With more and more bartenders and bars looking back at older and older drinks, it is about time we talked about one of my all time favourites, The Shrub. It’s possible that the word comes from the Arabic sharab, meaning drink, just like julep is a variation of the Arabic julab.  What we do know is that the Shrub begins its life before cocktails really exist as an old American preparation from the 1700s.

The Shrub was a way of preserving soft fruit like raspberries, currants, cherries and even peaches.  Discussion of these preparations is mentioned in books like McIver’s Cookery 1773, American Frugal Housewife 1833 and The Virginian Housewife 1838.  The drinks discussed were personal household creations that depended on what was grown on the property, and what alcohol was readily accessible.

The City Tavern in Philadelphia has served a variety of house-made shrubs since it first opened in 1773.  For a concoction to be well enough known to retail successfully, means that is was already popular and the Tavern was probably re-creating the taste of the homestead for those stuck in the big city.

A basic Shrub began with the harvesting of whichever local crop was ripe.  For example, when the raspberries were in season, there would be a communal harvesting, and then the various households would each take their share, especially as raspberries were generally a wild crop, and would begin to prepare their Shrubs.  A simple recipe was to boil the berries with sugar, then strain off the juice and mix with equal parts rum or whiskey. This would then be bottled, generally with the addition of a little vinegar or citrus juice, and aged for up to three months. The final liquid was drunk with equal parts water and Shrub mixture.  When “…mixed with water is a pure delicious drink for summer.” American Frugal Housewife. 1833.

Each household would have their own recipe loosely based on this general idea. Each area would have a different common crop of wild fruit, so each area would use different local produce. Each locality would also have access to different types of booze: rum, brandy, corn whiskey, bourbon, rye, applejack. Although most recipes contain alcohol, there are a few about that do not, and these generally use larger quantities of vinegar and sugar to ensure preservation. But there was no right or wrong recipe, some would contain honey and others herbs and spices. The earliest recipe that I have been able to unearth was in the British book McIver’s Cookery for a citrus shrub and consisted of:

“For a twenty-pint (ten gallon) cask, take eighteen pounds of single refined sugar, orange and lemon juice, of each one pint (2 quarts), and the grate of four dozen of these fruits. Infuse the grate with rum, and put it in the cask along with sugar and the juice.  Shake it frequently, and stir it up with a stick until the sugar is dissolved; then fill up the cask with rum, and bung it up. Let it stand six weeks or longer, until it fines.” Taken from The Practice of Cookery, Pastry, and Confectionery. Mrs Frazer, 1820, where it was reproduced from McIver’s Cookery. Note that there is no vinegar needed as the acid of the citrus was sufficient.

So what of the Shrub today? Why is it remembered and why is it being made again and again in bars around Australia and the world?  Because the humble household Shrub was in many ways the first fruit cocktail, in the style that later gives birth to abominations like the apple martini, or the lychee martini.

A Shrub consisted of fresh fruit, spirit, sweetener (sugar), and water.  Cocktails were a mixture of spirit, sweetener (sugar), bitters and water.  To my mind the Shrub replaces the bitters with fruit.  It is a much more accurate way to describe fruit with booze, than a martini.  It can be shaken with ice and served straight up, or it can be served over crushed ice.  Indeed, President James K Polk (1845-1849) enjoyed a raspberry shrub with brandy and vinegar, served over crushed ice on a hot day.

The best store made shrubs come from Tait Farms in Pennsylvania (www.taitfarmfoods.com) who stumbled across the old technique when looking for ways to preserve a bumper crop of raspberries.  Since then they have not looked back and anyone in America should look out for a bottle or two.

Sebastian Reaburn is the co-owner of 1806 (www.1806.com.au) and Mixology Management (www.mixologymanagement.com.au)

I was lucky to enjoy an impromptu vertical tasting of Middleton Irish Whiskey the other week and I thought I’d jot down a few words.

We have two vintages of this glorious drop at 1806, the 2004 and the 2006. One of our regulars who we hadn’t seen for a while popped in early one evening with a bottle of the newly released 2007 that he had tracked down in the US. So we figured, hey, lets compare them all.

For those of you who have not tried Middleton, do so. This is one of the greatest whiskies in the world, a single barrel, pot distilled, hand picked Irish Whiskey from the personal choice of Jameson Master Distiller Barry Crocker. He picks a barrel or two that are between sixteen and twenty years old, usually about eighteen, and bottles it at 40%.  The whiskey is usually from American oak barrels, but it changes every year. The Middleton releases are not vintage whiskies and they do not have an age label. They are the personal favourite barrels from that year. No two releases are the same, so I was really looking forward to the opportunity to taste three together.

The style is thick and syrupy, with a generous dash of sweet esters, so much so that there is a feel of liquid toffee when the golden drops hit your tongue. It then moves through light, complex spices and dried stone fruit like apricot and nectarine. It is actually a bit lighter than the usual Jameson style, with the length and complexity being made up from a whole host of complicated sweet esters and hints of violets and citrus. In style the nose is a little like a cognac, but the palate has that familiar dry touch that all whiskey lovers know.

Back to the booze at hand.  There was an instant stand out. The 2006 is just SO smooth and full.  Lots of syrup, toffee, spices, dried fruit, flowers, and just yummy.

The next favourite, that is probably a little closer to a more traditional top shelf whiskey, was the 2007.  More leather, the cinnamon is more forward, and there is a toasty fruit cake backbone that seems to hold all the flavours together.  Slightly more complex than the 2006, but requires more thought and consideration, and a bit less of the instant smile the 2006 invites.

Unfortunately, the 2004 is a bit of a poor cousin to the other two.  It is a tough call because all three releases that we tasted were exceptional, but the 2006 and 2007 were above and beyond anything we ever suspected. That left the 2004 languishing a bit as just a fantastic whiskey rather than attaining full status of divine elixir.

