Help It or Hurt It: The Feedback Loop in Cocktail Creation

I would forget this drink if I could. I had recently moved to Seattle, and it was my first time at this particular cocktail bar, one I had heard a lot of positive buzz about. I knew a few folks who worked there too, and they seemed like quality drinkmakers. I looked at the menu, and one in particular read as compelling. I don’t remember the name, but the ingredients drew me in: aquavit, honey, lemon, black pepper… It sounded like a sour playing on the spicy and herbal complexity of a favorite nordic spirit.
spirit (aquavit), sweetener (honey), and acid (lemon juice)
How did they include the pepper? Did they infuse the honey? Grind the spice on top?

My drink arrived, served in a classic coupe. It looked a little sad. A shaken cocktail should have a froth on top, bubbles introduced by the vigorous aeration from shaking. I picked it up to breathe in the aromatics before taking that first sip, but as I did my hand mushed into an unnoticed thick layer of honey speckled with black pepper which coated the outside of the glass. It was a sensation I can only describe as adjacent to stepping in poo. I could wipe my hand off but then I’d just get it sticky again, so i took a sip. Even more honey and black pepper on the rim of the drink felt cruel and unusual, but if I was searching for some redemption in the cocktail itself, I found none. A sour should be lively, but this one was flaccid. Flat. No effort had gone into its shaking, and it was cloyingly sweet. I put the glass down and went to the bathroom to wash my hands.

Every terrible cocktail you have ever tasted was in some way fixable. Read that sentence again. I have rarely if ever created a drink that was a perfect one-shot one-kill, first-time success. Almost all drinks at your favorite bars went through a process of rewrites. How do we ensure beyond a doubt that that cocktail we are proud of is indeed menu ready? Are there bumper rails we can put up to ensure this cocktail sings? Here’s a few I’ve learned along the way.

We should all have a feedback loop. Once upon a time I remember Honor, a friend from the incredible caffeine powerhouse and my frequent hangover-killers Olympia Coffee Roasters, told me one of the reasons their coffee was so good is that they have a feedback loop. Most coffee that is purchased is purchased in bulk from overseas as green coffee, then brought to its destination to be roasted. In this system, there is no room for feedback from the final user (the coffee drinker) to the raw ingredient (the farmer.) In OCR’s closed loop system, they work with farmers they know and can relay back thoughts and impressions, which ultimately helps their farmer create the best product they can and make them more money, all while they hone their craft.

In beverage recipe development, we need people we trust to taste in as objective an environment as possible. You want honesty—best case scenario, you are getting meaningful, actionable thoughts through statements of quality. Put your drink in front of people you trust, who have a palate you trust, and ask, “Would you mind tasting a drink I’ve been working on and telling me what you like or don’t like about it?” After some notes, (“Notes of strawberry” isn’t as helpful as “cloyingly fruity” so encourage them to give those statements of quality) let them know what you were aiming for. Have them taste again. Whether or not they have suggestions, you have received some actionable feedback. Do this a few more times with a few other people. Anyone who tells you the cocktail is perfect, you might as well take off your list.

Once you’re back to the drawing board, play “Help it or hurt it?” Thor Messer, our old bar manager from Navy Strength, used to use this terminology when we were working on cocktails together. By adding or taking away an ingredient, did we help or hurt the drink in becoming more delicious? If we helped, keep swimming in that direction. If we hurt it, start back at the last crossroads.

Next, consider your why. The reason to explain what you were aiming for with your cocktail is that it gives the cocktail’s story. Needed to move through a case of spirits left over from an event? Want to replace the tropical gin cocktail on the next menu? Did you get inspiration from a dish you had at a new restaurant? This will help you hone your drink and stay on your path. This is just for you and your creative process, no reason to share it with guests through your menu.

Are your ingredients essential? You need citrus for your sour, but why lemon and not lime? Do you have the right sweetener? Did you split your spirit base instead of finding a base spirit that truly sings? Looking at each ingredient and deciding whether it is essential will help you choose what to swap out in the Mr Potato Head game of fixing a cocktail.

What about user experience? I can’t tell you how many times a bartender has handed me a drink that is, unaltered, physically undrinkable. Crushed ice but no straw. A garnish so enormous I cant get to the drink to take a sip. A hot drink in a vessel with no handle. Unless you are an instagram mixologist (god bless that particular breed), these cocktails don’t consider their purpose: to be consumed for pleasure.

Finally, none of the above fixes would create a good final cocktail if your technique isn’t correct. Go back to basics: pick up a copy of a book that covers the basics of drinkmaking (I recommend Morgenthaler’s The Bar Book,) and ask for feedback if you are unsure if you’re mixing correctly. If I were to remake the above cocktail, using all the same ingredients, I’d probably make what I wanted to have in the first place:

2 oz aquavit
3/4 oz fresh lemon
1/2 oz salted rich honey syrup
2 cracks black pepper
Shake hard with good ice until freezing cold, then immediately fine strain into a chilled coupe
Garnish with a final crack of pepper