Making Drinks with The Whaling Club

 

The Whaling Club started out as a private cocktail club that now does catering and classes for groups. I was invited to attend a holiday drinks workshop and had a lot of fun.

The workshops would be a great team-building experience or perfect for birthday parties, bachlor/ette parties or even if you just want to learn how to make drinks in a low-key way. I’ve taken bartending classes and other workshops before and I always pick up something new.

Dan says you’ll find your own rhythm and method for shaking but main thing is, get all tin shakers. Shaking with a tin and glass (usually a pint glass, called a Boston shaker) tends to be dangerous.

I’ll also share my tips on shaking below.

 

A note on the recipes- in the original Whaling Club booklet, the ingredients are listed in the order they go in the tin. Generally bartenders will pour the cheaper ingredients in first then the spirits. This is because if there’s a mistake (whoops, used lemon instead of lime juice!), it’s easier to catch and fix at this point without wasting precious, expensive booze. I however, prefer to list the hard stuff first then the lesser ingredients.

 

 

When I shake, I follow what I call “the San Francisco style.” It’s something I observed from watching SF bartenders. While bartenders from across the country do develop their own style, the ones in SF almost all shake this way. They bring the tin near their ear and shake rapidly and hard. They claim to better hear the ice and they know from the way ice sounds when the drink is ready. Besides shaking until the tins frost over, I wait a icy breeze to caress my ear and that’s when I know the drink is ready to go. If you’re unsure, shaking usually is around 20-30 seconds, depending on the ice and how hard you’re shaking. My fellow classmates thought I was a ringer since I’ve made drinks before but it’s also because I’ve observed bartenders from all around the world as well.

Burlington

• 2 oz. rye whiskey
• .50 oz maple syrup
• .50 oz blood orange juice
• .50 oz lemon juice

Combine all ingredients into your shaker. Shake until you feel the tin frosting over and strain into a coupe glass.

I really enjoyed this drink. It’s beautiful, not-too tart and very seasonal. Dan suggested juicing several blood oranges at once rather than one of a time for a consistent juice.

 

I love sours, fizzes, flips and all the drinks with egg and/or egg whites. You may think Egg Nog as the traditional eggy drink of the season but with our relatively mild weather, sometimes something more refreshing is in order. A rum fizz sounds just about right.

Barbados Fizz

• 2 oz. aged rum
• .75 oz honey syrup
• .75 oz lemon juice
• 1 egg white
• club soda

Add all ingredients except the club soda to your shaker. Dry shake (no ice), shake it again with ice then strain into a fizz glass. Top with club soda and grate nutmeg on top.

The honey syrup is honey that’s been cut with hot water which makes it easier to mix. In the future, I might cut down on the honey syrup to just half an ounce because I felt it was a little sweet for me, especially since we’re using an aged rum which tends to be a little bit sweeter.

 

For you brown, bitter, stirred fans, the Good Fellow was a good sipper. And I liked that this was the easiest drink to make. This is more or less the kind of drink I make at home when I’m not experimenting.

Good Fellow

• 2 oz. cognac
• 3/8 oz Benedictine
• 2 dashes aromatic bitters

Combine all ingredients in a rocks glass, add a large format ice cube, stir and garnish with orange twist.

Still need a last minute gift? This pretty 2016 calendar is wonderful. It is lettepress on heavy card stock and features more Whaling Club recipes.

 

The Whaling Club

© The Minty  2015