The muddler top allows for layering drinks! If you pour down the spoon shaft, the drink is spiraled down and then dropped into a flat layer when it hits the head.
adjustable height kitchen sink is BRILLIANT! I'm totally going to do that when we renovate the kitchen (several years away)... you can put it low when you're working on the counter, then raise it up so you don't need to hunch over to reach the bottom of the sink.
I prefer plastic straws and I know Im wrong. I dont like straws that are hard. Im allergic to bamboo. Paper straws are trash. Thats why I dont use straws anymore
Vegan Sugar means it does not use bone in the refining process. Traditionally Sugar was refined using Bone, now most is not but its hard to really tell if it is or not. about 1/3 of all Sugar in the USA is still made using bone.
Plastic is also unhealthy for us too, i mean if it's bad for the environment, our "food" (ultra processed poison) has been stored in a concentrated version of that 'bad' environment. Glass, ceramic, parchment, and bee's wax (not synthetic non food based wax/wax mixes) I mean you could easily pack a sandwich in wax paper with a comic book sealer, or even a food saver turned down an suck the air out a little to keep the bread from going stale. Don't just think of the world environment, be a little narcissistic, think of your immediate environment, your children's environment, your food environment. Fuck those corporate snake oil shills, hell they sell you food that is on average 60%+ not food anymore. Smoke & drink all you want, it's the plastics, petrochemicals, "food safe"/non toxic fillers/preservatives/sugar & sodium alternatives/ and other ultra processed synthetic fats & oils that are killing us. [ heart disease, cognitive disorders, diabetes, obesity, the list goes on] Just think of your great grandfather that Never went to the doctor, drank a gallon and smoked a carton non-filtered camels a week for 70+ years and died at 90+ eating real food that had little to no exposure to petrochemicals and polymers, sythetic food alternatives. Now his father died at like 45-60 because he ate too much grease. Just use butter or ghee and not rendered animal fat.
Just in case there's not another video coming out between now and Christmas...Merry Christmas Greg, Meredith, and the rest of the H2D gang. Wishing you all and your families a love filled holiday, full of nothing but laughter and beautiful memories.
I feel like in mid-late 2021, HTD really hit its stride and its been NOTHING BUT BANGERS SINCE. So many good videos this year, I think they were all winners. Merry Christmas to you and the crew and your families.
Hey Greg. Big fan of the show. A common reason for the labeling of vegan sugar is because lots of cane sugar is filtered through “natural carbon” from charred cattle bones. That being said it’s my understanding that a lot of vegans will still consume regular cane sugar, depending on where they draw their personal line on animal products etc
@@phoenixfritzinger9185 thats true. You could argue that bone meal could be used as a fertilizer in lots of plants that we eat. But all soil has decaying organic matter in it, plant and animal, so it’s probably hard to avoid that. My guess is the difference is in the direct use of animal by products in the production of a good. I would guess that many vegan gardeners would probably avoid fertilizer with animal by products like bone meal or manure as well. Not that it matters but I’m not vegan, just happened to google vegan sugar at one point because I was also curious.
Greg! Thanks so much for including us in this video! We worked really hard to get that Espresso Martini right. It won a double-gold and the "Best of Class" award for RTD classic cocktails at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition this year - so we're pretty proud of it. Pro tip: if you're feeling fancy, put it in a shaker with ice and serve up. Comes out frothy and delicious. Happy Holidays to you and the HTD crew!
You might consider this a sacrilege, but I’ve given up on expressing citrus oils from fresh peels. I bought two atomizers, a bottle of food grade orange oil, another of lemon oil, and now I just spray the oil on the finished drink. It’s much more reliable, there’s less risk of cutting myself, and there’s much less waste from fruit going bad before I can use it. I’ve been doing it that way for almost this entire year and I’ve got no regrets.
Hey I tried this after getting hold of some awesome organic cold pressed citrus oils. The problem I had is any atomizer I found just sprayed way too much oil and it overpowered everything. I tried smaller sprays but then it doesn’t atomize it’s just drips. Do I just need to keep searching for a better atomizer?
I would love to see a Cuba Libre matrix Different cokes like bottled, canned, glass, or fountain , maybe different brands of cola and different rums Please sir
Another unsexy gift would be Star-San. It is a no rinse sanitizer that you mix with water, that can be stored in a spray bottle. Clean (scrubbing with soap and hot water) everything as you would then spray the surfaces with Star-San to keep bacteria and such at bay. I use it all the time in wine/cider making, have never had an issue with mold.
It's the acid in citrus juices which strips the finish off of plated bar tools. Yes, the gun metal colored jigger will get stripped by the acid. That color is actually black iron oxide, (Fe3O4,) in a thin layer on the surface. Phosphoric acid is used commercially to remove oxidation from steel. Limes have phosphoric acid in their juice. Stainless is definitely the way to go.
I do like to keep a barspoon handy for fishing out cherries for garnish or for the cocktails that call for a barspoon or so of some ingredient. However, for stirring I like to use glass stirring rods, they clean super easily, and I prefer the look and feel of them to barspoons. I keep them in a little stemless champagne flute next to my cocktail station, looks really pretty.
I thought I'd follow along, so I also made a Bourbonista and oh my god it is delicious! First time using that much Angostura and that much Luxardo, I am surprised by how much I liked the result!
I bought some Koriko shakers from Cocktail Kingdom as my first set of shakers. They seal unbelievably well. I remember hearing how important it is to get a good grip on the shakers when dry shaking since the cold is what causes the seal but honestly, I've never had a blowout with the Koriko shakers even when dry shaking with a light grip. They are just phenomenal.
