After I ordered the Sherry Colada Highball at New York’s new bilevel bar, Sip & Guzzle, the drink appeared as a imaginative and prescient of ultramodern minimalism—a translucent, cream soda–coloured drink in an ungarnished workaday glass, the spear ice invisible because of its readability. The bar comes from the brains of Shingo Gokan and Steve Schneider, two of the cocktail world’s most pedigreed skills (the previous helmed the bar at Angel’s Share earlier than opening numerous acclaimed bars throughout Asia; the latter was the long-standing head bartender at New York’s Workers Solely earlier than changing into a companion within the bar’s Shanghai outpost, amongst others). I imagined some technological magic had taken place behind the scenes—centrifugal clarification, perhaps, to strip the drink of its creaminess, partnered with power carbonation to rework the drink right into a highball. The primary sip supported my idea—it had all of the notes of a real colada (minus the rum): pineapple brightness and coconut creaminess in a carbonated bundle.
However after I requested Schneider, a Sip & Guzzle co-owner and the drink’s creator, the way it was made, he insisted it was nothing greater than cream sherry and coconut-pineapple seltzer, identical to it says on the menu. I requested if the seltzer was made in-house. “We import it from out of state,” he quipped. By “out of state,” he means the place he lives, in close by New Jersey. The seltzer in query is pineapple-coconut Bubly, a broadly obtainable competitor to LaCroix. It was at house in New Jersey, too, the place Schneider first landed on the concept to combine cream sherry and seltzer, a combo that got here collectively thanks principally to serendipity: “They have been all that I had at my home,” says Schneider of the 2 components.
Like every good highball ought to, it demonstrates the alchemy of two components thoughtfully mixed within the glass to make one thing better than the sum of its components. Schneider poured a pattern of the seltzer by itself and it solely bolstered this notion. Alone, it had solely a touch of the coconut and pineapple taste that comes via when it’s blended with the sherry. “The sherry actually makes the flavour pop,” says Schneider, who notes that he tried different kinds of sherry, however most made the drink too dry. Different flavors of seltzer, nevertheless, are honest sport, as long as they’re sugar-free. “I attempted it with peach seltzer, too, and it had this peaches-and-cream vibe.” Proper now, he provides, “strawberry seltzer has my coronary heart.”
Low-proof and easy-drinking, the Sherry Colada Highball is sort of a Rebujito on a tropical trip, the kind of unfussy, deeply satisfying drink that works any time of day or evening. For Schneider, it’s as excellent in a bar setting as it’s lounging at house. “It’s what I drink when taking part in video video games,” he says. “I can get a buzz, however nonetheless see the unhealthy guys.”
