DrinkedIn Trends

Hi, everyone! This is Chris from ABarAbove.com and today we’re going to check back on an infusion we started a couple of weeks ago.
So for those of you that missed the first episode, I’m just going to recap what we’ve done so far. So in this jar we have about 1.75 liters of vodka, the skins of 15 lemons, and essentially, that’s about it. I’ve stirred it every day for the last two weeks, I’ve kept it in a nice dark environment, and you know there’s kind of a lot of hangouts. Today we’re going to strain all this out and we’re also going to talk about some of the theories and the general technique behind infusions.

So now that we’re going to put everything in the glass container, let’s take a look of what’s going to happen to once it gets in there. On the left you have the fruits that you’re going to be utilizing and on the right you have the alcohol in a container. So we’re going to add all these ingredients to get in into the glass container. And now that it’s keeping in the alcohol, all the essence of the fruit is going to escape the fruit and go into the alcohol, so all the oils, all the sugars, and any of the juices that are left over, they’re going to try to make their way into the alcohol. And when that happens, the alcohol is going to rush in and fill up the rest of the fruit with the alcohol. So this process will continue to happen until what you’re left with is Boozy Fruit and Fruity Booze. And like I said, it’s going to go to a point of equilibrium, so that way the fruit that’s left over will have the same alcohol as the alcohol that you want to use, and the alcohol will have the same amount of fruit essence (the oils and the sugars and the juice) as left over fruit as well. So they’ll reach that level of equilibrium.

Now on the previous video on infusions, we mentioned that you should stir your infusion daily and also keep it in a dark place. Now the reason why you’re going to want to stir this is because, if you don’t, one of the things that I noticed in the past is that if I leave the infusion for a few days and come back to stir it, it actually creates a swirl of sugars and juices around it. So what’s happening there is, around the perimeter of this lemon zest here, the materials on both sides of the lemon zest are exactly the same. So the lemon essence inside the lemon is the same as the essence of the lemon on the outside of it within a very small area. And once you stir it, it introduces vodka into that localized area and now the extraction can happen again. Now the reason why you want to keep it in a dark place is you don’t want these chemicals that you’re extracting to start to break down. You have a lot of oils in there, a lot of sugar, a lot of other compounds, and if they hit some light they’re going to start to deteriorate. So you want to preserve the freshness and vibrancy of your infusion.

So now let’s examine something else that’s going to have an impact on the rate of infusion for you and that just general surface area. So to make this easier to explain, let’s take out this simple cube of fruit that we have here. And the way you’re going to calculate surface area is just measure up all the sides, add them all up, and essentially that’s going to be your surface area. So for this we have 2 in. wide by 2 in. long, and 2 in. high, and your total surface area for this for each side is going to be 24 sq. in. Now to increase the amount of surface area that we have, a simple way to do that is just to cut it right down the center. And what that’s going to do is it’s going to expose that center that was previously still together and increase the amount of surface area that we are infusing. So the new surface area that we have is 32 sq. in. Now if you look at the two pieces, the 32 sq. in. gives us a lot more surface area for alcohol to interact with the infused the material. And what’s going to happen is that extractions will be a lot faster. So the amount of surface area that we have increased just by that one simple cut is 33%.

So let’s take a better look at our example here. So we’re infusing lemon peels into vodka. And the thickness of the lemon peels is not very thick at all. So can’t really cut it in half lengthwise, and even if you did it on the width, it doesn’t really expose a lot of more of the surface area here. Now we could also do even smaller cuts, like a julienne or small dice but it’s not really going to add a lot to the overall essence of the infusion. They will start to add up after time, but the easier thing to go about this is simply to just add more material. So in this case, adding more lemon zest will make the infusion happen faster. So here’s an example: just by adding more material to it, it cuts down the time from three (3) days with one (1) lemon to one (1) day with three (3) lemon skins, and it achieves the same goal. Now, let’s take a look at if we hold all the other things constant. So let’s say we have the one (1) lemon for five (5) days or the three (3) lemons for (5) days. The overall lemon quality and the lemon flavor is going to be much more pronounced after the end of five days. Now just to make it simple: the amount of flavor that you can extract from a material is going to be much higher the higher the mass of the product is. So very simply, the more lemons you can put in this, the higher the extraction, the more lemon-ification is going to happen.

Hi this is Chris from Abarabove.com. Today we will be exploring the new trends in mixology and examining some of the new standards that are out there, so stay tuned.

