{ Good to the

Last Drop
Creating a successful cocktail involves more
than researching mixers and spirits.
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By Jack Robertiello

E Do Your
very bartender dreams of creating a winning

cocktail. While taking the prize can help
him or her gain career recognition, it does
not always lead to the creation of drinks with
widespread marketability.
Rolling out cocktails that will gain mass acceptance
demands a sound product development strategy. In addi-
tion to research and tasting, this includes constant recipe
tweaking as well as the ability to hit the right price point
and establish an appropriate market position.
To find out what it takes to really win in the game
of cocktail creation, Cheers conferred with consultants
and beverage executives at independent and chain res-
Homework
Use every available source to stay on top of current bever-
age trends, says David Commer of Carrolton, Texas-based
Commer Beverage Solutions. Commer uses the Internet to
track flavor and trend ideas, reads beverage magazines, signs
up for e-mail newsletters and “sits in on any and all trend or
research presentations I can find.”
The types of resources that Commer recommends can
be valuable sources of inspiration, says Tracy Finklang,
corporate beverage manager for Louisville, Colo.-based

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taurants, as well as with bartenders who have built their
own successful drink programs. The result is 10 tips that
are crucial to good drink development.
Rock Bottom Restaurants, which operates 36 Rock
Bottom Restaurant & Breweries and 100 Old Chicago
Pasta & Pizza restaurants. “I never use their recipes,” she
says. “But I definitely get new ideas.”

Be a History Buff
“You definitely need to know the history of our profession,” says Gina Chersevani, mixologist at Arlington, Va.’s
EatBar. “If you don’t, you’re selling yourself short.” A grounding in drink history helps with interpreting drink
trends, and it lays a solid foundation for successful flavor combinations. “For instance, knowing when and how
limes were introduced to the D.C. area helps explain why the Lime Rickey once was so popular here,” she says.
Eric Felton’s How’s Your Drink? (Agate Surrey, 2007) and Imbibe! (Perigee Trade, 2007), by David Wondrich, are
invaluable, she says.
Older, pre-Prohibition drink books are particularly in vogue now. But the recipes often need to be modernized,
says Jamie Boudreau, who now oversees the drink program at Seattle’s Tini Bigs.
Sometimes, research takes cocktail crafters down odd streets. For the drink program they developed for the
high-concept Apothecary in Philadelphia, Tippling Brothers consultants Tad Carducci and Paul Tanguay pored
over medical, holistic healing and natural remedy books as well as web sites. They boned up on traditional uses of
roots, herbs, flowers and tinctures in an attempt to create an anti-stress drink that helped digestion. Their result,
Meditation on 13th Street, is made with holy basil, kava kava and rosemary essences. It is billed as an “opponent
of stress and malcontent.”

www.cheersonline.com JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2009 | 21

3 Establish a Clear
(and Realistic) Vision
Tanguay says it is important to understand the
environment in which the cocktail will be served
before developing the drink. At the same time,
adds Carducci, having realistic expectations is key.
Willie Shine, who heads up the New York-
based consultancy Contemporary Cocktails
with partner Aisha Sharpe, recently helped open
4 Know the
Difference Between
Chains and Independents
Chain and independent bars have different needs.
Knowing how to make high-style ideas operational
for multi-unit restaurants is important, Commer
says. “They’ll love a concept that takes 12 steps,” he
adds. “Then, they come to me to find out if I can do
it for them in three or four.”
Pranna, a pan-Asian restaurant. “The cool thing If a chain cannot manage a fresh juice program, for
was that when we sat with them to get an idea instance, encouraging it to include some fresh juice,
of what they saw as their dream bar, they actu- or to add fresh sour mix may be the optimal solution.

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ally had researched cocktails and gone to bars to
study glassware and drinks.” This, says Shine, was
enormously helpful for matching cocktails with
the operation’s needs. But it is an anomaly.
Understand your
“Just because you can’t get a ‘10’ doesn’t mean you
should stay at a ‘one,’” notes Commer.
It also is important that any new ingredient be ap-
plicable to more than one drink recipe, says Finklang,
and that the recipes are relatively easy to execute. “I
know my bartenders,” she says, “and you can’t have
drinks with too many moving parts. I don’t make
them over-complicated.”

Demographics
Knowing the customer is crucial. “Remember, you’re develop-
ing for the consumer, not the executive,” says Commer. “Knowing
the make-up of your customer base is very important.”
Finklang, whose restaurants are beer-focused, leans toward
fruity and sweet cocktails that play well with her female clien-
tele. The drinks often are made with vodka and pomegranate
or cranberry juices. They appeal to those who are less likely to
order beer.
Regional differences are important. Gin may be hot in New
York. “But where I am,” says Chersevani, “they’re more into

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whiskies. I cater to that.” When creating a fresh sour for a
chain, Commer uses one part lemon, one part lime and two
parts simple syrup. While this works in some markets, it prob-
ably would be too sweet for bars in an area like San Francisco.

