notes to create a balanced drink. The selection of a half-salt rim provides salinity to the ingesting expertise with out competing with the flavors within the cocktail, which is what I actually wished to shine.
Substances:
Batch: Yields: 8 servings
- 16 ozSanto tequila blanco
- 4 ozorange liqueur
- 6 ozcitrus-cardamom easy syrup*
- 6 ozfresh lime juice
- 8 ozwhole milk
Single serving:
- 2 ozSanto tequila blanco
- 1/2 ozorange liqueur
- 3/4 ozcitrus-cardamom easy syrup*
- 3/4 ozfresh lime juice
- 1 ozwhole milk
Preparation: Mix 16 ozSanto tequila blanco, 4 ozorange liqueur, 6 ozcitrus-cardamom easy syrup (recipe beneath), and 6 ozfresh lime juice. Add 8 ozwhole milk to a big container and slowly pour tequila/easy/lime combination over the milk. Combination will curdle. Stir, cowl, and refrigerate for 3 hours. Pressure utilizing cheese material and a espresso filter. Discard the curds. Repeat this step till all of the curds have strained out and the liquid is evident. Pour clarified beverage right into a half-salt rimmed glass and garnish with a lime wheel.
*Citrus-cardamon easy syrup: In a pot, mix 1 cup refined sugar with 8 ozwater. Add the peel of 1 lime, the peel of half a lemon, and 1 tablespoon cardamom seeds. Convey to a boil. Then, take away from warmth and permit to chill. Pressure out solids.
Argenis Calderon
Scorpio Season
I wish to suppose that my cocktail transcends the bizarre by invoking the energies of the supernatural. With Fall right here and each Halloween and Día de los Muertos proper across the nook I wished to place some flavors collectively that assist invoke recollections of the season. One thing just like cider. Pumpkins and apples are virtually synonymous with Halloween and Oranges are simply as Mexican as Tequila, as orange is probably the most prevalent citrus fruit planted in Mexico. This drink will be served heat or chilly, however I recommend chilly.
Substances:
- 2 oz. Santo Blanco
- 3/4 oz. Reál Pumpkin syrup
- 1/2 oz. Orange juice
- 1/2 oz. Apple juice
- 1/2 oz. Lime juice
Preparation: Pumpkin syrup will be purchases at webstaurantstore.com Put all elements in shaker Shake and pressure over ice for heat cocktail warmth over low warmth with 5 oz. of water till desired heat. Pumpkin spice caramel apple slices, Flower garnish in a carved out pumpkin
Lance Bownman
Rise of the Purple Moon
Purple is a strong and evocative colour, and by its base nature is rooted in spirituality, thriller, enlightenment, and creativeness. When given the transient for this competitors I instantly knew I wished to do one thing rooted in purple to make a cocktail that transcends the bizarre and seizes the second. Purple can be a colour that doesn’t occur sufficient within the cocktail world, other than the aviation or the kir now we have only a few canon drinks that showcase such a charming hue. Additionally, let’s be fully trustworthy, the visible impression of a cocktail is our first interplay with a drink, so if we make that one thing that stands out from the traditional inexperienced/yellow/brown tint of most cocktails we see it makes the journey is extra intriguing from the beginning. With this in thoughts, I took the refined spice and floral notes which are at play in Santo Blanco and wished to play off of these to raise them whereas nonetheless letting the agave coronary heart shine by way of. One factor I’ve all the time had an enormous affinity for is tea in cocktails, and I may consider nothing higher to play towards these floral notes than a surprising dragon pearl jasmine tea. Excessive-toned white florals on a backdrop of inexperienced tea get me nearer to the tip purpose of a scrumptious drink, and the high-volume steep additionally provides just a little little bit of tea tannin for textural distinction. However we nonetheless should make the cocktail purple, and one ingredient immediately got here to thoughts: chicha morada. This one most likely requires some rationalization, chicha morada is a standard Peruvian delicate drink, made with purple corn that offers it a deep purple hue, pineapple, which makes an awesome tie-in to the agave pinas that give Santo its distinctive agave character in addition to including some fruit pectin weight on the palate, apple, cinnamon, clove, sugar, and citrus it makes the proper tropical however