New Trends in Mixology

Pre-Batched Cocktails

One of the new trends that we are seeing in the market right now, is focused on how we deliver our cocktails to our guests. Pre-batched cocktails are becoming a new trend out there. One example is Canon in Seattle who bottle carbonate pre batched cocktails so they can give to their guests table-side, or if you are in a busy bar you can have this in your back pocket. When 15 people walk up and say what do you recommend? “We have these amazing drinks, that are in these cool bottles, they are fantastic and I highly recommend them.” It cuts down on your execution time and they are still fun.

Cocktails on Tap

Another place that comes to mind is a place called Jaspers corner in San Francisco. What they are doing is unique and different and following the same path that wine has taken over the last few years. They will pre-batch their Negronis and place them in a keg and have them on tap. So with the same philosophy, you can be in a busy bar and have amazing cocktails and still be able to interact with your guests.

Soda Programs

Another trend that we are seeing in the market now is that many of the high end bars are complimenting their amazing cocktail program with an equally amazing soda program. There are quite a few of them out there right now that are doing this. Slanted door is one of the first that comes to mind. There is new establishment that opened a little over a year ago in San Francisco called Ice Cream Bar that focus strictly on these old soda Fountain style sodas and creating this cool experience. Definitely keep an eye on this trend.

Nitro Infusion

One of the new techniques that I’ve seen that is making its way through the mixology community is a technique called nitro infusion. Essentially what you are doing is you’re cutting down the amount of time that an infusion takes from hours, days, months down to literally seconds or minutes. How you do it is to put your ingredients that you want to infuse into an iSi whip cream canister, with your alcohol. Next close the canister and add a nitro charge to it while shaking. Then add one more nitro charge and shake it a little more and let it rest for a few moments. Next you will release the pressure from the canister and after all the pressure has been released, then open the canister and you’re done. This will give you a lot of freedom to concept out drinks and create infusions and bitters on the fly. This is very powerful technique to have and master behind the bar.

Hi, everyone! This is Chris from ABarAbove.com and today we’re going to be doing one of my new types of posts and that is experimenting. And today we’re going to be experimenting with ice.

So I’ve been running a barrel-aged cocktail program for the last year and a half and I’ve always had this thought at the back of my head, “Hey, wouldn’t it be interesting to fill these barrels that I’ve been using over the last year and a half or so with water, extract some of the flavors that have been building inside these barrels, make ice out of that water, and see if it contributes to or detracts from the cocktail?” So what I have in this barrel here is–in the interior lining, obviously, the wood has soaked up a lot of the characteristics of the bourbon and the sweets removed and the bitters that I’ve added to it–but this is full of water at the moment. I’ve actually let the water sit for about 10 to 14 days. And what I’m going to do is pull the water out of that barrel, I’m going to freeze it, and then we’re going to examine the ice that comes out of it after it’s all frozen. And after that point, we’re going to make a cocktail or probably just pour some bourbon over the ice and see if it helps or detracts from the final taste of the whiskey or bourbon. So that’s the plan. Let’s see what happens. And you’ll be able to see pretty quickly what happens just by my face: it’s that disgusting and it’s going to be hilarious to watch. So stay tuned!

So now we’re going to pour the water from the barrel into the glass. We want to show you the color changed that’s happened over the last two weeks that the water has been in contact with all that wood and the bourbon. So you can definitely see the color change that’s happened. So here we have the two different ice side by side. This one here is the regular ice: all of this is water. And this one here is our barrel ice. And you can immediately see the color difference. What we might not be able to see on camera is the textural difference between the two: the barrel ice has a lot more crystals in it, it just got a texture all the way through it, whereas the ice is just like ice that you would get in a restaurant. The one thing that you might not be able to see is, but that we’re noticing, is just how much faster the barrel ice is melting versus the regular standard ice. Obviously, there’s alcohol that is present in this ice just because it’s in the barrel. So it doesn’t surprise me that it’s melting so much faster. The biggest shock to me is actually just the crystal structure on the ice that is different between the two. Shouldn’t be that big as a surprise, but it’s just an interesting observation.

