I had received this tip from a very trust colleague so I visited Bar Gen Yamamoto, a nice cocktail bar that takes reservations up to 7 days in advanced (so much better than Hawai`i with some places requiring reservations up to a month in advanced).
At the end of the course menu, I talked to the bartender about his ideas or philosophy behind these cocktails. I think mentioning them now for context might be beneficial for a blog. I'll start talking about my own biases before moving on to the main discussion.
Typically, when I think about traditional cocktails, I usually imagine the inclusion of ingredients to cut the edge of a harsh spicy whisky or, god forbid, to just mask the taste of alcohol. For example, take an old fashioned (ingredients: whiskey [traditionally Bourbon or Rye], syrup or sugar cube, bitters, ice, maybe lemon peel). Ryes tend to be quite spicy so the addition of sugar and ice helps tone that down while the bitters adds nice small aromatic note (lavender, orange, chocolate, etc.) to potentially highlight or compliment certain aspects of a whisky. Similar ideas or themes can be applied to other classic cocktails, such as Manhattans, martinis, cosmopolitan, etc.
In contrast, the bartender's focus was on using the minimal number of ingredients (~3) but pairing them expertly to have the ingredients compliment one another. Rather than having ingredients being added for the benefit of the whisky, one can imagine the reverse scenario where the spirit can enhance the other ingredients in the cocktail. Can potential quirks of certain ingredients be paired with spirits to compensate or even enhance the existing flavors? Is it possible for the synergy of the ingredients to be so high that the spirit and accompanying ingredients can all be main characters? My goal is to try and communicate the journey I've undertaken to answer the questions above.
The first glass was a Yamanashi Koshu white wine muddled with white peaches. Since the white peaches have just come in season, the flavor is typically sweet but still a bit watery or a bit lacking. However, the inclusion of this dry, almost mineraly, white wine actually provides a nice canvas where the present sweetness from the peach to shine a lot more. The taste ended up having a full peach flavor without any unnecessary sweetness.
The second glass is a pairing of a Japanese summer sake with bayberry. The refreshing, light, gentle flavors of the sake paired quite nicely with this strawberry, raspberry like fruit being muddled in. The bartender described bayberry as having an almost moss green flavor with the berry taste but I think this 'mossy' flavor compliments the sake quite nicely. The rice flavor from the sake and this delicate berry flavor were in such harmony where you could really appreciate both in tandem.
The third glass was a Japanese made gin with konatsu (小夏), topped with cucumber. The makers of the famous sake brand Hakkaisan (八海山) made their own gin with rice and local botanicals, making the transition from sake to spirits quite smooth while also having a touch of mint and citrus come through. The konatsu is an early summer fruit that is a really mild lemon (maybe somewhere inbetween lemons and grapefruit). As a whole, maybe due to the gin, the combination reminded me more of an orange rather than a bright lemon which was cool. The freshness and texture of the cucumber also added a nice touch to the glass.
The fourth glass was a Caol Ila scotch with a bit of club soda and ume juice. The Caol Ila is Islay scotch with a medium peatiness, relative to Ardbeg or Laphroig. However, even with a this somewhat milder smoky whisky, some body or additional flavors to match would be appreciated. Hence, the ume/plum juice was added to add a sour tart note. This combination really lets one appreciate and enjoy the peat in the first sip rather than requiring multiple sips to give one's palette enough time to deal with the initial hit of alcohol. The club soda also provided a lot of breathing room for the ume and whisky to mingle and not get too claustrophobic. I think this was my favorite drink just from how simple but delicious this drink was. My problem is at the end of the day, I think saying this stated like a ume highball with scotch is so succinct but there's something missing, something regarding the balance of the drink. It's so frustrating.
The fifth glass was a shaved ice made with shochu made from sake lees and 'golden special.' In the middle is grated summer daikon (so minimal heat) and the bottom was gari (sp?) ume jam. This one was definitely wild. This grapefruit + mandarin like 'golden special' from Australia/New Zealand somehow paired with the unique grated slightly peppery, mild horseradish flavor and the ume jam quite well. The radish and the plum were quite at odds so the inclusion of the shochu golden special fruit was necessary. I confirmed this by enjoying the shaved ice with the daikon and ume individually. As I recall this glass more, I realized that I was so blown away from the use of daikon in a 'drink' that I don't remember really feeling the shochu but wondered how something like grapefruit could pair with it. I think similar to the second glass, the shochu I think was the main bridge that could make this combination possible.
The sixth glass was a Glendarclas (highland 15 year single malt) mixed with this homemade potato milk (and maybe a touch of soda water), topped with sansho leaves. The cold potato milk/juice (imagine the fragrance of a raw potato) was somehow sweet (maybe because potatoes are in season) and the body of the potato acted as the vehicle to prime one's palette for the Glendarclas amazing bitterness and incredibly satisfying whiskey finish. The sansho pepper definitely overlapped quite a bit with the whiskey's finish so it was nice as the second and third sip. To hammer down a point, sugar has never been added to any of these drinks. The natural sugars of the ingredients, including this potato, is somehow enough to sweeten most of the drinks which, at least for an American, is amazing to see.
The final glass was the most unique. The spirit used was this Helsinki Tyrnipon Tikka, which is a gin/brandy liquer made from something called sea-buckthorn berries. The bartender and myself have no knowledge of sea-buckthorn berries but the way the bartender described this gin/brandy was as an intense fruity brandy (which makes a bit of sense since sea-buckthorn berries grapes. The second ingredient was a "peach pineapple," an Okinawan variant of pineapples that has a mild acidity and sweeter punch. The last ingredient was fresh grated wasabi. A freshly grated sweet horseradish-like fresh heat.
It still makes no sense to my puny monkey brain how wasabi and pineapple can pair so well. Having an involved conversation with the bartender, I tried to parse through his thought process. Revisiting the discussion above, the key to this pairing is the Helsinki brandy. The brandy itself doesn't taste like much aside from this apparent intense fruitiness. However, when paired with this peach-pineapple, it rounds out the pineapple and provides enough fruitiness and sweetness where, similar to the fifth glass, the mild heat and almost zestiness (?) can be addressed head-on. The bartender also noted that the Helsinki brandy and wasabi together would not work since there wasn't enough sweetness to pair well with the fresh wasabi so this ménage à trois is definitely necessary.
As I try to read back through this, I feel like haven't done enough to convey how these seemingly awkward combinations became possible only due to the bartender's expert use of liquer with an instinct one would expect from a Michelin star chef. I almost want to describe this as a Cocktail Kaiseki, where each dish is seemingly simple but the quality of the ingredients and the balance achieved with surgical precision. The beginning was definitely straightforward to describe but as the drink's complexity and creativity escalated, I don't know how to communicate how things like potato & whisky or wasabi & pineapple could work aside from "dude, just try me" without trying to make the drink myself and forcing me to try it. I have a lot of work to do when I return to Blacksburg...
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