Iconic Cocktails from San Francisco

Welcome back to Vlatelix. San Francisco is famous for the Golden Bridge and Alcatraz but you probably didn't know that truly iconic cocktails were created in that magnificent city. Well, get comfortable because we're going to explore everything step by step right now. Pisco Punch cocktail creation is credited to Professor Jerry Burns of the Bank Exchange Bar in San Francisco. Nicole Duncan bought this bar with its house recipe of Pisco Punch. He made it very popular and kept the recipe secret till he died. That's why nobody knows the exact recipe of this cocktail. However, the recipe was recreated with the help of people who worked with Nicole. So the main ingredient, of course, is Pisco. Pisco is high-proof, colorless brandy produced in Peru and chili by distilling fermented grape juice. Pisco became wildly popular during the California Gold Rush in San Francisco because of the popularity of the Pisco Punch cocktail. The key ingredient in this drink is pineapple gum syrup. You can get it online for about $10, but I will show you how to make it at home. Gum arabic powder is often used in the food industry as a stabilizer for many different candies and soft drinks. It doesn't add any flavor but more viscosity to the syrup. Gum arabic powder is made from gum arabic, which is made from the sap of the or gum acacia. Add 4 oz of gum arabic powder into a bowl and pour 4 oz of water. Stir it together for about 2 minutes. Cover with some plastic wrap and leave it on the counter overnight. In the pot add 8 oz of water and 24 oz of sugar. Next, cut 3 quarters of fresh medium-sized pineapple, we need to have small chunks, and add it into the pot. On medium heat stir everything and dissolve the sugar. Muddle all pineapple chunks. Once it comes to a boil let it simmer and then give it a nice stir. Remove from the heat and let it chill for 2 to 4 hours. Then re-warm it before the boiling. Because next step is to mix it with our gum arabic water mix, we need to fine strain it from pineapples, then whisk syrup for a couple of minutes. Pour into a clean bottle and you just made pineapple gum syrup. It's a sweet syrup with rich bold pineapple flavor. You can store it in the fridge for up to 8 weeks. Next, let's squeeze 3 quarters of an ounce of fresh lemon juice. We need 1 oz of our homemade pineapple gum syrup. I'm going to cut and muddle fresh pineapple to get half oz of juice. Fine strain and put it in your shaker. Add plenty of ice in the big part of your shaker and shake it. Let's use a chilled highball glass, add a good quality ice and strain. Let's add fresh pineapple for a garnish and enjoy not just one of the iconic cocktails from San Francisco, but one of the best cocktails with Pisco. Next is Tommy's Margarita. It was created in the 1980s by Julio Bermejo at his family owned Tommy's Mexican restaurant where he was working since he was 6 years old. His bar has the largest 100% blue agave tequila selection in the US with more than 300 brands. As you probably know that classic margarita is made with tequila, lime juice, orange liqueur and a touch of sugar. At Tommy's they don't use an orange liqueur and instead use agave nectar along with 100% blue agave tequila and fresh lime juice. As Julio said it was so much agave back in the day and not enough demand by tequila producers that people needed to find an outlet for raw material so they started to make an agave nectar. His style of margarita became very popular and known as Tommy's Margarita. Julio was the first who started to use high quality 100% blue agave tequila in margarita. At the time it was popular to use just a cheap tequila. I will make it the same way as Julio does. All margaritas are usually shaken or blended if you make a frozen version. At Tommy's restaurant they don't use shaker to make their margaritas, instead they use a blender to shake. The reason is pretty simple. Julio said that it's just simply bigger and you can fit more margaritas. So with 100% blue agave tequila, fresh lime juice and an agave nectar. I will use a reposado tequila but you can also use blanco. Let's cut a fresh Mexican lime and squeeze one ounce of juice. And last but not least an organic agave nectar. There will be no garnish. Julio said it's just a waste of lime if you add lime as a garnish. If you happen to be in the area Tommy's restaurant should be on top of your list. Hope you will get lucky and get a drink from living legend Julio Bermeja. And less than four miles from here we will find another iconic cocktail Irish coffee. The modern Irish coffee was created in 1940 by George Sheridan at Foynes port in Ireland. But Irish coffee would never be popular without the help of American journalist Stanton Delaplane who drunk that drink at Foynes. He liked the drink so much and brought the recipe over to bar owner Jack Coppler at his favorite local bar the Buena Vista cafe in San Francisco. That's where this drink was popularized and many people still think it was created there. Well more than 2 000 Irish coffees sold every day at the Buena Vista cafe. I already made Irish coffee home pro expert versions so we are not going to make it right now. And instead let's make even more popular cocktail tequila sunrise. This drink has only three ingredients tequila orange juice and grenadine. It was created in 1969 by Bobby Lozov at Trident bar located in Sausalito California which is across the famous San Francisco golden gate bridge. However that's the modern recipe of tequila sunrise and an original one was created in Tijuana and was based on tequila, creme de cassis, lime juice, grenadine and soda water. The modern recipe became way more popular than the original because in the 1970s the Rolling Stones came to Trident bar and Mick Jagger loved the drink which he took on a tour with him. I would recommend to use fresh orange juice and we will need about four ounces. Okay let's take a chilled Collins glass and fill it up with ice. Add one and a half ounces of good quality tequila, pour it into a glass and stir a few times. Layer about quarter ounce of grenadine syrup and garnish with fresh orange. Now grab a drink, take a sip and imagine you're watching the sun rising over a beautiful golden bridge in San Francisco.