I’ve got all the details of the book launch party. Who’s going to be in Seattle in June?

I would like to invite you and your friends to my book launch party for ‘Aphrodisiacs with a Twist’. Please join us for a fun, informal event at Batch 206 Distillery Monday June 24^th from 5pm – 8pm. You will be given one drink ticket upon entrance. Three cocktails from the book and a punch will be offered at $5 a pop. You will be given another drink ticket with purchase of a book (per purchase, not book). Come hang out, meet people, buy a cocktail recipe book that was made locally and support local Seattle businesses. Books will be for sale at a special launch party rate of $20.00.

Who: Mark Sexauer’s book launch party for ‘Aphrodisiacs with a Twist’

What: Buy the book and have a good time with food, drinks and friends

Where: Batch 206 Distillery 1417 Elliott Avenue W, Seattle, WA 98119

How: The event is free, however, due to Washington State liquor laws to serve drinks you need to be accounted for. Please ‘buy’ your free ticket at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/387509

Other: Dress nice, there will be press and photographers. Bring cash is possible, the food truck and myself appreciate the effort to minimize banking fees. If you were a Kickstarter supporter I will have your book and/or T-Shirt available at the event. You must be 21+ to attend

Hashtag for the event is #sexauerbook, we’ll retweet the best ones

After Party: Zig Zag at 10pm, let’s get weird;)

I received 5 advanced copies just in time for me to jet-set over to New York City for the Manhattan Cocktail Classic. MCC is a fantastic event or more accurately, many fantastic events under one umbrella and of course great for networking.

The exciting news here is now we have a date and it’s freaking me out because it’s been years and now it’s about to be a reality! Monday, June 24^th from 5pm – 8pm at Batch 206 distillery in Seattle will be my book launch party. Please sign up here, tickets are free but we need to account for everyone in advance. Feel free to bring as many people as you would like. A full description of the event is on the ticket site.

After the book launch party things will start to move pretty fast as far as getting on Amazon and pushing to get into retail. Stay tuned for updates and I can’t wait for you all to hold a copy in your hands.

Shakers, glassware and random bar swag are peppered over the shelves of almost every second shop in every city.  Most of the glassware for Aphrodisiacs with a Twist came from second hand shops from around Seattle.  You don’t need to look very far to find great stuff for your home or professional bar.

It’s also easy to get carried away too.

Yesterday I found a great way to emulsify egg whites that still includes a little showmanship and tears up egg into a thick foamy mess in to time.  Behind the bar I like using electric emulsifiers like this milk shake mixer:

The problem with these and similar electric mixers is that they can be a little loud or take away from some of the showmanship that accompanies emulsifying egg whites.  The biggest benefit of using this milkshake mixer is speed.

What I found was a long handled mixer which you press down on the handle and the whisk end spins.  Super fun!

It’s the start of garage sale season and these are generally the best places to find bar gear.  On a Friday night, take a minute on Craiglists to write down 4 or so garage sales that are somewhat close to each other.  Garage sales can also be disappointing or just full of junk so make sure you have options.  Then, Saturday morning get up early and make your rounds.  It’s fun, you meet great people and most importantly, you can collect more crap to put in your house.

I guess not technically since I don’t go to all of them but whatever, I’m a fan.  If you are not familiar with Speed Rack it is simply a female bartender speed competition in which all of the proceeds from the event go to fight breast cancer.  Starting with as many as 20 competitors preliminary rounds knock it down to 8.  Those 8 go against each other in the main event two at a time.  Four judges pick the cocktails they will make and the two go head to head for speed and quality.

This was my second Speed Rack event following Seattle and I’m looking forward to seeing the finals in New York this May.  I put together a quick recap of San Diego from my point of view and I hope this helps build some more love for the Rack.  It’s a great event for a great cause and the people that make this happen are amazing to say the least specifically Lynette Marrero, Ivy Mix, Tess Mix and Clair Bertin-Lang,

P.S. I am not a photographer even though I try to look like one.  I recently bought a good camera and will get better, I promise.  I was SO pissed at how many almost amazing shots I have but they are low light/out of focus.  Who wants to give me a photography class (Charity?:)

Jaymee Mandevile and Adrian Biggs hosted a Bacardi party bus from L.A. to San Diego.  In which we started drinking at around noon.  Here is recap in pictures about how my Speed Rack weekend in San Diego went starting with the bus!

I met these two wonderful people, Dustin Newsome and Zahra!

 I found out Jaymee Mandeville likes the pole.

  So does Cari Hah, so much so she had to clean it!

Although Andy he liked it best.

Some of my favorite people were there like Noelle Royer

And Rocky Yeh!

Here was a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiggggggggg supporter of the Rack!

This happened… a lot.  All night!

A sad bunny was there?

Yail Vengroff, Simon Ford, Erick Castro and Neyah White did a great job as judges.

Our suave as shit host!

To help keep things rolling along was Ivy!

I learned that in Los Angeles, even the bartenders throw up gang signs before doing shit?

Brittini Rae was great!

I want to fly to Chicago to hang with DDO! (and Kate Hartman, screw it, I need a Chi-Town trip)!

Four of my homies, Claire Bertin-Lang, Brooke Arthur, DDO and Lynette Marrero.

The fans were amazing!

The support may have helped because this is Jill Webster Right before being named the winner… intense!

Then this happened

and Pedro lit stuff on fire and Brooke got wet!

Then I put the camera away and was drunk for the next 48 hours.  All in all an amazing time and I can’t believe how much work goes into one of these events.  Check the website and look at the schedule for upcoming events.  Hope to see some of you in New York City for finals on May 16th!

