Mixology Planet Tour 2012

Sitting in the Krakow airport getting ready for another adventure I think about the last one I just had.  This was the final AMCA for Bridget Albert in Illinois.  I have truly been honored to have these experiences and I could not have done it without her mission to educate and put on programs like this.  I hope that whatever avenue I end up strolling along I keep this mission to educate and raise the bar for how we operate in the beverage community.  The AMCA promotes education through traveling to different distilleries and experiencing the culture which amazing products are born from.  These experiences provide us with an insiders look on how and why people do what they do, highlighting their passion.  Obviously there is the given… we go to these amazing countries…. and there is usually booze involved…. How much I can not confirm ;).  What sets this program apart from just the obvious is the extras that bridget has incorportated. Perhaps a certification, a volunteer opportunity, visiting museums and so much more.  Constantly pushing to confront and conquer as a team.  I have been humbled time and time again with this amazing lady guiding us through.  I’m sure as much as we have learned from her and been supported in conquering fears we have done the same for her, the sign of a true team with an wonderful leader. From the emotional journey  of Auschwitz to deep cavernous salt mines and all the crazy means of transportation, boats, planes, helicopter, horses, buses, motorcycles…. we have done it all and most importantly together and we bring back a sense  of accomplishment for facing fears, experiencing once in a life time journeys, a better understanding of people and cultures from around the world that humble you instead of being a pretentious beverage professional( not that anyone would ever be ). I think with a different leader/ninja master that was not as caring, loving, supportive and non judgmental we would not have seen these journeys in the same light.  I feel like through these classes from the 101 to the AMCA 2011 to the AMCA 2012 I have had the opportunity to be exposed to the things I am truly passionate about that no one has up until this point really put together a program that exposed to me the possibilities of this industry.  I know that educating and traveling and giving other people the oppurntity to do the things I have been so blessed to do will be part of my mission in life. I am a better person, beverage professional and have made life long friends in a beautiful community that continues to educate and support each other.  I look around and see my previous classmates becoming brand ambassadors, taking over beverage programs, becoming the USBG council and more importantly coming together as a community and raising over 8,000$ for the devastating affects of hurricane sandy.  These people never seem to amaze me! I’m blessed to be apart of something so wonderful and Bridget’s class was the introduction to all these wonderful people and the door to show me all the possibilities in this industry.  Thank you Bridget for being a wonderful mentor and I hope to be able to give other people the opportunities  I have had. I love you!

I love when someone says something and it just makes you stop and think…”why didn’t I think of that before”.  As I was sharing a cab ride with Tad, owner of Chopin vodka, we were discussing different marketing ideas from bottles, endorsements and specific wordage used to get consumers to buy the product.  You are probably guessing gluten free… well you are wrong and thats a whole other discussion….the word is Organic. With all of these products on the market and very little to distinguish what makes them different, companies have to devise a marketing ploy, if you will, to set them apart and seem to offer something special.

Organic means ” food produced with the use of feed or fertilizer of plant or animal origin without employment of chemically formulated fertilizers, growth stimulants, antibiotics, or pesticides”.  Well  how did most of our food get an organic statement on it.  Its not as if all farmers foresaw farming demands of the future or that over night things that were not considered organic turned into coined “organic”. it has been almost 22 years since the Organic Food Production Act of 1990 began developing a national rule of what could be marked as “Organic”.  One would think that that would not be a hard decision to figure out right?… wrong because you have to think of how many people that would affect… its not just the farmers but the grocery stores, consumers and those that are trading and investing.  Overall affecting the market value of food.  Sure some had to do with the philosophical debate on what organic  is and may be and what organic means in our modern day society.

It took 12 years for the “Final Rule” to become law! of course it did.  If anyone remembers the Alar scare that happened in 1989 with apples, it is no wonder why it took so long to want to pass regulations. I remember as a kid everyone telling me to not eat apples or to make sure they were really washed before we were allowed to eat them. Alar was thought to be one of the most potent cancer- causing substances in our food supply that is sprayed on apples to keep them on trees longer and look all pretty and shiny.  This spread like wild fire, as most horrifying stories do. Children were said to be at risk so a bunch of panicking parents bordering hysteria tried to ban ALL the APPLES and apple products! What is the worst that could happen … no apples?…20,00 apple growers suffered … even those that never used Alar.  Farmers went bankrupt, the government spent 9.5 million of taxpayer money to reimburse apple growers and stories that residue ended up on grapefruit as well,  which is not true since it is not a product designed for citrus, ended up affecting other farmers. You would have to eat 28,000 pounds of Alar treated apple each year for 70 years to have any effect.

