Raising the Bar with Jamie Boudreau

At Canon, Jamie’s bar in Seattle, WA, they take pride in the sours they create each and every night. Like many cocktails served at Canon, sours are made with 2:1, rich simple syrup. As Jamie has professed in passed episodes, rich simple syrup provides not only sweetness but a great mouth feel without diluting the drink as much as a typical 1:1 simple syrup might. In the Chamomile Sour, Scotch is infused with the plentiful, calming herb to create a truly delightful, rich, yet light take on the classic sour style cocktail.

An elixir fit for a king, this gin cocktail plays off Jamie’s Golden Ration for cocktails: 1 1/2:3/4:1/4 but reduces the amount of vermouth to 1/2 ounce. To cut the sweetness of the Gold Wasser (not schlager) ever so slightly, Jamie utilizes a simple technique using lemon zest.

Brunch cocktails typically come in one form: the Mimosa. Although delicious, the Mimosa is a bit lacking. Jamie’s bar, Canon, in Seattle, serves a great brunch; with great brunch, there must be great brunch cocktails. Zucca Rhubarb Liqueur and fresh grapefruit juice give the Swagger Cocktail more depth and individuality than your average Mimosa.

The Fourth Regiment Cocktail dates back to the late 19th century. Like many cocktails of the day, it was most likely made with rye whiskey rather than bourbon. The keys to making this cocktail are to choose a quality bottled in bond rye whiskey and to make sure you have a bottle of celery bitters on hand as it is the magic ingredient. Watch Robert Hess make the Fourth Regiment Cocktail

This Canon original cocktail recipe was inspired by hints of banana that Jamie finds in Jameson Irish Whiskey. Playing off those notes, Jamie infused banana into the whiskey creating a truly unique flavor profile. Interestingly enough, this cocktail is shaken due to the pectins released into the Jameson during the infusion process. Misting the glass with a smoky Islay whisky (like Ardbeg) before straining gives the cocktail a deliciously smoky essence.

Not THAT hooker! Canon is not that kind of place. The Hooker Cocktail is named after John Lee Hooker, the blues guitar legend. As you might imagine, the cocktail contains some Bourbon, some Scotch and some beer. Octoberfest is here and this is the perfect cocktail to enjoy fermented, brewed and distilled grains of all kinds. Crank some blues and celebrate!

In this episode of Raising the Bar, Jamie addresses how to shake a cocktail once again. Repetitive movements can really take a toll on a bartenders body. Jamie believes that his use of cobbler shakers, as opposed to a standard Boston shaker, reduces wear on the body. It also allows him to shake up a mean Hop Toad cocktail. First seen in The Old Waldorf Astoria Bar Book, a few variations of the Hop Toad cocktail have been created since the cocktail’s genesis. Jamie has chosen a version that calls for rum as well as aromatic bitters.

Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory fans will recognize the name of this cocktail. In the film, an overzealous Violet Beauregarde chews some special gum resulting in her plumping up like a giant blueberry. Thus, the Beauregarde’s Breakfast Cocktail. Using Canon house-made blueberry preserves, Jamie creates a delightful brunch cocktail that celebrates that most American of spirits, Bourbon.

Jamie Boudreau’s bar, Canon, has a much longer full name: Canon: Whiskey and Bitters Emporium. When Jamie decided to develop a signature cocktail for the award winning bar, he wanted it to epitomize the bar’s full title. Thus, he came up with a recipe that features his favorite spirit, whiskey, topped with a Cointreau foam and a touch of aromatic bitters in the form of a stenciled Canon logo.

Almost two years ago now, Jamie extolled the virtues of the Golden Ratio. As a formula for creating new cocktails, the Golden Ratio is 1.5 oz spirit : .75 oz aperitif : .25 oz liqueur. This combination almost always results in a delicious cocktail. If not, it can serve as the base for iteration. Get experimenting!

Summer is here! Savour the heat by quenching your thirst with a fortified Sangria Blanc. Nothing could be simpler than grabbing a pitcher, your favorite seasonal fruit, a nice white wine, gin and a tasty liqueur and mixing it up for your friends.

Carbonating and bottling cocktails is a great way to batch cocktails for your bar or for fun at home. Using great ingredients, like Martin Miller’s Gin and adding bubbles also makes any cocktail a more refreshing drinking experience.

An abundance of fruit and produce presents itself in the summer and thus it is the perfect season for making a shrub. Made simply by combining fruit based syrup (think of simple syrup made with fruit juice instead of water) and vinegar, shrubs are a great way of imparting sweet fruit flavors and delicious acidity to a cocktail. In this case, Jamie utilizes a rhubarb shrub that combines beautifully with a citrus forward gin like Martin Miller’s.