The little smokey thing was a Christmas gift last year from my sister. It works well but you do need a torch as shown. It is a lot less of a hassle than the production hose types and still looks classy in use. It has brought us much joy and takes some smoke worthy drinks to a new level. Use gentle smoke chips like cherry, apple or pecan so it does not taste like a cigarette.
the airplane cocktail kits is exactly something that a graphic design college student would think up. When we did package design projects the professors always encouraged us to stretch the applications of whatever we were designing and half of the students would choose "carry-on." It is the perfect hypothetical in that you have a bunch of design challenges to solve in one product, but like if someone actually *made* the product it would be quite useless. I had this one classmate who did a whole thing around like designing a toothbrush thingie that had complete dental hygiene inside the a a hallow handle of a disposable toothbrush so she could market it to airplane passengers, complete bullshit concept but you can do a lot with designing stuff around it with like packaging and the actual toothbrush itself
Kyocera makes affordable peelers that use a ceramic blade. The ceramic means it could chip if you abuse it, but it also means that it will retain the sharp edge way longer than steel and no rust to be found.
Just spitballing here, but is it possible the “muddler” on the end of the bar spoon could actually be used for layering? That way you wouldn’t have to bend any spoon head or anything to get that effect
Fantastic video as always. Homebrewer tip. In homebrewing cleanliness and sanitization is key. Instead of boiling water and scrubbing with the brush, use PBW! A Powdered Brewery Wash soak with hot water negates the need for scrubbing! OxyClean Free is similar but PBW rinses off easier. It might just change your life.
The best mint syrup I've done is following an oleo saccharum sort of procedure. Just mix a ton of mint leaves around with sugar, maybe a little light muddling. The sugar pulls out the oils and gets liquidy. Then you can mix it with cold water if you want to thin it out a little more, or just use it straight the way it comes out of the process. Keeps a nice, pungent mint flavor in a way that a normal simple syrup won't.
Ah that actually sounds like it really makes sense! :D Since the first step of a proper mojito is very similar (very lightly muddling/stirring your mint in some granular white sugar)
You like me are probably about 6 feet tall. Kitchen sinks and counter for that matter are designed for someone about 5'7". aka average height. My parents did a custom kitchen where everything was raised 4in and OMG it's so much better.
I love you too, Greg. Normalising telling people that aren't obviously awful that you love them. Being loved feels amazing and there's a lot of obviously awful people around lately that it's nice to be separated from. Also, great show, thanks for an evening's entertainment!
Just to clear up something, BOTH Cocktail Kingdom and Barfly source all or nearly all of their tools from metal manufacturers in China or india and nearly all of their tools can be found being sold by other retailers on aliñaba. This is simply the reality of business. Koriko is not a Japanese made or designed shaker, its made in india last i check and it’s branded with a Japanese name to give the consumer a sense of refinement. Do not be fooled into thinking either of these brands are selling you artisanal items but fear not, they both sell really great tools! Pretty much all of the best made metal manufacturing is done in China and to believe that that’s impossible is kind of delusional. If you want to go higher in quality or rather tighter in tolerances, you’re looking at Japanese bar tool makers like yukiwa which are excellent but will cost you a pretty fuckin penny. As far as the differences, I work in bars that use both barfly and cocktail kingdom tools and I think I prefer the barfly shakers. I certainly prefer their strainers. That’s just opinion and preference. Love ya Greg but the comment about barfly having a lot of different source factories rubbed me the wrong way cause that is absolutely the case with cocktail kingdom as well. They make pretty much nothing, they buy from a lot of the same people barfly does and resell it. That’s the business. But also I’ve met plenty of working bartenders with the same misconceptions so it’s no shade on you.
Muddler top is for LAYERING. Not saying that's it's intended design, but it is amazingly good for it. Liquid flows down the spiral, hits the muddler and spreads in an even layer. Amazingly good. Also presses mint nicely.
The thing about Himalayan rock salt- indeed most rock salt, as opposed to sea salt- is that it is very high in LEAD. You each got a shot of +99ppm with your tequila. Admittedly, it's not something that's going to cause immediate damage, but lead is cumulative. I say this as someone who's had lead poisoning multiple times in their life, please be careful. As my granny would say, the salt glasses would be best kept "just for pretty".
Shouldn’t there be legal limits in place to protect the consumers? In the EU, the legal limit of lead in salt has recently been lowered to 1 mg per 1 kg of salt, which amounts to 1 ppm. For a standard shot of tequila (30-45 ml, i.e. 1-1.5 oz), you would normally have 2-3 g of salt at most (for reference: a regular, non-measuring teaspoon contains about 5 g), which ends up at around 0.1 ppm. I highly doubt that you’ll end up consuming much more salt using those salt glasses, otherwise it would taste very unpleasant. Even if for sake of argument we assume it’s may double or triple the regular amount, the very worst case would be around 0.5 ppm of lead per shot, and that’s assuming the salt just about reaches the legal limit, which isn’t very likely either.
I think you may have displaced a decimal point - you would normally have 1/10 to 1/20 of a gram of salt even with a pretty heavy salt rim. A gram is a TON of salt, and I can't even imagine how you'd get 2-3 g to stick.
A standard kitchen bench is 90cm in Australia. When we were building our house we asked, as a joke, if it would cost extra to raise the kitchen island to 1m and they said no, it wouldn't. Now we don't kill our backs doing dishes, it's awesome! I highly recommend, if you're building or remodelling the kitchen, put the sink on a higher than standard height, if not all of them.
