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xraytheenforcerSo, at long last I tried an experiment -- one I've been wanting to do for almost a year.
See, in the old days (like, handlebar moustache era), bartenders did not use mere "simple syrup" (that's sugar dissolved in water) to sweeten their cocktails. No. They used something called Sirop de Gomme (aka Gomme syrup), which is simple syrup (usu. 2:1 sugar:water) with dissolved gum arabic**. This mixture entirely changes the character of the cocktail. It makes the drink incredibly smooth and silky -- in short, it's a fucking revelation, and another bald indicator that most bartenders (and bar patrons) don't know what the fuck they're doing these days.
So of course we had to try our new gomme in a variety of cocktails, all of which demand simple syrup, last night. A Commodore. A New York cocktail. A Sazerac. In the end, the Sazerac was the clear winner -- those drinks that are booze-only and that require sweetening will benefit most from the gomme. But it did a creditable job with the Commodore as well.
Now, three cocktails in any evening is going to make me loopy -- I also managed 1/3 of a beer with dinner, but gave the rest to Doug. Amazingly, the only aftereffects of my booze blowout was a wicked headache at 11pm last night, and some crazy-ass dreams about monsters off the coast of Australia. Awesome.
**In my research, I found that gum arabic is a major crop in Sudan, and which has been linked with the entirely fucking awful Sudanese government/Janjaweed. Well, fuck. I'd already bought it and dissolved half the packet in water. No going back after that. Although now I'm kind of curious where else gum arabic (or gum acacia) is found...
See, in the old days (like, handlebar moustache era), bartenders did not use mere "simple syrup" (that's sugar dissolved in water) to sweeten their cocktails. No. They used something called Sirop de Gomme (aka Gomme syrup), which is simple syrup (usu. 2:1 sugar:water) with dissolved gum arabic**. This mixture entirely changes the character of the cocktail. It makes the drink incredibly smooth and silky -- in short, it's a fucking revelation, and another bald indicator that most bartenders (and bar patrons) don't know what the fuck they're doing these days.
So of course we had to try our new gomme in a variety of cocktails, all of which demand simple syrup, last night. A Commodore. A New York cocktail. A Sazerac. In the end, the Sazerac was the clear winner -- those drinks that are booze-only and that require sweetening will benefit most from the gomme. But it did a creditable job with the Commodore as well.
Now, three cocktails in any evening is going to make me loopy -- I also managed 1/3 of a beer with dinner, but gave the rest to Doug. Amazingly, the only aftereffects of my booze blowout was a wicked headache at 11pm last night, and some crazy-ass dreams about monsters off the coast of Australia. Awesome.
**In my research, I found that gum arabic is a major crop in Sudan, and which has been linked with the entirely fucking awful Sudanese government/Janjaweed. Well, fuck. I'd already bought it and dissolved half the packet in water. No going back after that. Although now I'm kind of curious where else gum arabic (or gum acacia) is found...
