FSR October 2022

L IQUID INTELL IGENCE

Fall into fruits Just as chefs look to seasonal produce when building their menus, so too does James Beard Award–winning mixologist Charles Joly let locally sourced ingredi ents guide him in creating new cocktails. A native Chicagoan, Joly sometimes envies Californians their year-round supply of fresh produce, but he concedes there are advantages to living in a region with four distinct seasons. When the mercury dips, he turns to readily available fruits, like apples and pears. And while cider might be nearly as overplayed as pumpkin spice, Joly says the category encompasses more than the overly sweet standard. “Our cider purveyors at the farm ers markets are doing single-varietal

ciders,” he says. “ ey’re going to have nuances. One might be more floral; one might have more acidity; one might be more traditional, and those can all be flavor cues from which you could build a cocktail.” Joly adds that he’s particularly fond of European and Basque-style ciders. Known for their depth of character and a certain earthy funkiness, these ciders are produced sans yeast and instead use natural fermentation. is process yields a product that is drastically dif ferent from what Joly calls the “glori fied apple juice” flavor profiles of main stream ciders. Eric Bordelet, a cider-maker out of

past, he would order 750-milliliter mini kegs to keep behind the bar. is method not only ensured the cider didn’t go flat, it also made it easy to sell by the glass or mix into cocktails. At Midnight Rambler Bar, inside Dal las’s Joule Hotel, general manager and bartender Gabe Sanchez is a fan of fruits like honeycrisp apples and Asian pears. But hot temperatures mean orchard fruits are often underrepresented. “ e most underrated autumn cock tail—at least in the Southwest and West—is wassail, a hot apple cider with baking spices. It’s a bit labor-intensive, so it often takes a backseat to hot tod dies,” Sanchez says. at’s not to say he

France, is one of Joly’s go-to producers. In the

AT MIDNIGHT RAMBLER, HOT APPLE CIDER HAS COCKTAIL POTENTIAL.

“Themost underrated autumn cocktail—at least in the Southwest andWest—is wassail, a hot apple cider with baking spices.”

THE JOULE / ADOBE STOCK

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FSRMAGAZINE .COM

OCTOBER 2022