Coming late to the party, but a note on vegan sugar, in case no one else has said anything--a lot of white granulated sugar is processed with bone char, which is one method of making it pure white. Technically none remains in the final product, but since an animal's bones are used for the process, lots of vegans buy specific sugars they know don't use that process. It's similar to how some liquors use gelatin as a clarifying agent (Campari is one of these), and as a result also aren't technically vegan even though they don't still contain any in the finished project. It's something different vegans have different opinions on, but that's how some sugar isn't technically vegan!
Bamboo fiber needs to be mulched I believe is the term. (Or maybe it's pulped?) Where you crush it up and melt it in boiling water. The resulting sludge can be recycled as part of paper or cardboard production, or just dumped (once fully chilled) into a vermicompost bin or pit. Paper is much the same too, but as it's flimsier, you don't need boiling hot water.
Its really interesting that you show off those 3 jiggers, as I’ve never seen jiggers that look like that. In Denmark you generally come across 2 versions. The first one looks kind of like the japanese one you show, but is a lot smaller, like half a glass height. The second one is the one we have used in all 5 bars I’ve worked in. It’s basically a small cup, but it has two horisontal prongs sticking out on each side. This is because it is designet to rest on the glass rim, and then be turned to poor
Please don't use a Parabellum (23:50) to crack your ice. Firearm ammunition is never a good choice for bar work - only wet work. But if you do, it should be a higher caliber. I'd suggest trying a paraboloid instead.
This wouldn't be very good in most cocktails, but the secret behind Starbucks' really strong peppermint syrup is that they just dump pure peppermint oil into there. Probably not nearly as good as the other commenter's suggestion about making a mint oleo saccharum, but still that's another method.
Regarding vegan sugar: It's my understanding that animal bone char is (or at least was, until somewhat recently) commonly used to bleach refined cane sugar, so it's actually a valid thing to point out. I'm not sure how common this is anymore though, here in europe our sugar is made from sugar beet which apparently never were refined using animal products so I've not looked into this closely.
On the subject of syrups, don’t sleep on Liber and Co. Their orgeat is just as good as Small Hand Foods, has all the fats. They make a great passionfruit syrup too
Greg: buy for life. Also Greg: I’ve used-up three of these y-peelers in filming this episode. There’s your next gear challenge Greg: a for-life peeler.
To make a mint syrup could you blanch the mint in water for 30-60 seconds like you would a leafy green in cooking, then use that water to make the simple? Just curious if that would actually add a fresh mint flavor to the syrup.
I've tried just about every style of jigger over the years and I've got to say that my favorite one I've come across is actually the OXO brand jigger with the silicone in the center. It's perfectly weighted, has the measurement lines on the interior, and is perfectly sized to rest on the small cup of the shaker to allow thicker ingredients to drip out while you go find the next thing to put in your drink. Cannot recommend enough.
Preach it about those short sinks and countertops my friend!! As a slightly above average height guy, I feel this! (in my back...pun intended) Love the show and keep making awesome tasty drinks!
My wife and I redid our kitchen after a complete redesign. We raised the heights of all our countertops from the traditional 36" to 40". We are taller people. HUGE difference. I'd highly recommend that to anyone considering a new kitchen.
On the topic of straws: My favourite bar uses pasta straws. They keep their shape/stay solid for a long time, unlike paper straws. They have a nicer mouthfeel than metal straws (in my opinion) and they also double as a snack, if you're a bit of a freak like me :P
I heard you say you put a shaker or something in the washing machine and I wondered how that could happen (was it in your pocket?) but I realized you probably meant a dish washer. Anyway, it made a funny image in my head.
Not that it matters at this point, but you can find the balance point on those bar spoons by resting one end of the spoon on each of your index fingers and then slowly drawing your fingers together. The weight of the spoon will shift like a seesaw, reducing friction on the furthest finger, until your fingers meet right in the middle of the weight distribution of the spoon.
Someone may have said this already but I didn’t see it. Regular table sugar is whitened with bone char which is made from animal bones. That’s why vegan sugar is labeled. (Former baker) I love your channel 💕💕💕
1:02:30 a good way to make mint syrup is to take equal weight of mint and sugar. Mix. Let sit for a couple weeks till the sugar is gone. Strain. It lacks the menthol flavour, but still has this fresh fruity, almost bubblegum taste to it. It does Not work as a replacment for mint in a Cocktail, but it does add an interesting flavour. I dont Drink a ton of coctails, i am more of a neat whiskey guy, but I find this mint syrup if fun in dinks that have really funky rum. It also seems to play nice with cachaça, rye, and mabye Tequila (I dont really like Tequila so i cant quite vouch for it).
Thanks for reminding me about Cocktail & Sons; Everytime I've looked in the past the fassionola is sold out, but surprisingly it was finally in stock and I was able to get a few bottles today! thanks!
Adjustable height kitchens should totally be a thing! As a short arse most counters are too high 😂 I had to design the bar higher in our distillery cocktail lounge coz most of our staff will be taller than me 😂… I wish I’d made it adjustable or maybe have a thicker countertop to add height for taller bartenders 🤔
I was on a flight recently and got a gin and tonic. Along with it, they gave me a tiny packet of True Lime crystalized lime powder. I was really impressed by it.
I use a lovely set of glass straws that I got on Amazon for like, £7(around $10-ish if I'm not mistaken) for 8! 4 short, 4 long. They're great, and despite being glass, they're not that fragile. Something about the thickness and the structural-ness of the tube means that they're stronger than they seem, I dropped one and expected it to shatter into a billion pieces, but it didn't even chip or ding at all.
re: vegan sugar, the refining process for common sugar traditionally involves filtering through activated charcoal made from animal bones. Domino will actually put which refinery the sugar came from on the box. If its Yonkers, its refined with modern, vegan friendly filtering.