earthy complement to the excessive floral toned tea after they’re blended lends us the purple colour that was on the forefront of my thoughts. It additionally makes an awesome tie-in to a private reminiscence of my first journey to Peru with my associate the place on the primary evening in Lima we noticed the wonderful sight of a purple moon rising over the horizon of the Pacific Ocean. Somewhat acid within the type of recent lime juice to steadiness it out and now we have a strong cocktail, however a couple of further additions make it one thing really particular. Moroccan bitters add just a little bit of warmth and the aromatics of a spice market drawing out the spice and white pepper character inherent in Santo Blanco. Somewhat saffron tincture with its earthy candy floral facet that solely saffron can present, which additionally performs completely into Santo Blanco. And that will get us to the important thing participant within the cocktail: Santo Blanco. A stunning and complicated tequila capturing the essence of the Jalisco highlands, ripe with the wealthy cooked agave that conjures recollections of candy potato, refined baking spice, and white flowers, with a tinge of peppery spice, with a deft hand in ingredient choice can provide us one thing that transcends the bizarre and takes the expertise from simply being a cocktail to being a journey. With founders that actually perceive this ideally suited, with Man Fieri understanding the idea of taste and expertise being co-mingled, and Sammy Hagar figuring out that the present is as a lot of a part of the expertise because the product. My cocktail title can be an homage the Sammy Hagar’s “Rise of the Animal” wrapped up into the spirituality, thriller, enlightenment, and creativeness of purple, and my recollections of a purple moon. Completed with some decadent spiced ardour fruit foam it makes the drink a multi-layered journey with the spiced and spicy foam creating one expertise at first, finally yielding totally to the cocktail beneath, very similar to the journey a set record takes us on, or the journey a chef takes us on whereas eating of their restaurant. That is what I attempted to encapsulate in my drink, one thing that takes the upper spirit of Santo Tequila and makes one thing that actually transcends the bizarre, that’s the ethos of “Rise of the Purple Moon.”
Substances:
- 2 ozSanto Blanco Tequila
- 1 ozDragon Pearl Jasmine & Chicha Morada Cordial*
- 1 ozFresh Lime Juice
- 2 dashes Bitter Finish Morrocan Bitters
- 2 dashes Saffron Tincture***
- Spiced ardour fruit foam (for garnish)**
Preparation: Mix all liquid elements in a shaker tin, add ice and shake, double pressure into chilled cocktail glass, Libbey 8 1/4oz Speakeasy cocktail glass 603064. High with spiced ardour fruit foam.
*Dragon pearl jasmine and chicha morada cordial
- First make chicha morada:
- 9-liter water
- 1531 grams Purple Corn
- 1 Pineapple (peeled and sliced)
- 2 Apples (sliced)
- 4 Oranges (sliced)
- 16 Cloves
- 6 Cinnamon Sticks
- 2 liter sugar
- 2 tbsp citric acid
Preparation: Mix all elements besides sugar and acid. Convey to a boil, cut back warmth and simmer half-hour, take away from warmth and pressure. Add water to return to 8L quantity, add sugar and acid, stir to dissolve.
Dragon pearl jasmine 1:1 easy syrup:
- 4-liter 180-degree water
- 4.5 ozRare Tea Cellar Dragon Pearl Jasmine Tea
- 4-liter sugar
Preparation: Mix tea and water, let steep for five minutes 45 seconds, pressure, add 180-degree water to return to 4 liters of quantity, add sugar and stir to dissolve.
Mix 1 half jasmine syrup to 1 half chicha morada to make jasmine and chicha morada cordial.
**spiced ardour fruit foam first make spiced ardour fruit cordial:
- 70 ozGoya Ardour Fruit Puree
- 3 liters water
- 15-gram habanero
- 1/2 tsp clove
- 4.5 liter sugar
- 1/2 ozBittermen’s Tiki Bitters
Preparation: Mix all elements besides sugar and bitters in pot, convey to boil, cut back warmth, and simmer half-hour. Pressure, Measure quantity and return to 4.5L of quantity, add sugar and bitters, stir to dissolve.
To make foam mix 4.5oz ardour fruit cordial, 6oz egg white, and three.5 ozlime juice in an ISI, double cost with n2o.
***Saffron Tincture: 1gram saffron 4oz Santo Tequila Blanco Methodology: Mix in a jar, let infuse for 48 hours, nice pressure.