Drinking The World

Some days are ho hum. I just flow through life, with little effort, pleasure, or meaning. Other days are filled with excitement or even terror. (Especially back when I was a professional mountain climber, rescue worker, and wilderness guide.) There are days with enlightenment, philosophical and educational. Now, many of my days are boozy times of food and luxury. Being in the food, spirits, and cocktail industry has raised my expectations, expanded my horizons, and even left me somewhat jaded at times. I get invited to events and I wonder, what’s next? Will it be fun? Exciting? Or just plain boring. At the worst of times it’s still pretty good. I get to meet up and chat with my friends, and make some new ones. Across the country, and even around the world, we’re a pretty tight crew. The bartenders and mixologists, spirit brand ambassadors and reps, cocktail/spirit writers and bloggers, fanatic cocktail enthusiasts, and a few others who have a tangible, if not visible presence. I’m glad to know so many, and to call them friends.

The other morning I was invited last minute to fill in for a writer friend, at a rare event. I tasted half a dozen cognacs, culminating with a few sips of a single cask bottling that sent me floating along on a wave of flavor and luxury. The few bottles that will be available will retail for $15,000 each, with only 30 allocated to the U.S, and I walked out of there more than a little blurry around the edges.

Now most people would call it a day. But this was just the start and had at least twelve more hours to go. I sat down at a nice tapas restaurant for something to eat, and a glass of wine, then a beer. I had to quench my thirst a bit and relax after an intense and overwhelming morning. I had an all day and night long event starting just after lunch, and by now I was starting to feel like I was wrapped in cotton wool, feeling no pain. In an unusual turn of events I didn’t know exactly what the next was about, with not even a plan of attack. I was just winging it. Although I had a feeling it might be pretty good, Simon Ford of Plymouth Gin and Absolut Vodka always puts on a great event.

Follow up:

As I walked in, I saw the sign. Absolut Sensory Experience. I briefly wondered what that meant, but saw some friends and started chatting about this and that, while drinking a few glasses of different flavored waters, infused with lemon, lime, and black currant. As everyone arrived we were ushered into a small theater to see a short, four minute video. During the course we were subjected to a visual exploration of sight, sound, aroma and touch. Basically all of the senses but taste. Music and sound effects, wind, fine mist, and various floral and woodsy scents blowing through the room.

We then moved on to a brief, two minute challenge. A blind spirits exam where we had to identify six spirits by scent alone. I heard that the prize for the winners was going to be something good, although not exactly what, so I did my best. But after a morning of tasting and nosing fine cognac, and several hours of walking around the dust filled streets of NYC, my sense of scent was almost gone. I was also, shall we say, feeling a mite happy after the morning event and lunch. Four of the spirits were easily identified, the other two less so. I knew I wasn’t winning any prizes today.

The next few hours we had an interactive spirits tasting and discussion. We tasted a few flights of vodkas and explored their flavor profiles, identifying whether they were made from corn, wheat, rye, potato, etc. Many of us attending have been studying spirits for awhile, so the discussion was, shall we say, spirited.

By now I was completely exhausted. I had been tasting, and drinking, spirits; from mid-morning until early evening. Probably a good eight hours. The last few without much in the way of sustenance, just some dessert-like nibbles offered here and there. I’m not one for sweet stuff, so I hadn’t really had much of those. It was dinner time and I wanted some food. I had heard that the food menu was being created by a good chef, but since we were in an event space I figured it was going to be catered. Well at least it would be a solid meal, probably something simple, but tasty and filling.

The tasting seminars wrapped up and we made our way to a "Vodka Speakeasy" Where Dave Wondrich discussed, and created, early 20th century vodka cocktails for us.

After sipping cocktails for half an hour or so we moved to the dining area, passing through thick black curtains, into a dimly lit space. Two long tables ran parallel to each other, each with settings for 20. I started to get interested as the tables were mirrors, around three to four feet wide, and 20 something feet long. Dim lights, black curtains, and mirrored tables, with mirror silhouettes of the unmistakable Absolut vodka bottles standing here and there upon the tables, reflecting the light in a mellow gleam.

The forty of us sat down, and chatted while we waited for dinner to be served. That is when I was startled. Grant Achatz of Chicago’s Alinea, one of the top ten restaurants in the world, and second only to Ferran Adrià in the field of Molecular Gastronomy, had designed the meal, and six of his chef ‘s were here. This was going to be interesting.

Then I got an actual shock. The chef who was starting to describe the dinner was Grant Achatz himself. He, and his staff, had come from Chicago, to create and serve our meal. Eleven courses of molecular mind tricks, all to play with our senses, using Absolut vodka’s as part of the sensory experience. Um, can I say bluntly, WOW!?

The dinner was a several hour long series of bites of whacky weirdness. What you saw, and what you ate, weren’t necessarily what you thought they were. Foods were served in very non-traditional ways. Describing the meal is more about the experience, and with so many strange things going on it was hard to stay centered on the meal. The experience started to take over, and like a roller coaster, we were just along for the ride. I’ll try to explain what it was like for me, but I think the photos will help.

The Absolut Sensory Experience Dinner with Grant Achatz

We started with an edible cocktail called Tomato- Absolut vodka, horseradish, celery. This was a de-constructed/re-constructed edible Bloody Mary. Formed of what I think was called a ‘lemon’ cherry tomato; flavored with vodka, horseradish, and celery. An explosion of the essence of a Bloody Mary, in solid form. Fun, tasty, kinda cool.