The swizzle, a style of cocktail utilizing crushed ice, typically made with rum and given a good mixing with a swizzle stick, is a perfect drink for the approaching Summer. In this swizzle, Jamie utilizes Edinburgh Gin, a new gin on the market. With wonderful floral tones and resounding pine notes, it is the perfect gin for the Evergreen Swizzle.

The winner of the Martin Miller’s Gin ‘Trade Up’ competition is the Strega Sour from Junior Ryan of Clyde Common in Portland, OR. Junior found the Strega Sour in the Playboy Host and Bar Book and traded it up using Martin Miller’s Gin and the addition of egg white and house-made honey and earl grey syrup. To see Junior making his traded up Strega Sour, check out this link: Junior Ryan Strega Sour.

Jamie brings back the “golden ratio” and discusses proper technique when opening a corked bottle of wine or vermouth. The resulting cocktail, Kentucky Medicine, will surely cure what ails you this Winter season.

The Pumpkin King was inspired by the great seasonal pumpkin ales that pop up this time of year. Jamie uses Pumking Imperial Pumpkin Ale from Southern Tier Brewing Co. to create a beer liqueur which he uses as the foundation for the cocktail. With its soft yet rich flavor, Pigs Nose Scotch Whisky is the perfect compliment to the deep spice of the hand made beer liqueur.

There are ingredients sitting in your back bar that you just don’t like. Maybe it is just because you haven’t taken the time to get to know them. The WTF cocktail is a cocktail made with some of those ingredients Jamie took the time to experiment with.

Created by the former Milk & Honey bartender Enzo Errico, the Redhook Cocktail has become a modern day classic. Using Headlong White Dog Whiskey from Woodinville Whiskey Co., Jamie concocts a variation on the Redhook he calls the Whitehook. Barrel aged for almost three months, Jamie prefers to drink and serve the resulting liqueur straight without dilution.

Bitters have been an ingredient in cocktails since the birth of the art form. Some would say that a cocktail is not truly a cocktail without bitters. Even so, it is rare to find a cocktail that utilizes more than a dash or two. Not so with the Aromatic Collins. A lover of bitters, Jamie Boudreau uses an entire ounce of Angostura Bitters in this creation.

You have seen Jamie concoct Blue Blazer style drinks before. Here is a new twist that is perfect for the cold weather ahead, the Green Blazer.

In 2011, Jamie joined Liquid Kitchen host, Kathy Casey and Portfolio Ambassador for William Grant and Sons, Charlotte Voisey for a unique and entertaining seminar during the recent Manhattan Cocktail Classic. This seminar, sponsored by Hudson Whiskey, Hendrick’s Gin and Milagro Tequila, led attendees through the thought process that these three mixologists go through when creating a cocktail. In this episode, they tackle how to make a Margarita three different ways. You can watch Kathy make her variation, the Black and Blue Cadillac Margarita with Grand Marnier Foam, here. Join Small Screen, William Grant & Sons and Charlotte Voisey during Manhattan Cocktail Classic 2013

In 2011, Jamie joined Liquid Kitchen host, Kathy Casey and Portfolio Ambassador for William Grant and Sons, Charlotte Voisey for a unique and entertaining seminar during Manhattan Cocktail Classic. This seminar, sponsored by Hudson Whiskey, Hendrick’s Gin and Milagro Tequila, led attendees through the thought process that these three mixologists go through when creating a cocktail. In this episode, they tackle the French 75 Cocktail. You can watch Kathy make her variation, the Citrus 75, here. Join Small Screen, William Grant & Sons and Charlotte Voisey during Manhattan Cocktail Classic 2013

In 2011, Jamie joined Liquid Kitchen host, Kathy Casey and Portfolio Ambassador for William Grant and Sons, Charlotte Voisey for a unique and entertaining seminar during the recent Manhattan Cocktail Classic. This seminar, sponsored by Hudson Whiskey, Hendrick’s Gin and Milagro Tequila, led attendees through the thought process that these three mixologists go through when creating a cocktail. In this episode, they tackle the Old Fashioned Cocktail. You can watch Jamie make his variation, the Machine Head, here. Join Small Screen, William Grant & Sons and Charlotte Voisey during Manhattan Cocktail Classic 2013

The Margarita is traditionally made with little variation. Those who like it simple, keep to three ingredients: simple syrup, lime juice and tequila. Delicious! Jamie Boudreau steps it up a notch with help from a kit assembled by Cointreau (watch Jamie make Cointreau pearls here) whose purpose is to streamline the production of flavored pearls and, in this case, what Jamie calls “ravioli”. This deconstructed Margarita pairs the typical trifecta of ingredients above with a spoonful of encapsulated Cointreau for a flavorful and unique imbibing experience.