For all you die hard scotch fans who have not had the opportunity to try an Irish whiskey that is truly sublime and one of the the greatest distilled liquids on the planet, you will have to head over seas if you want one. Alas the good people at Jameson’s don’t make enough for Australia to get an allocation except occasionally, and they all go fast.  Expect to pay between $200 - $300 for a bottle depending on the exchange rate.  When it is newly released there are usually a few Duty Free in the UK and US if you are lucky, in which case you will save a few pennies.  Other than that, if you ever see a bottle, buy it, delicious.

Sebastian Reaburn is the co-owner of 1806 (www.1806.com.au) and Mixology Management (www.mixologymanagement.com.au)

How on earth do you decide what will, or will not, get into a cocktail list?  With modern bartending more and more interested with what Angus Winchester describes as ’scrutiny’, it is becoming harder to create cocktail lists.  So I’m going to run through my top ten tips to a foolproof cocktail list.

1. Get together a collection of cocktails that can be made quickly in the bar, that you have all the ingredients for, and that taste good. This collection can be from other bartenders, classic cocktails, personal creations, bar signatures and twists on drinks.

2. Ensure is that you like the drinks. This is not the same as ordering and drinking them, because sometimes there are amazing drinks that you can tell are fantastic, but just aren’t to your taste.

3. Check that all the major areas of the bar are covered. Is there a Tequila drink? A Cognac drink? Are there too many vodka or Gin drinks?  Balance in a cocktail list is essential.

4. Cost the drinks, including estimates of time involved, especially if a drink contains a puree, bitters or infusion that you have to make yourself.

5. Define your bar. Now things begin to get tricky, this is where great cocktail lists are made.  How do you present this collection of excellent beverages in a way that will make people order them? The single most important thing to remember about a cocktail list is that it is the advertisement for the bar that pretty much everyone reads. When turning a collection of drinks into a cocktail list there are a primary thoughts that lie behind how you go about it. The first is about the bar itself. Try and write down five to ten words that describe the bar. It can be simple note form like: rich, fast, young but knowledgeable.  Or it can be more involved: sophisticated, educated, refined with aspects that challenge and subvert traditional modes of socialising, or as simple as one word wanker!

6. Check that the collection of drinks actually match the style of the bar. It is very difficult to include a Blue Lagoon on a sophisticated bar menu without giving a good reason.

 7. Start writing. The description of a cocktail is what sells it. Very few people are as lucky as us to be able to dip a straw into almost every drink we serve.  So we need some words that describe the drink.  For example, a Margarita could be, crisp, sharp with hints of orange and healthy smack of premium tequila. After writing a few things about each drink, think about what else the descriptions are actually saying.  The Margarita description for example says fast, expensive, slightly dangerous and with a good bit of booze.  So the person most likely to order this will probably be in a hurry to spend some money, get a bit tanked, and think themselves a bit dangerous.  Is that your ideal punter?  If your ideal punter is chilled out, relaxed, sophisticated and knowledgeable, then this drink is not described in a way that will appeal.  For them you might need to say premium tequila with fresh lime, and Cointreau, shaken and served straight up with a half salt rim. The easiest way to describe any cocktail is to list the flavours. This sometimes means listing ingredients, but should not be limited to that. Using brands in descriptions can also help match a drink to the right ambiance. Cointreau is expensive, elegant, sophisticated. Bacardi is young, sexy, dangerous. Jack Daniels is down to earth, honest, straight up. So where a brand matches your consumer, use it, if it doesn’t, just use rum, gin etc.

8. Compile your list. You now have a collection of well described, tasty, easily produced cocktails that you can make a profit on.  How do you get them all sitting happily together in one smart list? There needs to be an individual answer for every venue and list.  Start by thinking about the bar again, think about how people might want to drink while there.  If it is a younger, faster crowd, lean towards categories like Straight Up or Long Drinks.  If it is an educated and slower drinker, perhaps move towards placing drinks by base spirit: Rum, Gin, Vodka etc.  You can also use ideas from restaurants like Entre Main Desert or Start Middle End.  Even old school ideas like Aperitif and Digestif can help place drinks in a form that encourages drinking. A really good way to get your head around what might work for your bar is to go to a few restaurants and bars that you think have a similar crowd.  Check how they have set things out, then twist it so that it speaks the same language, but doesn’t leave the list looking like its trying to be like anyone else.  Lots of bars have menus online now, so let your keyboard do the walking.

9. Proof it. Read it, re-read it, read it out loud, get all the staff to read it, your mother and her friends, your old English teacher and regular customers. Then you can pretty much guarantee that there will only be one glaring error. I sometimes feel that there needs to be an investigation into the fact that people who are employed elsewhere as professional editors cannot spot a huge spelling mistake in a bar menu. It is essential for credibility, and avoiding having customers continuously tell you about the mistake, that all precautions that can be taken, are taken, before allowing a menu to go to print.  Especially if the printing is outsourced, in which case demand a proof copy before they make the final run.  Strange errors of pagination, and the loss of all the prices, often occur when changing from one computer to another.

10. Now that you have your cocktail list, don’t be too proud to accept criticism. The best cocktail lists do not magically appear from the fingers of bartenders fully formed, they evolve with input, corrections and suggestions from friends and colleagues.  The very best menus are written by bartenders who understand that despite being the best person to write the whole menu, sometimes it is someone else who can best describe a specific drink.  Take their help, ask for input, allow the menu to evolve, grow and become stronger.

Sebastian Reaburn is the co-owner of 1806 (www.1806.com.au) and Mixology Management (www.mixologymanagement.com.au)