So there you have it. It’s been an interesting experiment and something that I will probably have fun with in the future. One of the applications that I’m already seeing right now is, as the ice melts, it actually imparts a lot more flavor to the drink. The one obvious point is that, if I was going to serve a barrel-aged Manhattan on the rocks, why not use the ice from the water from that exact same barrel? It’s essentially the same thing as–you’ve probably heard of the term–“branch water.” So you’re returning or adding more flavor to it than you would normally with just regular ice. So that’s the first application I see. The second application I see is that, if you want to add another interesting way or flavor with a completely different cocktail, that’s something you can do with this. It’s going to be really, really subtle, but it’s definitely a possibility. I wouldn’t recommend shaking with the barrel ice. I don’t know if you can see it or not, but it fractures a lot easier than regular ice. I can see the crystals running all the way through it and it kind of breaks apart pretty quickly and it melts very quickly. So I’d probably suggest not using it for shaking, but definitely, if you’re going to be stirring cocktail, I can see this being a really interesting addition to it. Or if you’re just putting cocktail over ice, this’ll be another additional layer of complexity that you add to your final drink. So those are my thoughts on barrel-aged ice and we’ll continue to have fun and experiment with this in different ways. One of my wife’s thoughts that she brought out to me before filming was, “Hey, wouldn’t it be interesting to take the water out of the barrel carbonated and served it in the cocktail?” So we might try that next. So stay tuned, but until then have a great shift and we look forward to seeing you next time. Cheers!

Hi, everyone this is Chris from ABarAbove.com and today we’re doing a contribution to Mixology Monday No. 76. And the subject today is fire!

So the cocktail that we’re going to make for you today is what I’ve called the Apple of Discord. Essentially it’s a take on a Pisco Sour with a Torontel style Pisco. I always know nice apple flavor with that particular type of Pisco. So essentially this is going to be an apple-spiced Pisco Sour.

So I’m going to go ahead and build the cocktail for you and show you what’s in it. So we have 2 oz. of the Pisco Torontel. We have 3/4 oz. of Granny Smith apple and 1/2 oz. of lemon juice for some more acidity. Earlier I made a hard spice syrup with cinnamon, clove, and a little allspice. I’ll put the recipe down in the show notes for you. But we’re just going to use 1/2 oz. of rich spice simple syrup. There we are. And one of the final touches, we’re going to do 3/4 oz. of egg whites in there. And now we’re going to add our little spring ball to get a nice foam out of it and shake it all up. So we’ll do a dry shake to build up some of the egg whites & proteins in there. And now we’re going to add some ice to chill the cocktail down. I realized we haven’t implemented any fire to this cocktail, but that’s definitely coming soon. So now we’re just going to chill the cocktail down. And we’re going to strain it in right into our cute glass. Perfect, beautiful egg foam right across the top. And now, the garnish portion.

Now for the garnish portion of this, we’re actually just going to take a melon baller and a Granny Smith apple and cut a big circular piece of apple right out of it and comes right out and we’re going to skewer it with a nice long pick. And now we’re going to add a little bit of cinnamon sugar and cook the whole thing in there and cut the whole thing in there. And I think you’re probably seeing what I’m going to do with this now. So now that we have this cinnamon-sugar-coated apple, we’re going to incorporate the theme now: fire. But why am I going to use this cute little brulee torch? Well, it’s very effective and gets the job done. But I have a better option: Propane torch. I’m sure you can see brulee-ing this apple up and doing this nice caramel coating around the outside of it, just like you would a creme brulee. Smells amazing, by the way. So now that we’re done brulee-ing our apple, were going to put the finishing touch on this cocktail. So in my little spritzer here, I have a cardamom tincture which is essentially just some cardamom in 100-proof vodka. I going to put out a couple of squirts across the top, really get that dose of the cocktail going. I’m just going to let sit the garnish right across the top. And I warn you, the minute you make one of these, you’re going to be making ten more. So just be prepared for a busy night and have a great shift, guys! Cheers!

Hi this is Chris from ABarAbove.com and today we’re going to learn on of the essential steps, one of the building blocks in mixology, and that is infusions.

Now before we begin learning about infusions, I highly recommend that you look into your local laws, I remember back in 2010 I was managing restaurants and I would here that the ABC was going after the highest profile bars in San Francisco. They were raiding them and seizing all the infused alcohol they had and making them pour the infusions down the drains. There were also penalties and fines involved, not only that, but you don’t want to be on the ABC’s radar for breaking the law.

Now in 2011, we are very fortunate in that California passed Senate Bill SB 32 which overturned that law and allowed us to legally infuse alcohol and serve to our guests. Now not every state is that lucky. I know that in Tennessee right now, as of June 2013, the ABC is actively going after any restaurant that is infusing alcohol and serving it to their guest. So make sure that you understand the laws in your state, and county.

