The “telling me a feeling or a couple components and I’ll make you a drink” schtick is a time-honored tradition of the cocktail renaissance. I get it, it’s a chance for good bartenders to show off, to explore weird corners of a collection, and if you are lucky, to maybe sample some real weird-ass stuff, like mulberry liqueur. At its worst, you pay too much for flashiness that is neither necessary nor appreciated. After all, the daiquiri is a time-honored three component drink for a reason, it doesn’t need you playing with it and elevating it. It’s fucking great already.
With all that in mind, we ended up in Youngblood in San Diego last weekend. The brainchild of the team behind a bar that itself was already on the front end of the cocktail renaissance speakeasy/hidden back bar revolution, you might think to yourself does a bar possibly need two speakeasies? Where do they fit? Did a man or a pig possibly live there (sorry, sorry, inside joke for an audience of one). All valid questions.
So that’s what we were working with as friends in San Diego told us we could not miss this, and off we went from a phenomenal vegan place (seriously, KINDRED rules, I did not know you could make seitan that tender) for what we thought might be a drink or two until we wandered into the timed experiment of $20 per drink with a 90 minute time limit (ish, go at the end of the night and you might find you can stay a lil longer). I didn’t get a great photo of anything in there, but it’s a beautiful space, and you can find plenty on the internet. We got a space at the bar and Zach (who had major “Tom Holland at the beginning of Uncharted” vibes) immediately rose to the occasion with our first round.
But the final round, that was where he really blew us away. After an initial round of “components that should not work together” yielded a drink with Banane du Brésil (how did he know?!?), Fernet-Vallet, and a split base of Laphroaig 10 and Jura 10, I was already sold. I asked for another direction entirely after that (bright and floral) and had an excellent gin drink, but the final round…I’m still thinking about it. I was done for the night, I had room for one more good drink and wanted something desserty. Since he had used a fine Giffard product in everything else so far, I felt it was only right to call the Vanille de Madagascar. And here’s what he had for me
Creme of Coconut
Pineapple
Lime
the aforementioned Vanille de Madagascar
Saline
What was supposed to be genever (but they were out), but was instead a masterstroke of Toki
A lil grating of cinnamon
That’s it, that’s the drink. It’s the best vegan egg nog you’ve never had. Now…can I do that?
I get the principle. I’ve made a lot of drinks. So…with that in mind, how would I do this?
This was an up drink, but in a little 6 oz or so glass? Definitely more room than a normal coupe. An Irish Coffee mug would be perfect for this as well. They had this beautiful little stemmed piece that…I do not. But I do have 6 oz Old Fashioned glasses, like God intended.
What are the proportions? I’m still working on that? First time around had too much of some things and not enough of others (it’s really only a touch of the citrus and pineapple by all accounts, and maybe more coconut and vanilla? idk…I’d suggest something like this which will get you closer…
1.5 oz Creme of Coconut
.5 oz pineapple
.25 oz lime
.75 oz Vanille de Madagascar
a couple drops of Saline
1.5 oz of Toki? 2 oz?
A lil grating of cinnamon
Sometimes you put yourself in the hands of a good bartender and you cannot quite get back to whatever magic they had. Gonna keep chasing this one for a while.
Until then…
This is Trader Jane’s, a periodic newsletter about drinks (mostly tiki) and other fun writing. Follow me on Substack for something every couple of weeks (a low volume Substack, I swear!), and follow me on Twitter and Instagram for more timely updates on my beverages (and for lots of other things of course!)
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