It’s finished the journey (almost) and is now being handed off from a post production manager to a company in Portland that will send it out to be printed.  Self-publishing gives me 100% creative freedom to produce a top shelf high quality cocktail book for the general audience and I can’t be more excited to see where it goes.

The estimated book in hand date is early May 2013 which means I will have many copies for Tales of the Cocktail:)

I am now starting to plan for a large (150+) people book launch party in Seattle for the last week of May (Wed 29^th?) and a book launch meet & greet in New York City on May 17^th – 21^st for NYC Cocktail Week.  More to come on both so stay tuned.

I want to thank everyone who has been a part of this project and helped directly or indirectly (Kickstarter baby, that’s what’s up).

Please follow me on twitter @marksexauer if you are not already and I look forward to seeing you all at the end of May!

He to had the exact same ‘Bar Open’ sign on the top of his back bar.

As he grew older and weaker and eventually passed and I was still years away from seeing what a truly great bar experience was. As drinking age came and went, the culture of energy drinks and shots of cheap liquor made me wonder why my grandpa was so intent on having a bar in his house.
As my drinking matured and my knowledge grew I finally started frequenting places that were closer and closer to the intimate experience I remember as a kid.
When I walk into Zig Zag and look up at the ‘Bar Open’ sign I smile a little and a brief memory of my grandpa making a gin martini surrounded by hundreds of bar paraphernalia that was bewildering as a kid but all makes sense now. Thanks Benjamin Philip Perri, Ricardo Hoffman, Erik Hakkinen, Angela Maria, Ben Dougherty and company for being a place where the outside really does disappear once the door closes behind you.

By the way, I still have my grandpa’s ‘bar open’ sign…

Peru also has a national spirit and cocktail, pisco and the pisco sour.  I’ll leave the whole Chili/Peru “who invented pisco first” debate alone (it was Peru, in Lima by an American bartender named Victor Morris in the early 1920′s).

The first Saturday of February is always National PIsco Sour Day and although it came and went without much press in Peru it’s a big deal.  In 2003 the Pisco Sour replaced wine or champagne as the official toast drink.  I think anybody who has had a well made one, either in the States or in Peru, has enjoyed that eureka effect when you close your eyes and really savor what you just drank.

To make as best a pisco sour as you can you don’t need to reinvent the wheel.  Peruvians are very practical as a people and cocktails that fall into the “sour” category follow a simple formula: spirit+sour(citrus)+sweet(sugar)+egg white=delicious.

1) Pisco – Quebranta, Mosto Verde or Acholado tend to work the best depending on palate.  Remember, pisco is easily described as “Peruvian Brandy” so the grapes that make the base dramatically effect the flavor profile.

2) Citrus – This throws people.  In America a Lemon is yellow and a little less acidic than a Lime, which is green.  In Spanish lime is “limon” (pronounced lee-mone) so a lot of recipes through time have been translated incorrectly.  The pisco sour uses a lime.  Our familiar yellow lemon is hard to come by in Peru (almost impossible in the past).  To make matters worse, it uses a type of lime that is different than Persian limes (Citrus latifolia) which which are so common here.  The only way to come close to the true citrus flavor is to use Key limes (Citrus aurantiifolia) the high acid content is a staple of Peruvian cuisine, think ceviche here.

3) Sweetener – Almost every pisco sour I have ever had uses simple syrup (with some exceptions of ones I had in Chili).  A 1:1 ratio simple cane syrup is all you need.

4) Egg White – Use the fresh whites of one egg.  In Peru I have seen many bartenders emulsify with blenders because it’s fast.  Whether you dry shake, use a blender or latte foam mixer it really doesn’t matter as long as you are emulsifying the egg white BEFORE you add ice.

5) Bitters – In most cities and bars these days you will find the Amargo Bitters which are made in Peru.  Of course you can use Angostura, which is a fine substitute.  Traditionally the bitters are dropped on the top of the egg white foam which allow for cool designs too.  I have also seen cinnamon dashed on top?  The point here it seems is to have your nose pick up on the bitters aroma as opposed to the egg whites.

Pisco Sour

2 ounces pisco

1 ounce fresh squeezed key lime juice

1 ounce simple syrup 1:1

whites from one egg

2-4 dashes bitters

Combine all but the bitters into a mixing glass and dry shake extremely hard to emulsify, for at least a minute.  Add ice and shake again, hard, for at least 20 seconds.  Double strain into a cocktail, double-old fashioned or even champagne glass.  Let sit for a minute to harden the egg white foam and garnish with the bitters dropped on top.

St-Germain has a sort of ambrosia effect to it that has made it a phenomenon in this industry.  I was shocked to read that it was only six years old as a brand because it feels like it has been woven into most back bars and eye brow raising cocktail recipes for much longer than that.

Bacardi has just acquired St-Germain Elderflower liqueur and will put its massive international marketing engine behind it.  Even though I cringe at the word “premium” it is safe to call St-Germain a premium brand.  The word ‘Premium’ to me becomes something like credit cards.  “This gin is super premium.” or “This tequila is ultra premium” and “This whiskey is platinum premium”.  It’s redundant and doesn’t tell me about how the spirit really tastes.  Anyways, all in all this is exciting as any great product that can grow into a world market is a good thing.  If you need a refresher on St-Germain, try this staple formula which is a standard sour+sweet+spirit but makes for a not so sweet-citrusy-lychee flavor and is one of many go-to cocktail recipes for the guest looking to branch out from a lemon drop.

Respect your Elders

2 ounces big bold gin (I used Sun Liquor’s Gun Club)

1 ounce fresh lemon juice

1 ounce St-Germin Elderflower

Shake, strain into cocktail glass of choice.

Garnish Ideas:  Lemon zest or wedge, pear slice float