In an earlier episode of The Cocktail Spirit with Robert Hess, guest Jamie Boudreau demonstrated how to make flavorful spheres of caviar or pearls out of gelatin. Since then, Cointreau has put together an amazing kit using state of the art tools, ingredients and technique. They were kind enough to send a kit to Jamie so he could work his magic. As Jamie demonstrates, the addition of gold flakes to the pearls created with the Cointreau system add elegance to a simple glass of champagne.

Spring has sprung and it is time to discover light and refreshing cocktails to be sipped in the sunshine. Most often used as a garnish, celery is often overlooked as an ingredient. Its vegetal aroma and flavor is off-putting to some but combined with a touch of acid and a bit of sweetness, then spread evenly with vodka, it creates a backbone of flavor that is at once robust and refreshing.

Thyme has many uses, the most obvious being culinary. Because of its antiseptic qualities, in ancient times, it was used as an embalming agent. No doubt the aromatics aided in suppressing odors related to the decomposition of the body. Here, Jamie uses thyme strictly as an aromatic. Although, it may help preserve your liver!

Just as in the Cubed Old Fashioned and the old fashioned simple syrup therein, making your own ingredients takes your cocktails to the next level of flavor. In the Gunpowder and Smoke, a liqueur created using gunpowder tea infused cognac mixed with sugar provides a backbone to which all the other ingredients attach and compliment. For the smoke: a bit of flamed Scotch to top it off!

The Petruchio Cocktail shows how egg white and rich simple syrup can be used in a cocktail to create mouth fell and texture.

Basil is not just for cooking in Italian food. It is wonderful when used just like mint in a mojito or mint julep and adds a depth of green, earthy aroma and flavor to a drink like the Monstre Verte.

The Denny Triangle is a pre-gentrified area in Seattle near the Space Needle. It is dirty and funky but in it you can find fantasticly delicious hidden pleasures. Thus, this little enclave was the inspiration for the Denny Triangle Cocktail; it is a bit funky but absolutely delicious!

Everything is better with bubbles. Classic cocktails like the Negroni can be lifted into the stratosphere with a bit of carbonation. Devices like the Perlini System and the new iSi Twist ‘n Sparkle (seen here in use by Marcel Vigneron on Hanging with Harris) make carbonated cocktails and other beverages simple. Whether you are a pro behind the bar or just want to impress your friends at home, adding bubbles is a fun and unique way to add texture and flavor to old favorites.

Herbs can provide an amazing back drop to a cocktail. The Rubicon makes great use of rosemary and the herbal liqueur chartreuse. Both are a perfect compliment to gin and create a very refreshing libation. Oh, and don’t forget your lighter; this one needs a bit of a flambé!

The Old Fashioned Cocktail is simple yet multidimensional. Its few ingredients combine to create what some consider the perfect cocktail. You can make old fashioned cocktails with any spirit; rum and tequila both make a wonderful old fashioned. But why not try multiple spirits and multiple bitters for that matter? The Cubed Old Fashioned could just take you to the fourth dimension!

The Tom Collins is probably the most recognizable highball style cocktail. Another classic highball is the El Diablo. The Black Donald is essentially an El Diablo using Scotch in place of Tequila and Drambuie in place of Creme de Cassis. Grab your nearest bottle of single malt and give it a go!

Bitters heavy cocktails are catching on across the country. Some include full ounces of bitters like Angostura making for intensely aromatic experiences. The Zim Zala Bim is no exception with one quarter ounce of Regan’s Orange Bitters and delicious reposado tequila.

In this second episode on how to layer a cocktail, Jamie demonstrates the Bitter Bike. With a heavy amount of Angostura Bitters, this drink is an unusually delicious way to end the evening.

Layering a cocktail is really very simple. Once you have ascertained the specific gravity of each spirit, just begin with the heaviest spirit on the bottom and layer the rest of the ingredients in order from heaviest to lightest on top of each other. A good tip to remember is to pour each ingredient slowly over you bar spoon as it rests against the glass. That way they do not break through the previous layer. It also helps to chill or freeze each liqueur before use.

Start your day right with the delightfully refreshing Breakfast Collins. Be sure to leave all the nasty bits behind by using a proper double straining technique.