The general principles of infusion are very easy, essentially you are just making an alcoholic tea. You are going to add whatever substance you are going to infuse in your alcohol in a glass container, and just pour your alcohol over the top of it. The alcohol is then going to strip away any of the oils, sugars or juices that are present in the infusion jar. So the process couldn’t be easier.

Now that we have all scientific mumbo jumbo and legal jargon out of the way, let’s get hands on with this and have a little fun. I’ve prepared 15 lemons by rinsing them off and make sure there is nothing on the outside layer. Now I am just going to zest this away from the pith. When you do that, oils will be expressed and be released into the environment. I have prepared a bowl with a little alcohol, in this case vodka, and I’m going to try to capture as much of the oils as possible. What you’re going to do is drag your peeler right across the top. The other thing you want to make sure is that you are not adding any of the pith, or the white portion of any citrus, as it is the most bitter portion of the fruit and will make your infusion bitter. The peeler I have I actually spent a year looking for this exact one, testing a few of them out and finally finding this peeler. This peeler is very good at just removing the rind and not grabbing much of the white pith underneath. I remember that before I found this peeler I would have to make a pile of these lemon skins on a table and slowly begin to skin away the white pith from the rinds. At that point I would have to do 2-3 times as much work. So find a good quality zester if you can and experiment with it until you find something that works, you want the right tools for the job. I will post a link to the same one I found and hopefully it will be the same experience for you.

So we’re getting ready to juice and I realized that, in the past, I’ve always had to use a blender to make juices, I would have to separate the solids out and then have my juices after that. It was kind of a laborious process, but I didn’t mind because I didn’t know any better. My wife saw the process and all the hard work I had to put in just to make simple syrups and juices. So for Christmas, she got me a juice extractor and, man, it has made the world the difference already. So I’m gonna break this pineapple down. We’re going to juice it in a blender and we’re also going to juice it in a juice extractor and we’re going to show you which one you’ll enjoy. But until then, I’m going to show you how to break down this pineapple and get ready for juicing.

So the first thing you want to do when you break down this pineapple is to first take off the top, separate the two. So this is a fun little hat for later, which we’ll keep. The other thing is, you’re going to do a lot of cutting so you want to create a very flat base here. Now that it’s a little flat, you’re just going to shave down the sides here and get it ready for juicing… Now one of the things you’ll notice is you’ll have a lot of the brown segments on here, you’re going to want to go all the way down past that… So there we have it: we have a nice, trimmed piece of pineapple. We’re just going to cut it in half for the two different processes. Now the other thing you want to do is make sure that you cut out the center of the pineapple. So I’ll go ahead and do that to both sides. Now if you’re using blender, you’re going to have them cut into smaller bits and smaller pieces. So we’ll do that now and the reason we’re doing this is just to give the blender an opportunity to succeed… And then for the juicer, you can leave it in pretty large pieces. There you have it.

So now we’re going to load up the pineapples here into the blender. Make sure you don’t drop them all over the place like I do. And do yourself a favor: make sure you put the lid back on. It gets quite messy real quick if you don’t. You’re just going to get a rough chop on it, so we’re just going to go up the series until we get to liquefy. We’re going to stand and liquefy for a little while here. And if it’s not juicing, we’re going to add a little bit of water just to get everything going. So here we go… And there you have it. And now that we have it liquefied, we’re actually just going to strain everything out through a shinwa or have a strainer here. If you’re the restaurant/bar, you’re probably going to have a shinwa or some cheesecloth, that’s what I recommend you using. And the purpose for this is just to separate the liquids from the solids. This is essentially what you’re going to be serving your guests, so make sure that it’s palatable and presentable… There it is, and so we’re just going to let it sit and drain for a while. And now we’re going in to the juicing machine here. So now we’re just going to juice the pineapple in the juice extractor here. And it’s really complicated. I’ll show you things are done here. Don’t worry you’re in safe hands. So we’re just going to load this thing up. I always feel like the Dock in Back to the Future putting beer cans and banana peels in this thing. And then you’re just going to hit this button. And there you have it: pineapple juice!