I made mint syrup before the way you described, by making a simple first and then infusing(?) It with mint in a jar once it was cold. It made for a perfect syrup for the super sugary mango cocktails my roommate and I were drinking at the beach 😊 (not an elegant drink but a nice touch for a drunk-at-the-beach day)
Re: Vegan sugar - white sugar is made whiter in a bleaching process that usually involves animal bone powder. As funny as it sounds, for vegans there is actually such a thing as vegan sugar.
Do not get me started on the height of sinks and worktops in the average kitchen... there's nothing average about them and they're only good for people of 4'-5' height!
there is a company called HAY! Straws that make straws made from wheat or reed stems depending on what you want, and from my experience are very plesant. They even have a diagram on their websites showing what kind you should get for different types of drinks, they make everything up to jumbo straws suitable for smoothies, milkshakes and ice blended drinks
Something to keep in mind regarding Knives: It's not how sharp the knife is coming right out of the box. New knives, even cheap ones are usually sharp as hell because they were either professionally sharpened or were sharpened by machine. It's more about how long they keep their edge.
Praise! 26:20 as taller than average person nothing causes me a back ache quite like cleaning something in a kitchen sink. If I ever get a custom made house I am going to have tall counters
so regarding the vegan sugar thing, it's not about animal labor. It's because a lot of white sugar is not vegan due to the use of bone char to make the sugar white
We love u too Greg. Thanks for the honest reviews as always. One of my fav things thru the last few years of watching your channel is how u don’t bend to flattery or lousy products/beverages.
I managed to get a set of bar tools I got a few years ago, and they haven't budged at all (though I make far fewer drinks than you do). Hawthorne, Julep, good bar spoon, boston tins, actual muddler, and a fine mesh strainer. Aloono was the brand's name on Amazon.
The thing I've found the aging barrels are good for is actually making certain alcohols like Crown actually plesent to drink. Or fixing the absolute crime against booze that is Loneriders "bourbon". Otherwise we just keep a rotation of Cardinal Gin, Crown or bourbon in there and it doesn nice things to the flavors of each
Greg - you've gotta try the cocktail mixers from Som. The dude behind them was the chef for PokPok - wonderful southeast Asian food. The mixers have fantastic flavor options!
The cocktail in a tin/mason jar thing wouldn't make any sense to campers, because they take work and carrying extra stuff. The tinned one even needed a lime, and not many people wanna carry limes to a camp site. The little cans though? Those are game.
Order dried grape stems and you can use them as straws. We used to fill them with "tobacco" in high school because they were abundant and burn cleanly. They work great as straws though.
On the topic of tiki gifts, Mondo makes some very cool pop culture-inspired tiki mugs that are pretty inexpensive. They obviously aren't the huge traditional mugs that a collector would really want, but as a gift I think they work really well.
As someone who is way into coffee and not at all into cocktails - I just like to watch Greg cause he's a charismatic guy - and espresso martini with coldbrew sounds weird to me? 'cause those are two VERY different styles of coffee. Anybody able to illuminate me on that?
Hope this is out in time to help you out this Holiday Season!
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The muddler top allows for layering drinks! If you pour down the spoon shaft, the drink is spiraled down and then dropped into a flat layer when it hits the head.
Hey Greg, do you happen to have any pics of that crystal mixing glass? I think that I may of found one on ebay
The Vegan sugar is a thing because some sugar mills use bone char (basically charcoal made from cow bones) in the filtration process.
Greg, would you mind sharing your specs and ideas on the perfect muddler?
Psa: Do not put your jigger in the washing machine. The dishwasher will work just fine
good tip iv been washing mine in the stream down the road lol
No joke, I just rinse mine in water (as a home bartender albeit). I wash my hands well and I just dumped a bunch of alcohol into it so ... lol
@@onua3963 if you put ango in it you would need to hand wash it, it tends to stain otherwise.
😅
What about the dryer?
adjustable height kitchen sink is BRILLIANT! I'm totally going to do that when we renovate the kitchen (several years away)... you can put it low when you're working on the counter, then raise it up so you don't need to hunch over to reach the bottom of the sink.
PLEASE raise the kitchen sinks! I stand with Greg! My bad back does not need to get worse by doing dishes!
I prefer plastic straws and I know Im wrong. I dont like straws that are hard. Im allergic to bamboo. Paper straws are trash.
Thats why I dont use straws anymore
The sugar ones are really amazing
Vegan Sugar means it does not use bone in the refining process. Traditionally Sugar was refined using Bone, now most is not but its hard to really tell if it is or not. about 1/3 of all Sugar in the USA is still made using bone.
Awesome!
Plastic is also unhealthy for us too, i mean if it's bad for the environment, our "food" (ultra processed poison) has been stored in a concentrated version of that 'bad' environment.
Glass, ceramic, parchment, and bee's wax (not synthetic non food based wax/wax mixes)
I mean you could easily pack a sandwich in wax paper with a comic book sealer, or even a food saver turned down an suck the air out a little to keep the bread from going stale.
Don't just think of the world environment, be a little narcissistic, think of your immediate environment, your children's environment, your food environment.
Fuck those corporate snake oil shills, hell they sell you food that is on average 60%+ not food anymore.
