"pegu club" news and stories

Brillat-Savarin recorded in his elegant and classic tome, The Physiology of Taste (1825), "I am...tempted to believe that smell and taste are in fact but a single composite sense whose laboratory is the mouth and its chimney the nose." Though lacking modern science to prove it, he couldn't deny the inherent, but elusive connection between aroma and flavor -- the subject of a weekend-long seminar at Astor Center in New York City.

"Most of what we perceive to be taste is actually smell," explained Audrey Saunders, lauded mixologist and owner of the Pegu Club (NYC). Friday evening at a panel discussing the alchemy of cocktail aromatics, Saunders revealed a few of her secrets to expressing fragrance through cocktails.

Saunders first began to experiment with aroma around the time she worked at the Carlyle Hotel while preparing for a week tending bar at the London Ritz. She wanted to create an aromatic cocktail using gin and tea -- the patron spirits of English imbibing. Her experiments faltered until she realized (with the advice of one Harold McGee) that egg white is an excellent conductor of scent and after a few iterations, created what is now a Pegu Club mainstay, the Earl Grey MarTEAni. Throughout the process she discovered a few key lessons about building fragrant cocktails that apply to any bar -- home or professional. See them after the jump.

Spicy ginger root has long been a part of the bar world. In early America it wasn't uncommon to find home-brewed ginger beer in local taverns and family homes. Ginger beer breweries existed in the US up until Prohibition. Today, however, when you ask for ginger ale or ginger beer you typically get a fizzy soda pop with no alcohol content.

But a few commercial brands can still be found on store shelves. Jamaica's Finest packs a spicy punch. Bermuda boasts Barritt's, the traditional ingredient in the classic Dark and Stormy cocktail, a mix of Gosling's Rum and ginger beer typically served with a lime wedge. (The Dark and Stormy made it as the first entry into The Institute for Cocktail Excellence's Mixology Hall of Fame in the Modern Classic Category.) With the popularity of the Dark and Stormy, now even Gosling's rum has its own version of ginger beer. On the gourmet soda front, many prefer Reed's, Fever Tree, or Fentiman's.

Many bartenders make ingredients from scratch in order to give their guests a special experience that goes beyond opening a bottle and a can. Jeffrey Morgenthaler, bar manager at Portland, Oregon's Clyde Common, started experimenting with homemade ginger beer and blogged the details of his ginger adventures. Two years later, people are still posting comments, offering advice and asking more questions.

Recipes and more after the jump...