Here we have two different juices. The one on your left is going to be the blender, the one on your right is going to be the juice extractor. I guess you can see the clear difference of the two already: the one on the blender is obviously a lot more volume and some of the things you might not be able to see at home is that there’s a lot more solid material in this glass than the other. I have strained this out just about a minute or two ago and it’s already reduced in volume substantially. So one of the other things is that when tasting it the one from the blender is a lot more foamy, it’s a lot more aerated than the one from the juice extractor, which just tastes richer and juicier and it just tastes like juice. So for the amount of effort and the final product, the juice extractor is definitely for me the way to go.

Now that we have our pineapples juiced and our cocktail made, I’m going to go ahead and drink this delicious beverage and wish you guys have a great shift. And we’ll see you next time!

Hi everyone, we’re outside the Hotel Monteleone, we’ve been here for a few days now and now we’re going to give you some tips for the next time you come to Tales of the Cocktail.

So depending on your reasoning for going to Tales of the Cocktail, you definitely want to set your priorities differently. If you’re going primarily for an educational experience, I would definitely put the Seminars at the top of your priority list. This is going to give you an opportunity to meet leaders in the industry, shake their hands and trade business cards which is very powerful. So obviously make sure you have a stack of business cards with you, or if you need to create some business cards or personal cards so that you will be able to hand them out to people that you meet at Tales of the Cocktail. They should contain all of the pertinent information – your name, phone number and email address. And any other ways that you can think of for them to get into contact with you, either through Facebook, twitter or some other cool piece of technology that I haven’t even heard of yet. Keep that in mind when you’re going to Tales.

The other thing is that you will have an opportunity to see some brand new products before anybody else will in the world. It’s really cool – I got to see the brand new Perlini Carbonating system. It’s meant to batch large quantities of cocktails for bottle carbonated programs. We’re talking about like 2-300 at a time. It’s a really cool experience and I got to see it before anybody else did.

The last thing is that you might be attending seminars that you don’t know much about. So I got to go to a Seminar about the Molecular Mixology topic this year. They really focused on a lot of the details, and it would have taken me a few months to figure all of these items out, if I would have ever been able to. So you get a really deep knowledge from some of these Seminars, so it’s another benefit of the Seminars.

Now the Tasting rooms can be an educational experience as well. Now the brands that are there want you to ask questions and they want to teach out about their brands, they want you to understand who they are and what they do. Feel free to ask questions.

So today we’re going to have a conversation about the difference between the two, define the two different roles, and kind of show you what my intentions are with this business, which is to create a platform for mixologists.   So if you’ve been in the business long enough or if you’re a cocktail aficionado, the term “mixologist” can mean many different things: it could be the bar chef, it could be the guy behind the bar that knows the most about cocktails, it could mean that you have the most tattoos and a handlebar mustache and a bad attitude. You see, there are many different meanings and connotations on the word mixologist.

The one I liked the most is actually from an interview done with Dale DeGroff, who is essentially the one man responsible for creating this type of bartending or bringing this back to light from the historic times. His definition of mixologist was, back in the 1800s, they were the caretakers of the product behind the bar so they would receive barrels of whiskey that were still at barrel strength. And their job as mixologists was to bring that barrel strength whisky down to drinkable level by adding water to it. Also, they would be responsible for making products like gum syrup and fresh juices and creating the recipes that the patrons would be drinking for the day.   I believe that we can take a lot from that context and bring all that information to modern setting.

Hi, everyone. This is Chris from ABarAbove.com and today we’re going to be focusing on egg whites and how to incorporate them into your drinks. I remember when I was making the jump from bar tender to mixologist, I was doing a lot of research on classic cocktails and every once in a while, egg whites will pop up as an ingredient. And I’m not going to lie to you, it kind of freaked me a little bit just incorporating raw, uncooked eggs into a drink and then consuming them. But I’m here to assure you that I tried it, I loved it, and I’m so here to talk about it. And if you think about it, there’s so much alcohol in citrus in the drinks that utilize egg whites that it actually cleanses it and makes it okay and very safe to drink you have nothing to worry about.

So the drink that we’re going to be focusing on today is the Pisco Sour. It actually came from Peru and Pisco is a Peruvian brandy and traditionally you will use egg whites in this cocktail. But today we’re going to do a side by side comparison with and without the egg whites just to show the differences between the two.

So here on my left, we’ve already made one of the Pisco Sours without egg whites. So the ingredients are: Pisco, lemon juice, and rich simple syrup. And here on my Cheater Tin, I have the exact same ingredients as the first cocktail but I have left out the egg whites. And so I’m going to add the egg whites into the drink, shake it up, and then we’re going to see the difference between the two.