New Taste Profiles

Make New Friends
Boudreau inherited a large drink menu at Tini Bigs. More than 75 per-
cent of the drinks on that menu were vodka-based. He ditched all but six of
the original cocktails. In the process, he discovered some new favorites. At Tini Bigs, Jamie Boudreau
discovered cocktail tastes that were
“I added the Chocolat Cochon (bacon-infused Woodford Reserve, more popular than he expected.
cherry, chocolate, amaro and bitters, served with a giant ice cube) and the
Rum Shrubb (Appleton rum, blackberry, raspberry, sugar and red wine
vinegar) mainly to get people talking about us. But these drinks have
become our two best sellers.”
Trying new taste profiles can have surprising results.

22 | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2009 www.cheersonline.com

 8 Perfect
the Recipe
When developing cocktails, trial and error

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is everything. Chersevani has spent five years
working on a pumpkin cocktail. She rolls out a
new one every year and returns to the drawing
board. This time, she thinks she has it right. The
Apothecary bartender Phil
Watts perfecting his drinks.
newest includes juiced and cooked pumpkin,
Mount Gay Rum, cardamom, vanilla and star
anise. “Others have been messy and pulpy. With
Learn from Chefs this one, customers are overwhelmed with the
full flavor, and they order more than one.”
Coming up with that something extra took
Making a culinary connection can advance a drink program.
constant reworking for Carducci and Tanguay
Boudreau says he draws a lot of inspiration from the kitchen,
when they developed the Immunity Idol for
particularly when chefs are working on new and unusual food
Apothecary. The cocktail uses Hendrick’s
combinations.
Gin, St-Germain, fresh pineapple purée, fresh
The chef at Pranna was an enthusiastic partner when Shine and
orange juice and prosecco. “It’s a very gentle,
Sharpe rolled out their drink program, and he worked with them
easy-to-drink cocktail. But we ramped it up
to create a synergy between the food and cocktail menus. “He
with different combos of tinctures.” Working
even shares kitchen space with us,” marvels Shine. “No chef ever
with echinacea, hawthorne root and elderberry
wants to do that.” Using yuzu, pandan purées and other Asian
extract, they struggled for weeks before they hit
ingredients gave them a way to broaden their drink menu.
upon a drink that was not bitter.
Chersevani, who rebuilds her list from the ground up on a
It takes time to tweak each cocktail to per-
seasonal basis, works with the food menu and offers cocktail pair-
fection. Most developers conduct tastings that
ings. She currently serves a cocktail made with warm mushroom

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involve restaurant owners, servers, friends and

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consommé, gin and Pernod as a small drink intermezzo.
even family along the way.

Spread The Right

the Wealth Price
Most independent cocktail programs today employ many Last but definitely not least, pricing never should
different spirits. This is a marked difference from the days when be overlooked. “That has to be discussed first and
vodka ran the show. “My favorite analogy is that when cook- foremost when getting an idea of what the client is
ing, the chef doesn’t just use steak,” says Shine. “There is a nice looking for,” says Tanguay. Developing a drink and
balance of proteins on his menu.” Specialty products help set finding it is too costly to produce can cause a redo.
a program apart. At Pranna, Shine mixes Mekong rum from “If I find it’s got a 40 percent pour cost, I scale
Thailand with sugar cane juice, syrup and fresh lime. it back,” adds Carducci. If a drink calls for fresh
Carducci and Tanguay like to have operators use soju to help pineapple purée, he’ll price the difference between
them stand out. But, they admit, vodka still has its place. “I purchased purée and house made—or look at sub-
went through a period of vodka prejudice. But we’ve realized stituting juice. “To be in the business and not have
that it’s the number one selling spirit, and you cannot avoid the profitability of the cocktail in the forefront of
vodka cocktails,” says Carducci. your mind means you won’t be in this business
Getting operators and bar staff to accept new drinks can be very long.” l
a monumental challenge. “If you have the ability to hire at the
beginning of a program, it’s definitely easier and you can go
Jack Robertiello has worked with or written about beer,
bigger and maybe use more varied ingredients,” says Shine. “If
wine, spirits, food and restaurants for most of his adult
you go into a place where the bartenders are jaded and don’t
life. Robertiello is the former editor of Cheers. He has
want to change, it takes a while to win them over. When we’re
written for the Food Network and publications such as
doing cocktails for a place that is already up and running, we
Metropolitan Home, the New York Daily News and
keep the talent behind the bar in mind.”
the Washington Post.

www.cheersonline.com JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2009 | 23