Then we moved on to a traditional starter, caviar. Osetra: Osetra caviar, with traditional garnishes- but the garnishes spun out into distillations, creams, and foams. Served with a delicate cocktail pairing: Absolut, anise, lemon, coriander- a tiny glass of super chilled Absolut vodka with two personal atomizer bottles containing lemon essence and anise essence to spray in your glass or mouth between sips.

Next, Lobster: mango, vacherin, vanilla bean fragrance- Imagine a chunk of the finest lobster tempura, fried just the slightest bit crispy outside, perfectly moist and tender meat inside. Then impaled on a vanilla bean skewer. As it sat for a minute the vanilla essence permeated the lobster. I then popped this in my mouth, and tried to chew and smile and groan with pleasure; all at the same time. Then I sucked on the vanilla bean afterward for more of that deep, winey, rich, vanilla godliness. (Yes, godliness, not goodness.) Note: I popped the lobster tempura in my mouth so fast I forgot to take a pic. I'll try to post one from someone else as soon as possible.

With the lobster was a cocktail pairing: Absolut Mandarin, orange, kaffir lime leaves, lemon grass, Benedictine, lemon. The cocktail was all about the complexity of multiple layers of citrus flavor and fragrance building upon each other, and cleansing the palate from the wonderful overload of lobster and vanilla.

Then another edible cocktail: Passion fruit: Absolut, cranberry, orange- a passion fruit half, scooped out, mixed with Absolut vodka, cranberry, and orange, then put back in the shell. A sip of tart, sweet, and tangy fruity fun. An edible cocktail shooter riffing on the classic New Orleans "Hurricane" recipe, back when Pat O’Brians bar actually made the original recipe from scratch.

On to the next, Bass: shellfish, chamomile, lemon- served as a bowl within a bowl, outside bowl full of chamomile, hot water added just before digging in, floral steam then wafted up, surrounding your head in the relaxing fragrance as you dug in to the bass and shellfish surrounded by a delicate creamy lemon/chamomile sauce, with beads of saffron tapioca. The cocktail pairing: Absolut Ruby Red, ginger liqueur, honey, honeydew melon, lemon.

Then my favorite of the night, described as Black Truffle: explosion, romaine, parmesan. This was an ethereal ‘soup’ dumpling made with an eggy pasta, filled with black truffle stock. Then topped with romaine, Parmigiano Reggiano, and a slice of black truffle. As I announced to my tablemates, I wanted a big bowl of twenty of these dumplings, and a quiet place to enjoy them. They exactly fit my flavor profile and I was very happy, until the last of the earthy flavors faded away. The cocktail pairing: Absolut Pear, cranberry, sherry, lemon, chocolate.

Things started to get confusing with the next course, Short rib: beet, Campari, fennel. The short rib was good, but by this point there was so much going on, that I was starting to have a mild, out of body experience. The ups and downs, the sudden turns, were making me dizzy. Also all the mini-cocktails, not to mention bottles of vodka passed around to chug from, didn’t hurt. Cocktail pairing: Absolut Raspberri, Carpano Antica vermouth, chocolate bitters, blackberry, cranberry.

Along came another edible cocktail: Cherry- Smoked Absolut, Carpano Antica, maraschino- I think this was supposed to be a riff on a Martinez cocktail.

At some point things started to really loosen up and Gary "Gaz" Regan started passing a bottle of Absolut vodka around the table.

I start to succumb to peer pressure.

Visually startling was the Bacon: butterscotch, apple, thyme- Acrobatic, aromatic, bacon; hanging from a swinging trapeze; coated with papery flakes of butterscotch. With a cocktail pairing: Absolut Vanilla, bay leaves, maple syrup, old fashioned bitters.

Another edible cocktail: Bubble Gum- Absolut, crème fraiche, hibiscus- a 'Bubble Yum, Bubble Gum' straw of vodka, creme fraiche, and hibiscus.

At this point I was in an alcohol and sugar induced high, confused, but having fun. The sweetness had me off balance. I really don’t care for so much sugary stuff, especially with only a few savory bites. But as I said earlier, I was just along for the ride, wherever it took me.

For the final presentation, course, whatever you may call it, we were asked to stand.

Chairs were whisked away, the tables were cleaned, then sanitized, or maybe anointed, and I’m not sure which, with copious amounts of Absolut vodka. This was then polished up until the mirror surface was clean and shining.

This last course was called Chocolate: coconut, menthol, hyssop. And the cocktail pairing: Absolut Kurrant, coffee beans, lychee, lime, coconut. How to describe what came next? At this point things went completely insane. A half dozen or more chefs and servers came out and started putting... Stuff... on the tables. Inverted glass cylinders into which they poured thick chocolate.

And various creams which they painted onto the table.

And piling assorted crumbs and fillings and such around the table in a delirious sweep of abstract edible art.

And softball size chunks of what looked like cookie balls, that steamed with the effect of freezing with liquid nitrogen. These were then tapped with spoons, whereupon they literally exploded across the tables.

After ten minutes of the "Painting the Canvass" we were all set with spoons and cocktails and proceeded to tentatively spoon up dessert. Confusion, almost panic set in. Nervous giggling, outright laughter, photos, video, complete and total insanity infused the air. It was complete mayhem. Then an intensity took over and all forty of us dug in.

As the table started to clear, we had to really lean over and dig in to get the last tasty bits.

And some went the final step... OK, maybe we hammed it up a bit at the end.

All in all it was an intense, long, spirited, Absolut-ely Sensory Experience, that left half of us drained, the other half enervated. Many went out for an after party at Rye, but for me it was the end of a very long day. So with my goody bag in hand, an Absolut suitcase cocktail kit, I hopped in a taxi to catch a train home.