So you see why the term organic took so long to be something anyone wanted to pass laws on since in would directly affect the nation. As easy as this was to be believed true, it seems that billions of dollars of marketing have convinced a large amount of people that the organic food they are eating is purely good and safe and that everything else is not.”of course the reality is much more complex and there are features of Organic production that are problematic for an environmental point of view. There are also farming methods that are better for the environment than organic, but the “Organic Brand ” is so strong that few consumers will ever believe this.”  Organic is only 0.7% of US cropland. How can that be so when so much of our Alcohol and food is “organic”. Part of the answer comes from imported organic food that comes from farms that have an annual visit with no actual residue testing which allows them to be certified. Also different ways of controlling weeds contribute more to pollution than using a small amounts of herbicide that is less toxic than table salt.

So, I am not saying that there are not great small local companies that don’t produce amazing quality organic products or that companies that are not organic certified don’t make wonderful products that aren’t equal and many times better than ” organic” companies.  I’m saying that the term organic is a misleading brand image that is marketed by mainstream consumer marketing companies. Just be smart and do a little research and stand behind brands that you would want your friends to drink! CHEERS!

Its interesting to see how things become popular due to necessity, and what makes something in such high demand. Why does one thing become at the forefront while other things that are similar never stand a chance? What is that Tipping Point? When is “ that magical moment when an idea, trend or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire”? For many Americans we identify with whiskey as being the national spirit, which may be true today but what was the spirit drunk by the early settlers?  Kill Devil is a spirit distilled from the juice of sugar cane or its by product known as molasses better known today as Rum.

As sugar became high in demand an abundant byproduct called molasses was left over.  Discarding this vicious byproduct caused many problems as it was seen at fairly useless and difficult to ship. Until one day when it was noted that molasses had enough residual sugar to attract yeast that then attacks the sugar and rearranges it into alcohol and carbon dioxide (fun fact is that Don Q captures the carbon dioxide let off and it is then used in the bottling process of coca-cola).

Fermentation was nothing new as wine and beer and other spirits had been made as well for hundreds of years, but during the sixteenth and seventeenth century sugar cultivation and distillation aggressively made its way through the New World tropics.  This was all made possible by the demand for refined sugar, an abundance of molasses  (cheap), the desire to drink especially with unsafe water on long voyages, and the interested of distillation and slavery to have enough people working on these plantations during harsh conditions. With out these things it never would have been as successful. “Over the course of four centuries it went from swill to swanky, and moved from the gutter the great room” It was a drink that was at first harsh and cheap to purchase, loved by pirates and drank by most.  It has evolved, becoming more refined and compared to some of the finest Cognacs.

Rum use to be extremely high in alcohol content and was very harsh.  Obviously through cocktails it is demonstrated the use of water was often used to cut the proof down.  So why wasn’t rum being diluted in the barrels? It was easier to ship, store and conserve barrels by have a strong spirit that took up less space and water was fairly questionable, in high demand which lead many to drink it as is, resulting in extreme rapid intoxication.  Regulations have since lowed the proof in which rum can be bottled and today typically ranging 80-90 ABV which almost twice of that use to be the norm. Rum does not have many specific regulations but lets look at  what rum is as we know it today.

“any spirit distilled solely from the fermented sugars derived from the sugar cane plant and distilled below 96% alcohol by volume is rum (rhum in French and ron in Spanish). The sugars may be in the form of fresh juice, cane syrup or molasses. In the EU, the term rhum agricole is reserved for rums made from sugar cane juice in the French overseas departments and Madeira and that have specific characteristics.

There are also spirits which, though rum by definition, are described as sugar cane spirits or by other synonyms. For example, ‘cachaça’ the national spirit of Brazil, is distilled from fermented sugar cane juice and you’ll discover a number of ‘aguardiente de cañas’ produced locally across South America. However, if the product is fermented from sugar cane juice, syrup or molasses and distilled below 96% alcohol it is rum, pure and simple.”

The rum from the past has heavily influenced the rum and cocktails of today.  It can be attributed to proof, regulations, distillations methods, aging and availability. Also when we look back at the history of cocktails we see how these drinks originated.  Many times water was added for dilution, lime added to prevent scurvy, sugar to balance out the acidity resulting in the grog, rum punch, daiquiri etc…. Many cocktails were innovative but many emerged out necessity and availability of products.

