Blend Magazine

As the combinations and selections of flavours available to bartenders are limited, there has been a lot of techniques and ideas borrowed from mixology’s older and more legitimate brother – cooking.

The last decade or so has seen bars starting to stock a range of fresh fruit, herbs, even spices and vegetables, trying to discover the next new taste with unorthodox ingredients such as chilli, basil or flavoured teas.

But now, cuisine is exploring techniques previously confined to a laboratory, dubbed molecular gastronomy. El Bulli (www.elbulli.com) operates in Spain, and is a forerunner of this movement. They also sell many of the agents and information, distributed in New Zealand by www.souschef.co.nz.

In a broad sense, molecular mixology is using agents such as agar – an extract from algae, which when mixed with liqueurs or spirits can be chemically “cooked”

into spheres, in an acid/base reaction. Other possible techniques include blending alcohol with xantana, obtained from a fermentation of bacteria found in corn husks, making the liquid so that solids (such as spheres) can be suspended, neither floating or sinking. Search for Eben Freeman’s “Mojito of the Future” on Youtube for the quintessential example.

So is having this style of drink in a bar practical? It’s not particularly expensive, except for the alcohol used getting the mixtures right. A lot of trial and error is required, as the balance is put out by both alcohol and strongly acidic ingredients such as lime. The biggest limitation is time, in both the preparation of ingredients and the time spent actually preparing the finished product.

If you want to add a molecular cocktail to your daily list, choose something that you can prepare for in bulk, and that you can keep consistent every time.

As for the appeal, right now it is something different, and with so many possibilities to explore, molecular mixology will give your bar a very unique niche. Unfortunately, the novelty will wear off for regular drinkers, so the benefits will be most profitable in a tourism dominated establishment.

The techniques used are precise, but not difficult, and require only rudimentary knowledge of chemistry. Recipes and methods are hard to come by at the moment, but as this style grows, it will become easier to find information, especially online.

In the early experimental stages of this style, flavour is often sacrificed for the sake of creating new and interesting textures. Drinks produced are definitely worth a taste for their novelty, but will struggle to become a consumer’s “usual”. It will be a while and a lot of experimentation before we start to see molecular creations that can be held up against classic style cocktails that have been refined over time, focussing on taste and complexity of palatte.

So support the movement, give it a go yourself – your or your bar can start quite cheaply, if you have a few Sunday afternoons spare to experiment. Record what works and what doesn’t, share it with others, and help develop this style to a point where textures can be manipulated, without adverse affect on flavours.