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Robert Hess, a Director at Microsoft, traces his interest in cocktails to a childhood fascination of bartenders who effortlessly transformed the contents of the bottles around them into gleaming jewels of refreshment. Eventually he took action on these early memories, absorbing all he could about the classic art of mixology. He created the informative and widely recognized website DrinkBoy.com to increase recognition and respect for this undervalued art.
Can you please describe your role for this year’s Fourth Annual Tales of the Cocktail Event?
I will be there as author/editor of “Mixologist: Journal of the American Cocktail” as well as the author/editor of the “Museum of the American Cocktail: Pocket Recipe Guide.” I will also be hosting a discussion panel on “Pairing Food with Cocktails” in which we will investigate the exciting and interesting potentials provided when you try to take something as dynamic as a cocktail and blend the flavor experience it provides into the food you are serving. I personally view the cocktail as a form of cuisine, and it seems just natural to me to want to bring my love of food and love of cocktails together in this manner.
In your opinion, what “ingredient” separates the true mixologist from an average barkeep?
It's the same ingredient that separates the Master Chef from a short-order line cook. Cocktails are a form of cuisine, and the true mixologists understand that and view the products that they produce as a craft, and an art form. It's that level of passion and self expression that is the ingredient I like to discover in the mixologists I encounter.
What is your favorite New Orleans cocktail?
My favorite New Orleans cocktail has to be the Sazerac. I only wish that this beautiful drink had not been destroyed by bartenders trying to make it more approachable to the younger "make it sweeter" crowd. A Sazerac is not a cocktail for the uninitiated, it should not be given blindly to people who have just recently come of age and are still weaning their palate off of soda pop and lemonade.
Why do you feel this year’s Tales of the Cocktail is more important than ever for New Orleans?
New Orleans is a city rich with culture and history, it is a history that is spread throughout its infrastructure and needs to be not only preserved, but understood. Tales of the Cocktail is all about learning new things about a small piece of what is New Orleans. It celebrates the cocktail, not the abysmal “alcohol delivery devices” that are scattered across tourist packed Bourbon Street, but the culinary embodiment of the cocktail which is almost as old as New Orleans itself. By providing a venue for people to discover this small little slice of culture and history, and by appropriately associating it with as uniquely beautiful of a city as is New Orleans, we are in some small way playing a role in its rebirth as a destination, and a keeper of American history.
What is the best element or virtue of a drink well mixed?
Just as with fine cuisine, it all revolves around balance. A well made cocktail is one that embodies each of its individual ingredients in a carefully balanced combination in which no one ingredient shouts out above the other. Many modern cocktails are overly sweet or overly sour. Anybody can dump a bunch of sugar or lemon juice into a drink and disguise poor or inappropriate ingredients, but it takes skill to mix the ingredients together in such a way as to essentially create a brand new flavor. Chefs understand this in how they create sauces for their dishes, and a true bartender should understand this as well.
In your experience do new fangled concoctions stand up against old favorites?
Yes and no. Far too many bartenders these days are too caught up with trying to create “new” drinks. They grab some new ingredient that just came onto the market, and throw some vodka and sour mix at it, and then give it some fancy or provocative name, and claim that they’ve come up with a new drink. The results are usually about as good as what a child might come up with when playing in their mother’s kitchen. Their play-mates might enjoy the novelty of it, but it surely isn’t anything worth serious consideration. It is possible to create “new” cocktails that stand up against the classics, but to do so first requires a well-formed understanding of not only the classic cocktails themselves, but the tools and techniques for properly making them.
Can you share a favorite moment or event from prior Tales of the Cocktail?
One thing that has repeatedly struck me on previous Tales of the Cocktail, is the special synergy that seems to surround it. It has been a drawing together of like-minds that I so rarely see in this industry. It is a gathering of the best mixologists across the nation, and pairing them with attendees who really want to learn something beyond their previous experiences. It is a celebration of the cocktail as cuisine that is special. The crowd is small enough that it seems manageable, and diverse enough to seem magical.
To what Tales of the Cocktail event are you most looking forward?
I am highly looking forward to participating in an event that will play at least a small role in bringing activity and life back to New Orleans. It was as we were all arriving home after last year’s event that Katrina came onto the scene, and so there is this link that I feel to all that has happened since then, and will continue to happen as the shape of “new” New Orleans unfolds.
Best summertime cocktail recipe to beat the New Orleans heat?
In New Orleans, how could anything beat a properly made Sazerac, with a big tall glass of ice water beside it?
- 1/2 tsp Pernod (or other Absinthe substitute)
- 1/2 tsp Simple Syrup
- 1 dash Peychaud bitters
- 2 ounces rye whiskey
Coat chilled old fashioned glass with Absinthe substitute (Herbsaint, Pernod...). Pour out most of what remains, perhaps leaving a small puddle in the bottom of the glass. Add bitters and syrup. You can use a single sugar cube instead of simple syrup, in which case you would now muddle this to dissolve. Add Whiskey. Garnish with a twist of lemon peel
