Bar: HSL
Bartender: Jordon Strang
“I’m a musician by day and bartender by night,” Strang says. The Beverage Director at HSL and curator of Bitter Lovers monthly pop-up series, Strang says he’s “Doing my best to learn something new every day in the endless wormhole of knowledge that is cocktail bartending.”
Cocktail: Amarga Esplendida
A complex yet approachable sipper inspired by HSL’s world-influenced cuisine and a minimal waste approach. Featuring the high-proof tequila Arette 101 and a globe-hopping background combination of Italian bitters, rooibos tea, gochujang syrup and cacao nib whey. Bring it back home with a local carrot juice featuring an acid tang.
Recipe:
1.5 oz Arette 101
1 oz Caffo Red Bitter
.5 oz rooibos tea syrup (see below)
.5 oz gochujang syrup (see below)
1 oz cacao nib whey (see below)
.5 oz acid-corrected carrot juice (see below)
Serve over a large rock and garnish with a bouquet of sage leaves.
Rooibos Tea Syrup: In a pot, bring a quart of simple syrup (equal parts by weight) to a boil with 30g of rooibos tea. You can use whatever rooibos you like but we prefer sourcing local from Tea Grotto. Turn off the heat once your mixture cracks to a boil and let sit for ten minutes before straining with a cheesecloth.
Gochujang Syrup:
60 milliliters of coconut vinegar
2 tablespoons gochujang paste
200 milliliters of coconut water
200 grams sugar
Combine coconut vinegar and gochujang and set aside. Combine coconut water and sugar in a blender until the sugar is completely integrated. Add gochujang vinegar mixture into a blender and blend until combined, straining through a cheesecloth once you are finished
Cacao Nib Whey:
Summer farmers’ markets call for fresh salads. Fresh salads call for delicious cheese, so we will be making ricotta using local whole milk. Heat the milk to 160 for an hour, adding just enough fresh lemon juice to begin the curdling process. Let cool and strain through a cheesecloth. You know have beautiful, delicious ricotta to season with fresh herbs as you please, and have created whey as a byproduct. Two birds one stone. Add 30g Ritual Chocolate cacao nibs to your whey and blend on high until nibs are nice and crushed. Let your mixture sit in a refrigerated space overnight and strain through a cheesecloth. Think bougie chocolate milk. We now have our cacao nib whey.
Acid-corrected Carrot Juice:
To taste, add citric and malic acid to your carrot juice to mimic the acidity of fresh lime juice. We recommend starting around 40g citric acid and 4g malic acid and going from there.
About the 2024 Salt Lake Magazine Farm-To-Glass Cocktail Contest
Eighteen bars from across the state present delicious cocktail creations and compete for the best in Utah. This year’s contest cocktails shine with all Utah has to offer, embodying the farm-to-glass ethos by incorporating the bountiful range of Utah’s native herbs, homegrown produce and locally distilled spirits. Celebrate the bartenders’ hard work throughout September and October by visiting participating bars, trying their unique cocktail concoctions and voting for your favorite on saltlakemagazine.com.