Smoke & drink all you want, it's the plastics, petrochemicals, "food safe"/non toxic fillers/preservatives/sugar & sodium alternatives/ and other ultra processed synthetic fats & oils that are killing us. [ heart disease, cognitive disorders, diabetes, obesity, the list goes on]
Just think of your great grandfather that Never went to the doctor, drank a gallon and smoked a carton non-filtered camels a week for 70+ years and died at 90+ eating real food that had little to no exposure to petrochemicals and polymers, sythetic food alternatives.
Now his father died at like 45-60 because he ate too much grease. Just use butter or ghee and not rendered animal fat.
Future episode idea: a primer on the differences in bartending styles (Japanese versus American versus European etc.) I think that’d be pretty cool.
Just in case there's not another video coming out between now and Christmas...Merry Christmas Greg, Meredith, and the rest of the H2D gang. Wishing you all and your families a love filled holiday, full of nothing but laughter and beautiful memories.
As a career hospo, my Christmas spirit dies every December. But this rekindles my dying embers. Merry Christmas HTD.
I feel like in mid-late 2021, HTD really hit its stride and its been NOTHING BUT BANGERS SINCE. So many good videos this year, I think they were all winners. Merry Christmas to you and the crew and your families.
Hey Greg. Big fan of the show. A common reason for the labeling of vegan sugar is because lots of cane sugar is filtered through “natural carbon” from charred cattle bones. That being said it’s my understanding that a lot of vegans will still consume regular cane sugar, depending on where they draw their personal line on animal products etc
I've been wondering what the deal was with that! Thank you!
I mean bone meal and bone char is also a fairly common fertilizer
@@phoenixfritzinger9185 thats true. You could argue that bone meal could be used as a fertilizer in lots of plants that we eat. But all soil has decaying organic matter in it, plant and animal, so it’s probably hard to avoid that. My guess is the difference is in the direct use of animal by products in the production of a good. I would guess that many vegan gardeners would probably avoid fertilizer with animal by products like bone meal or manure as well. Not that it matters but I’m not vegan, just happened to google vegan sugar at one point because I was also curious.
Oh wow. I never knew that! Thanks for clearing that mystery up for us.
And Beyond "meat" isn't technically vegan or cruelty free because they use animal testing.
"I want a standing desk kitchen sink"
I have never felt more represented on this show
I pretty much stopped drinking 4 years ago but still watch every episode that you bring out
Greg! Thanks so much for including us in this video!
We worked really hard to get that Espresso Martini right. It won a double-gold and the "Best of Class" award for RTD classic cocktails at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition this year - so we're pretty proud of it.
Pro tip: if you're feeling fancy, put it in a shaker with ice and serve up. Comes out frothy and delicious.
Happy Holidays to you and the HTD crew!
You might consider this a sacrilege, but I’ve given up on expressing citrus oils from fresh peels. I bought two atomizers, a bottle of food grade orange oil, another of lemon oil, and now I just spray the oil on the finished drink. It’s much more reliable, there’s less risk of cutting myself, and there’s much less waste from fruit going bad before I can use it. I’ve been doing it that way for almost this entire year and I’ve got no regrets.
Hey I tried this after getting hold of some awesome organic cold pressed citrus oils. The problem I had is any atomizer I found just sprayed way too much oil and it overpowered everything.
I tried smaller sprays but then it doesn’t atomize it’s just drips. Do I just need to keep searching for a better atomizer?
@@bobby7050 I don’t know. Maybe you should keep searching. I’ve never been dissatisfied with the results I get.
I would love to see a Cuba Libre matrix
Different cokes like bottled, canned, glass, or fountain , maybe different brands of cola and different rums
Please sir
Another unsexy gift would be Star-San. It is a no rinse sanitizer that you mix with water, that can be stored in a spray bottle.
Clean (scrubbing with soap and hot water) everything as you would then spray the surfaces with Star-San to keep bacteria and such at bay.
I use it all the time in wine/cider making, have never had an issue with mold.
It's the acid in citrus juices which strips the finish off of plated bar tools. Yes, the gun metal colored jigger will get stripped by the acid. That color is actually black iron oxide, (Fe3O4,) in a thin layer on the surface. Phosphoric acid is used commercially to remove oxidation from steel. Limes have phosphoric acid in their juice. Stainless is definitely the way to go.
I do like to keep a barspoon handy for fishing out cherries for garnish or for the cocktails that call for a barspoon or so of some ingredient. However, for stirring I like to use glass stirring rods, they clean super easily, and I prefer the look and feel of them to barspoons. I keep them in a little stemless champagne flute next to my cocktail station, looks really pretty.
this was 100% more helpful, informative, and entertaining than the anti-gift guide. more of this(!)
Idk, I've gone back to the anti-gift guide several times. Maybe every other year he switches off between pro- and anti-. Lol.
I thought I'd follow along, so I also made a Bourbonista and oh my god it is delicious! First time using that much Angostura and that much Luxardo, I am surprised by how much I liked the result!
I bought some Koriko shakers from Cocktail Kingdom as my first set of shakers. They seal unbelievably well. I remember hearing how important it is to get a good grip on the shakers when dry shaking since the cold is what causes the seal but honestly, I've never had a blowout with the Koriko shakers even when dry shaking with a light grip. They are just phenomenal.
The little smokey thing was a Christmas gift last year from my sister. It works well but you do need a torch as shown. It is a lot less of a hassle than the production hose types and still looks classy in use. It has brought us much joy and takes some smoke worthy drinks to a new level. Use gentle smoke chips like cherry, apple or pecan so it does not taste like a cigarette.
the airplane cocktail kits is exactly something that a graphic design college student would think up. When we did package design projects the professors always encouraged us to stretch the applications of whatever we were designing and half of the students would choose "carry-on." It is the perfect hypothetical in that you have a bunch of design challenges to solve in one product, but like if someone actually *made* the product it would be quite useless.
