Two Mason Jars Walk Into a Bar

Cocktail revivalists have brought the world of mixology into a new era, but for Lucas Ramsey, cutting edge means returning to an age-old tradition once reserved for country cooks: canning. Order the Anti-hero Resuscitator at Blood & Sand, the downtown members-only restaurant and lounge where Ramsey tends bar, and you’ll receive a Mason jar filled with three ounces of a preserved cocktail, a tall glass filled with ice and a small glass holding an ounce of fresh lime juice. The bartender unscrews the lid, pours the cocktail over the ice, adds the lime juice and stirs. While this drink comes together quite quickly upon ordering, preparation actually takes a week or two – and starts in the kitchen. Ramsey begins by combining rum with the Italian liqueur Amaro Averna; sweet, rum-happy partner Velvet Falernum; and simple syrup. Fresh pitted cherries and ginger slices are added, then the concoction is poured into a pint-sized Mason jar, which gets capped and processed in a hot water bath. “When you heat it up, you cook the flavor in,” explained Ramsey. The jar then sits quietly on the shelf for a couple weeks to allow the flavors to meld. “The longer it sits in there, the more the flavors intermingle.” Two other trendy methods of pre-batching that are occuring around town – barrel aging and cocktails on tap – allow the flavors of a cocktail to meld for an extended period. So why go through the labor of canning? “I wanted to do single-serving cocktails,” explained Ramsey, who processes two dozen jars at a time using an oversized pot. Canning slightly cooks the ingredients inside the glass jar, but it also destroys bacteria and other microorganisms that can cause spoilage. That means the ingredient list for a canned cocktail can include fresh fruits and other sweet or acidic foods that would typically cause spoilage in, say, a barrel-aged cocktail. Ramsey’s drink falls within the category of a cobbler: a tall drink made by adding a sweetening agent and wine or spirits to a glass filled with crushed ice, then garnishing it with a bounty of fruit. Years ago, sugar was used as the sweetener, but these days, bartenders reach for fresh juices and fruity liqueurs. Ramsey deemed the Anti-hero Resuscitator a “reverse cobbler,” since the cherries age in the cocktail and, of course, fall to the bottom of the jar. Ramsey sees canning cocktails as rife with possibilities. In the weeks ahead, he plans to experiment with fresh blueberries and other seasonal fruits in combination with a slew of spirits and liqueurs to see how they react to the process. Guess we better get ready for some fine country-meets-city sipping. – Ligaya Figueras