I grew up in and near Detroit, even living in downtown Detroit during college.  As a rambunctious child my dad would drive me around Detroit giving me history and architecture lessons while allowing me to shift his manual pick up truck. So it  shocked me to go to Canadian Club and not know any of the history behind it especially with the affinity to Detroit that my dad and I have. How could I have lived so close for so long and never know, we use to go get piercings in Canada cause it was legal at 16 and drinking at 19. Just a short tunnel ride over from Detroit we started our Journey into Hiram Walker’s empire and the history behind prohibition.

Hiram Walker Established the brand in 1858 and built an empire.  He built homes, churches and schools for his employees in Walkerville and he paid them in walker dollars.  He gave them everything they needed. During Prohibition the bulk of alcohol consumed in the US was produced in Walkerville. Many people would smuggle crates of Canadian Club over the Detroit River, many times having to throw their whiskey into the river fetching out after the police we no longer on their trail. Some of the front runners in organized crime were the Purple Gang – a mob of predominatly Jewish members or bootleggers and hijackers in the 1920’s based out of Detroit and Al Capone. It was fascinating to see how many counterfeit bottles were being made as well.

Prohibtion is a vital part of understanding our history in the U.S. and although many of our view points on alcohol have changed its still interesting to think there was a point in time where people believed that they could spontaneously combust into blue flames from drinking too much alcohol…. define too much!

Our Lovely parting gifts. Gold Bottles with out names on them!

Throughout  all of my distillery visits and education about spirits Cognac is one to be marveled at.  It seems that Cognac has gotten pushed to the back burner in many bars, cocktail menus and educational tastings in the U.S.. In the states Cognac does not get the credit it deserves and has taken on a poor stigma usually with some rapper endorsing it. Don’t get me wrong I would drink Louis Royer with Hip- Hop artist VAIN all day.   It is clear to see that cognac is  a luxury item represented by many high profile people but what is not so apparent is the fine craftsmanship, history and future of the water of life.

Cognac is one of the most labor intensive spirits in the market today.  The master distillers have to know everything from the varieties of soil with how that affects the grapes taste, along with disease that may attack the vines, distillation, blending and so much more that my other classmates have went into great depths about in their blogs. What  was most  interesting to see was how some of the brands chose to represent themselves, highlighting different types of standards and experiences. Three Brands really set themselves apart for me by the way they display their roots in tradition but are also at the forefront of innovation.

Royer –  Its only natural that the companies symbol would be the bee symbolizing their commitment to craftsmanship. Louis Royer was a beekeeper ” Like his father and grandfather before him. He liked to compare his firm to a hive. As the bee looks for pollen to make honey in the hive, Louis looked for wine around the Cognac region to make cognac by distillation” As we waked around at first everything seemed pretty similar to most distilleries until we got to the production plant and they had us put on footies, caps and coat.  With China and Japan contributing heavily to cognac sales it is of no wonder why Royer would take on the cleanliness standards held by the Japanese. In their state of the art bottling plant they also produce a number of Liqueurs for the Asian market such as lychee, yogurt and passion fruit.

Courvoisier – Just your usual AMAZING french chateau branded with Napoleon imagery on the Charente river.  The Brand took focus of creating an experience while you tasted the vast portfolio. They lead us on a sensory experience  first starting with a 3D cinematic showing, followed by  an assortment of desserts to reveal the aromas found in XO Imperial. Finally we taken into a room in groups of 5 . Imagine your are in a room with soft music, plush seating with a blind fold over your eyes.  Then a mist goes into the room , candied orange, followed a few minutes late by Iris Flowers and then Creme Brulee.  Leading you through a sensory experience ” Le Nez de Courvoisier” deconstructing the intricacies of XO Imperial lead by none other than Master Blender Patrice Pinet.

All of the Cognac producers are amazing and so different.  I have to say that i was most impressed with Pierre Ferrand.  Maybe its all the cognac, or Pineau des Charentes, or rum….gin…. dry curacao….I drank but its hard to pin point but I have never been more impressed with a distillery.

Pierre Ferrand – Alexandre Gabriel welcomed us all into Cognac Ferrand as if it was our home as well. As soon as he started speaking about the company and products his passion and knowledge overflowed. Most of the other brands seemed a bit more conservative as this is how we have been making cognac and this is how we will keep doing it.  Although cognac thrives off of its history and legacy Pierre Ferrand seemed to be the company truly embracing their past but constantly exploring the possibilities of the future. Alexandre’s passion emanates  through his work of producing fine spirits. They Nurture their  cognac and rum as if they are raising a child.  They give it time and allow it to grow, helping it blossom into its full potential.I was impressed with their entire portfolio and am excited to see the new things they will be doing in the future.

I am blessed to have had this amazing experience and have a deeper appreciation for cognac.