I had this one classmate who did a whole thing around like designing a toothbrush thingie that had complete dental hygiene inside the a a hallow handle of a disposable toothbrush so she could market it to airplane passengers, complete bullshit concept but you can do a lot with designing stuff around it with like packaging and the actual toothbrush itself
Kyocera makes affordable peelers that use a ceramic blade.
The ceramic means it could chip if you abuse it, but it also means that it will retain the sharp edge way longer than steel and no rust to be found.
Just spitballing here, but is it possible the “muddler” on the end of the bar spoon could actually be used for layering? That way you wouldn’t have to bend any spoon head or anything to get that effect
This is the true function actually, you pour down the spiral shaft and it spreads on the flat head.
Fantastic video as always. Homebrewer tip. In homebrewing cleanliness and sanitization is key. Instead of boiling water and scrubbing with the brush, use PBW! A Powdered Brewery Wash soak with hot water negates the need for scrubbing! OxyClean Free is similar but PBW rinses off easier. It might just change your life.
The best mint syrup I've done is following an oleo saccharum sort of procedure. Just mix a ton of mint leaves around with sugar, maybe a little light muddling. The sugar pulls out the oils and gets liquidy. Then you can mix it with cold water if you want to thin it out a little more, or just use it straight the way it comes out of the process. Keeps a nice, pungent mint flavor in a way that a normal simple syrup won't.
Yes! Something like a cheong would work great!
Ah that actually sounds like it really makes sense! :D
Since the first step of a proper mojito is very similar (very lightly muddling/stirring your mint in some granular white sugar)
You like me are probably about 6 feet tall. Kitchen sinks and counter for that matter are designed for someone about 5'7". aka average height. My parents did a custom kitchen where everything was raised 4in and OMG it's so much better.
We need more videos of Greg just creating new cocktails on the fly. Always fun
Also Greg's greatest fails
I love you too, Greg. Normalising telling people that aren't obviously awful that you love them. Being loved feels amazing and there's a lot of obviously awful people around lately that it's nice to be separated from. Also, great show, thanks for an evening's entertainment!
Just to clear up something, BOTH Cocktail Kingdom and Barfly source all or nearly all of their tools from metal manufacturers in China or india and nearly all of their tools can be found being sold by other retailers on aliñaba.
This is simply the reality of business.
Koriko is not a Japanese made or designed shaker, its made in india last i check and it’s branded with a Japanese name to give the consumer a sense of refinement.
Do not be fooled into thinking either of these brands are selling you artisanal items but fear not, they both sell really great tools! Pretty much all of the best made metal manufacturing is done in China and to believe that that’s impossible is kind of delusional.
If you want to go higher in quality or rather tighter in tolerances, you’re looking at Japanese bar tool makers like yukiwa which are excellent but will cost you a pretty fuckin penny.
As far as the differences, I work in bars that use both barfly and cocktail kingdom tools and I think I prefer the barfly shakers. I certainly prefer their strainers.
That’s just opinion and preference.
Love ya Greg but the comment about barfly having a lot of different source factories rubbed me the wrong way cause that is absolutely the case with cocktail kingdom as well. They make pretty much nothing, they buy from a lot of the same people barfly does and resell it. That’s the business.
But also I’ve met plenty of working bartenders with the same misconceptions so it’s no shade on you.
Muddler top is for LAYERING. Not saying that's it's intended design, but it is amazingly good for it. Liquid flows down the spiral, hits the muddler and spreads in an even layer. Amazingly good. Also presses mint nicely.
My old job used those smoking guns on drinks. I will say they work well with a product that is finally becoming legal everywhere
The thing about Himalayan rock salt- indeed most rock salt, as opposed to sea salt- is that it is very high in LEAD. You each got a shot of +99ppm with your tequila. Admittedly, it's not something that's going to cause immediate damage, but lead is cumulative. I say this as someone who's had lead poisoning multiple times in their life, please be careful. As my granny would say, the salt glasses would be best kept "just for pretty".
Shouldn’t there be legal limits in place to protect the consumers? In the EU, the legal limit of lead in salt has recently been lowered to 1 mg per 1 kg of salt, which amounts to 1 ppm. For a standard shot of tequila (30-45 ml, i.e. 1-1.5 oz), you would normally have 2-3 g of salt at most (for reference: a regular, non-measuring teaspoon contains about 5 g), which ends up at around 0.1 ppm. I highly doubt that you’ll end up consuming much more salt using those salt glasses, otherwise it would taste very unpleasant. Even if for sake of argument we assume it’s may double or triple the regular amount, the very worst case would be around 0.5 ppm of lead per shot, and that’s assuming the salt just about reaches the legal limit, which isn’t very likely either.
I think you may have displaced a decimal point - you would normally have 1/10 to 1/20 of a gram of salt even with a pretty heavy salt rim. A gram is a TON of salt, and I can't even imagine how you'd get 2-3 g to stick.
A standard kitchen bench is 90cm in Australia. When we were building our house we asked, as a joke, if it would cost extra to raise the kitchen island to 1m and they said no, it wouldn't. Now we don't kill our backs doing dishes, it's awesome! I highly recommend, if you're building or remodelling the kitchen, put the sink on a higher than standard height, if not all of them.
Coming late to the party, but a note on vegan sugar, in case no one else has said anything--a lot of white granulated sugar is processed with bone char, which is one method of making it pure white. Technically none remains in the final product, but since an animal's bones are used for the process, lots of vegans buy specific sugars they know don't use that process. It's similar to how some liquors use gelatin as a clarifying agent (Campari is one of these), and as a result also aren't technically vegan even though they don't still contain any in the finished project. It's something different vegans have different opinions on, but that's how some sugar isn't technically vegan!