So let’s go ahead and get started with that. There you are. And with any egg white drink, you’re going to want to dry shake the cocktail and that means not putting any ice in there at all. And the reason for it is that you want to incorporate as much air as possible into the drink and break up the proteins of the egg and essentially you create this nice emulsion or foam that’s going to be resting right across the top of the cocktail. So there you are. And now let’s add some ice. We’re going to chill this drink down and just kind of see how it looks in the cocktail. So I’m just going to add some ice into this mixing tin, give it a good couple of shakes, and enjoy another tasty beverage.

So one of the things to also remember is when you’re shaking cocktails, you always want to have the smaller portion of your tins behind you, because what’s going to happen is, one of these days, this is going to break open and the contents are going to go flying. And if it’s the other way around, it’s going to go flying in front of your guests. So you always want to have it pointing backwards. And maybe one of these days in one of these videos it’s going to break open, it’s going to splatter everywhere. And trust me, I’m not going to edit that out; I want you guys to get to see that. But until then, let’s go ahead and chill this cocktail down.

The three types of strainers that we have here are: the Julep strainer, the Hawthorne strainer which is characterized by having a spring that you can press, and the fine strainer here which we’ll use with shakes and cocktails. Great, so now let’s take a look and see how they all fit together and how to use these tools properly.

So let’s start off with our Julep strainer. The Julep strainer is actually designed to fit in these three glasses. So if you use a mixing glass behind your bar, it’s meant to go rather across the top, strain out any of the solids, the ice pieces and stuff like that. Also if you’re using a Cheater Tin, just put it right inside and you can pour very nicely out of it. And if you’re accustomed using glass, just put it nicely right on top of it and once again it separates all your big pieces.

We’re going to primarily focus on the two types of citrus that were going to use to balance out your sweet. We got Lemons and Limes. I’m sure you’re very familiar with both. We’re just going to go through the brief characteristics of (them) and how do you use them to make cocktails.

So lemons obviously yellow flesh you have pretty significant white pith on the inside of it, which will contribute to bittering. There’s kind of a bitter note to it. And you have the flesh on the inside, also very yellow and when you juice it, the yellow comes through it in a drink, in a cocktail as well. You don’t want to take a bite have of this like you would do in an apple cause obviously you have pretty sour element to it. If your familiar with PH scale from high school, the PH of 0 very highly acidic and the PH of 14 is very very basic and alkaline. So the lower you go toward 0 the more acidic you’re going to get, the higher you go up to the 14 goes up to the basic area. The acidity on the Lemon, a Eureka Lemon like this one, is going to be anywhere from 2.2 to 2.5. Some other things to note, are the characteristics of the oils that we associate with Lemons. In the flesh, the yellow portion of the lemon is where the oils are and the oils to me smell like “clean.” You know it has its really clean resonance to it and a lot of cleaning companies actually use it as one of the scents they have for cleaning products.

So we’re going to do another side-by-side comparison with a different cocktail – one of my favorites – the Manhattan, just to show you what’s going on with the spirit and let you decide which one you want to serve your guest. In these two glasses, I have exactly the same cocktail: 2 oz Maker’s Mark 1oz Punt y Mes sweet Vermouth 2 dashes Angostoura Bitters I’m going to go through the same exercise. I’m going to stir this one down and I’m going to shake that one up. You really want to add a lot of ice to this drink if you’re going to be stirring it to get it nice and cold as possible. There we are. Let’s give it stir. I remember hearing once that you want to hear a total of 40 times, 20 in each direction. I don’t know about you, but I can never keep track. So I usually do about 10 seconds, and that’ll give you a nice cold chill on your Manhattan or the drink that you’re mixing. Great. I hope you weren’t counting…

Here we are. So one of the things I want you to pay attention to is the texture of the cocktail as it comes out. I’m not sure if you can see it but the spirit itself is nice and crystal clear. It has a nice thick, viscous quality to the cocktail that is fantastic- that is exactly what we are looking for with a stirred drink. So the next drink – the same exact drink we’re doing, is a Manhattan, and we’re going to shake this one up. Once again you’re going to want to make sure this one is pointed straight back, so that way if it ever opens up, that it’s going to go behind you and not in front of you and not towards the customer. One of these days we might actually see that on film, but until then let’s go ahead and finish this one up. Great. As with any cocktail that you shake, you’re going to go ahead and fine-strain this one to get all of the ice particles out and if you have any juice, to get any juice particles out.