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THE MIX MASTERS1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Itinerary | Home
THE BOOK COLLECTOR Jamie Boudreau is describing the ingredients in his homemade cherry bitters: “Tart cherries, milk thistle, black walnut leaf, wormwood, barberry, licorice, fringe tree, cardamom…” The list goes on. Boudreau is the manager of Vessel, a cutting-edge Seattle cocktail bar that doubles as his own personal laboratory. He has collected dozens of antique cocktail books, many dating from the late 1800s, and he’s found scores of recipes calling for ingredients that no one remembers. Mysteries like Caperitif, Hercules and Pash show up in recipes for the Seventh Heaven, Bluebottle and the Angler’s cocktail. “Some of these cocktails sound so good,” he says, “and I think, Damn, I wish I could try them.” His solution? Buy an oak barrique, some high-proof alcohol, and get to work. The cherry bitters, which take a little over two months to make, were born in a flash of inspiration while mixing a Manhattan. “It just made sense, given that it’s the best bitters drink,” he says, “and you put a cherry in it.” Before Prohibition, dozens of brands of bitters were available on the market; nowadays there are only a handful. Bartenders like Boudreau have turned to distology to redress the imbalance. Boudreau’s next step? He’s setting up his own still so he can craft spirits evocative of the Pacific Northwest. His first is Pimento Dram, an allspice liqueur that cocktail author Ted “Dr. Cocktail” Haigh has called “one of the most beautiful spirits you can’t get.” |