One use plastic products are now illegal in europe, so the straws are actully a good idea for anyone here at this time.
Some sugar is refined using bone char - hence vegan sugar :)
Bamboo fiber needs to be mulched I believe is the term. (Or maybe it's pulped?) Where you crush it up and melt it in boiling water. The resulting sludge can be recycled as part of paper or cardboard production, or just dumped (once fully chilled) into a vermicompost bin or pit. Paper is much the same too, but as it's flimsier, you don't need boiling hot water.
Its really interesting that you show off those 3 jiggers, as I’ve never seen jiggers that look like that. In Denmark you generally come across 2 versions. The first one looks kind of like the japanese one you show, but is a lot smaller, like half a glass height. The second one is the one we have used in all 5 bars I’ve worked in. It’s basically a small cup, but it has two horisontal prongs sticking out on each side. This is because it is designet to rest on the glass rim, and then be turned to poor
You can search for “vippemål” if you want to see pictures :)
Please don't use a Parabellum (23:50) to crack your ice. Firearm ammunition is never a good choice for bar work - only wet work. But if you do, it should be a higher caliber.
I'd suggest trying a paraboloid instead.
This wouldn't be very good in most cocktails, but the secret behind Starbucks' really strong peppermint syrup is that they just dump pure peppermint oil into there. Probably not nearly as good as the other commenter's suggestion about making a mint oleo saccharum, but still that's another method.
Regarding vegan sugar: It's my understanding that animal bone char is (or at least was, until somewhat recently) commonly used to bleach refined cane sugar, so it's actually a valid thing to point out. I'm not sure how common this is anymore though, here in europe our sugar is made from sugar beet which apparently never were refined using animal products so I've not looked into this closely.
On the subject of syrups, don’t sleep on Liber and Co. Their orgeat is just as good as Small Hand Foods, has all the fats. They make a great passionfruit syrup too
I'm 6'3" and I really feel the rant about sinks being too low.
Greg: buy for life.
Also Greg: I’ve used-up three of these y-peelers in filming this episode.
There’s your next gear challenge Greg: a for-life peeler.
Hey, some things apparently can’t not be disposable it seems
PLEASE do a cheong/saccharum video! Try making mint cheong, or other fruit cheongs, make blends for something tropical and something mixed berry, etc!
To make a mint syrup could you blanch the mint in water for 30-60 seconds like you would a leafy green in cooking, then use that water to make the simple? Just curious if that would actually add a fresh mint flavor to the syrup.
From a 6'3 guy, I support your campaign to raise kitchen sinks.
The thing with knives is any knife can be sharpened to a point, the mark of how good the knife is comes down to how well it holds that edge.
True
This is going to be an episode I'll rewatch and reference for years. Thank you. 😁
I've tried just about every style of jigger over the years and I've got to say that my favorite one I've come across is actually the OXO brand jigger with the silicone in the center. It's perfectly weighted, has the measurement lines on the interior, and is perfectly sized to rest on the small cup of the shaker to allow thicker ingredients to drip out while you go find the next thing to put in your drink. Cannot recommend enough.
the oxo peeler honestly looks great specifically for making oleo saccharum, or lime super juice
Preach it about those short sinks and countertops my friend!! As a slightly above average height guy, I feel this! (in my back...pun intended)
Love the show and keep making awesome tasty drinks!
My wife and I redid our kitchen after a complete redesign.
We raised the heights of all our countertops from the traditional 36" to 40". We are taller people. HUGE difference.
I'd highly recommend that to anyone considering a new kitchen.
Greg is just so fun to watch. This could've been 3 more hours long and I would've stayed glued the entire time.
On the topic of straws: My favourite bar uses pasta straws.
They keep their shape/stay solid for a long time, unlike paper straws. They have a nicer mouthfeel than metal straws (in my opinion) and they also double as a snack, if you're a bit of a freak like me :P
I heard you say you put a shaker or something in the washing machine and I wondered how that could happen (was it in your pocket?) but I realized you probably meant a dish washer. Anyway, it made a funny image in my head.
Not that it matters at this point, but you can find the balance point on those bar spoons by resting one end of the spoon on each of your index fingers and then slowly drawing your fingers together. The weight of the spoon will shift like a seesaw, reducing friction on the furthest finger, until your fingers meet right in the middle of the weight distribution of the spoon.
use a bar barrel for homemade tabasco. real hit when guests come over.
Someone may have said this already but I didn’t see it. Regular table sugar is whitened with bone char which is made from animal bones. That’s why vegan sugar is labeled. (Former baker) I love your channel 💕💕💕
1:02:30 a good way to make mint syrup is to take equal weight of mint and sugar. Mix. Let sit for a couple weeks till the sugar is gone. Strain. It lacks the menthol flavour, but still has this fresh fruity, almost bubblegum taste to it. It does Not work as a replacment for mint in a Cocktail, but it does add an interesting flavour. I dont Drink a ton of coctails, i am more of a neat whiskey guy, but I find this mint syrup if fun in dinks that have really funky rum. It also seems to play nice with cachaça, rye, and mabye Tequila (I dont really like Tequila so i cant quite vouch for it).
Thanks for reminding me about Cocktail & Sons; Everytime I've looked in the past the fassionola is sold out, but surprisingly it was finally in stock and I was able to get a few bottles today! thanks!
