Back when we were in college, we often considered any drink that wasn't available in a $9.99 12-pack of cans to be "sophisticated." As such, Malibu and pineapple was often the source of much agony while sitting in morning lectures. Though our tolerance is no longer what it once was, our palates have fortunately evolved. Proof that sometimes aging out of the university demographic has its benefits, there's a whole new array of more mature cocktails to imbibe that you probably won't find in the frat house.
Draft Cocktails: Despite certain
Real Housewifes' marketing efforts, premixed cocktails are normally not up to snuff for the palates of refined boozehounds. But before you write off the drink category as lazy mixology, you may want to try wetting your whistle with one of the many new sublime cocktails being blended without the use of a shaker, as a number of beverage trendsetters are experimenting with draft cocktails that play off the
artisanal soda trend. At this spring's
Taste of the Nation event, famed mixologist
Eben Freeman (formerly of Tailor)
told reporters that he's working on a pressurization system that will enable him to deliver cocktails on draft in restaurants - this coming from a man known for his epic
hard shake. Meanwhile,
Tom Chadwick, of new Brooklyn bar
Dram, is using his bar's former soda gun machine infrastructure to batch and pressurize carbonated batch cocktails, like an Aperol spritzer. Maybe in a few years we'll be able to trade in the Bud Light party keg for one that serves up vodka sodas.
Barrel-Aged Beer: As anyone who's ever been served a skunked beer will attest, drinking old beer isn't typically a desirable path to intoxication. Perhaps taking a cue from
urban moonshiners, a host of American craft beer manufacturers are brewing
barrel-aged beer. Casks obtained from bourbon distillers are proving to be the most popular, as the resulting product offers a rich potency that actually rivals bourbon. One early pioneer of the trend is
Goose Island Brewery's Bourbon County Stout. For many, last month's 4th annual
New York Brewfest on Governor's Island served as an introduction to barrel brew, with beers such as
Nebraska Brewing Company's Melange A Trois, a Belgian-style blonde ale that's aged in French oak Chardonnay barrels for about six months, being savored much in the way oenophiles measure their wine. And if China really is the world leader it's reputed to be, we may start swapping out cans of watery PBR for
bottles containing a richer, barrel-aged version of the stuff.
Java Cocktails: Starbucks may not offer its customers anything in the way of a buzz beyond caffeine and sugar, but in Parisian tabacs, drinking a morning cognac alongside a shot of espresso, known as a café cognac, is a common way to jumpstart the day. Now, before embarking on a stressful day, New Yorkers can take the edge off while still getting a jolt. Downtown New York bar
The Randolph at Broome recently
started serving morning coffee cocktails, with a nod to the "1960s idea of an American coffee house" as a change of pace from the typical Italian-inspired java joints. Indeed, The Randolph's "
coffee bartenders" - don't call them baristas - are mixing hot and cold coffee cocktails, such as the Slow Trip to New Orleans, a glass of Bulleit bourbon, Plymouth sloe gin and coffee. For those who wouldn't dare face their boss at 9 a.m. with booze on their breath, the bar also offers "augmented coffees" which are enhanced with various nuts, spices and, yes, even
salt.
