and veteran bartenders are again faced with the seasonal challenge of slacking the nation’s thirst and doing so with flair, flavor and attendant profits. Selecting the right tools is crucial to the effort.
“Having a good blender behind the bar is invaluable. It allows you to take advantage of a diverse range of ingredients when crafting cocktails, everything from fresh herbs and garden vegetables to caviar to every fruit imaginable,” says Junior Merino, master mixologist, educator and proprietor of The Liquid Chef, a New York-based consultancy. “There’s often no other way to infuse a drink with particular flavors than by preparing it in the blender. Its creative potential is unlimited.”
As evidence, Merino points to a summer creation of his dubbed the MEZCAL AVOCADO. The specialty drink is prepared with Scorpion Mezcal, Agwa Coca Leaf Liqueur, Cointreau, lime sour and fresh avocado. He uses a basil sprig loosely wrapped in a lemon peel spiral as the finishing touch. States Merino, “there’s no way to make this drink properly without a blender.”
Merino adds that these drinks are especially attractive because of the higher margins they yield. Like super models walking the runway, blended specialties are tall, statuesque and make everything they wear look like a million bucks. Little wonder why they command higher prices.
Next time you’re in Rotorua, New Zealand have dinner and drinks at You and Me, a hip downtown eatery featuring the cuisine of celebrity chef “Kaz” Yamamoto. One of the specialties of the house is the GREEN & GOLD DAIQUIRI, a frosty concoction made with silver rum, fresh lemon sour and green and gold Zespri kiwis. The fruit is peeled and blended along
The third summer standout—the WATERMELON KIWI BATIDA—is a fresh fruit variation of the Brazilian favorite. It’s a delightfully refreshing cocktail made with Leblon Cachaça, watermelon chunks, peeled kiwis, condensed milk and sugar. Batidas are tailor-made for the hot weather in Rio de Janeiro and all points north.
The LIQUID POSTRES is a signature drink at the Spanish Kitchen in Los Angeles. Admittedly its primary mission has little to do with quenching thirst, unless of course you’re thirsting for something irresistibly tasty. Best described as an adult milkshake, the specialty is a blend of Godiva Dark Chocolate Liqueur, Kahlúa, Cointreau, Baileys Irish Cream, vanilla ice cream and freshly brewed espresso. On the other hand, sipping the drink is perfectly fabulous when it’s crazy hot outside.
GENERATION NEXT
Thirst quenching and profit-laded as blended drinks are, there are those who contend they’re too labor intensive for their own good. However, if you talk with these individuals a little longer invariably it comes out that they’re working behind the bar with outdated, poorly maintained equipment.
Old, underpowered blenders are loud, grating and do a poor job at making drinks. The problem is that they’re incapable of crushing ice finely enough to thoroughly homogenize the ingredients. Minutes after serving the drinks they start to separate with the ice rising to the top and the other ingredients sinking to the bottom.
The new generation of blenders has made struggling with making frozen drinks a thing of the past. Billed as the “Professional Bartender’s Blender,” the VITA-MIX BARBOSS ADVANCE is such a machine. It sports several significant design improvements that improve drink quality and increase speed of service.
The blender is now outfitted with a 3.5 square inch set of stainless steel blades. Their configuration and larger size have enhanced its performance capacities. The high-tech canister creates a vortex that forces the ingredients to continually circulate downward toward the whirling blades. So powerful is the vortex that it leaves a distinctive, swirl pattern on the surface of the drink—the sign of a perfectly blended drink.