Adjustable height kitchens should totally be a thing! As a short arse most counters are too high 😂 I had to design the bar higher in our distillery cocktail lounge coz most of our staff will be taller than me 😂… I wish I’d made it adjustable or maybe have a thicker countertop to add height for taller bartenders 🤔
I was on a flight recently and got a gin and tonic. Along with it, they gave me a tiny packet of True Lime crystalized lime powder. I was really impressed by it.
I use a lovely set of glass straws that I got on Amazon for like, £7(around $10-ish if I'm not mistaken) for 8! 4 short, 4 long. They're great, and despite being glass, they're not that fragile. Something about the thickness and the structural-ness of the tube means that they're stronger than they seem, I dropped one and expected it to shatter into a billion pieces, but it didn't even chip or ding at all.
re: vegan sugar, the refining process for common sugar traditionally involves filtering through activated charcoal made from animal bones. Domino will actually put which refinery the sugar came from on the box. If its Yonkers, its refined with modern, vegan friendly filtering.
Vegan sugar is sugar not whitened with bone ash I believe
"They're gonna get each other off"
-Greg 2022
I made mint syrup before the way you described, by making a simple first and then infusing(?) It with mint in a jar once it was cold. It made for a perfect syrup for the super sugary mango cocktails my roommate and I were drinking at the beach 😊 (not an elegant drink but a nice touch for a drunk-at-the-beach day)
I've genuinely made multiple 2 to 1 syrups that have grown mold. I really need a good bottle brush, though; that's definitely the issue.
Re: Vegan sugar - white sugar is made whiter in a bleaching process that usually involves animal bone powder. As funny as it sounds, for vegans there is actually such a thing as vegan sugar.
Do not get me started on the height of sinks and worktops in the average kitchen... there's nothing average about them and they're only good for people of 4'-5' height!
Himalayan salt isn't even from the Himalayan Mountains - it's from Pakistan. Just another marketing gimmick.
there is a company called HAY! Straws that make straws made from wheat or reed stems depending on what you want, and from my experience are very plesant. They even have a diagram on their websites showing what kind you should get for different types of drinks, they make everything up to jumbo straws suitable for smoothies, milkshakes and ice blended drinks
I'm sure this has been commented already but a lot of white sugar is filtered with animal bone char. So vegan sugar probably just means not that.
Something to keep in mind regarding Knives: It's not how sharp the knife is coming right out of the box. New knives, even cheap ones are usually sharp as hell because they were either professionally sharpened or were sharpened by machine. It's more about how long they keep their edge.
The other advantage of the stepped jigger is that you can pretend to be Val Kilmer in "Tombstone". :)
Lol
Praise! 26:20 as taller than average person nothing causes me a back ache quite like cleaning something in a kitchen sink. If I ever get a custom made house I am going to have tall counters
so regarding the vegan sugar thing, it's not about animal labor. It's because a lot of white sugar is not vegan due to the use of bone char to make the sugar white
The bourbonista is absolutely incredible! On my second one! Going in my recipe book!
White sugar is often purified in color with some kind of carbon made from charred animal bones.
Pickled beets as an amazing gift?
Words more true have never been spoken!
Love the video, but at 59:42 a clip was missing in the edit. Hooray Premiere!
We love u too Greg. Thanks for the honest reviews as always. One of my fav things thru the last few years of watching your channel is how u don’t bend to flattery or lousy products/beverages.
I managed to get a set of bar tools I got a few years ago, and they haven't budged at all (though I make far fewer drinks than you do). Hawthorne, Julep, good bar spoon, boston tins, actual muddler, and a fine mesh strainer. Aloono was the brand's name on Amazon.
The thing I've found the aging barrels are good for is actually making certain alcohols like Crown actually plesent to drink. Or fixing the absolute crime against booze that is Loneriders "bourbon". Otherwise we just keep a rotation of Cardinal Gin, Crown or bourbon in there and it doesn nice things to the flavors of each
So now that we've discovered a few rage-inducing tools, can we challenge Greg to make some cocktails with the worst tools out there?
Petition to normalize standing desk sinks! We can workshop the name later.
If I leave a glass of beer open over night , does the alcohol leave the beer !!!!????
Didn’t know Kevin James from King of Queens was a bar tender 😂
Greg - you've gotta try the cocktail mixers from Som. The dude behind them was the chef for PokPok - wonderful southeast Asian food. The mixers have fantastic flavor options!
The cocktail in a tin/mason jar thing wouldn't make any sense to campers, because they take work and carrying extra stuff. The tinned one even needed a lime, and not many people wanna carry limes to a camp site. The little cans though? Those are game.
Yep! All you need is ice and something to drink out of. If that's too much to carry, though - straight out of the can it is!
Order dried grape stems and you can use them as straws. We used to fill them with "tobacco" in high school because they were abundant and burn cleanly. They work great as straws though.
Bone char is used to process sugar so that it becomes white. That's why turbinado is vegan but brown sugar isn't.
On the topic of tiki gifts, Mondo makes some very cool pop culture-inspired tiki mugs that are pretty inexpensive. They obviously aren't the huge traditional mugs that a collector would really want, but as a gift I think they work really well.
I loved the "shades of turnpike" comment on the Mai Tai cocktail box. 😄
Excellent episode
I notice during a lot of your videos, you cut to commercial, but there is never any commercial. Why is that?
I tell youtube they’re allowed to put an ad there, doesn’t mean they always will
As someone who is way into coffee and not at all into cocktails - I just like to watch Greg cause he's a charismatic guy - and espresso martini with coldbrew sounds weird to me? 'cause those are two VERY different styles of coffee. Anybody able to illuminate me on that?