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'Cocktail Geeks' to the Rescue

Sazerac (James M. Thresher - For The Washington Post)

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"I'm unhappy with the term 'molecular mixology,' " said Eben Klemm, the cocktail guru at the B.R. Guest restaurant group. "I wish we used a different word."

"Thank you," said a man in the audience; his comment was rewarded with a smattering of applause.

Eben Freeman, who designed cocktails at Dufresne's WD-50 before moving over to Sam Mason's Tailor, discussed putting cedar flavor into bourbon, introducing pumpernickel-raisin bread flavor into Scotch and creating a mushroom margarita.

"This isn't about shock value or to show the girls how cool I am," he said.

After the presenters finished, a question arose from the audience: "Don't these new techniques take away the romance from bartending? I mean the old techniques; that's what bartending is."

"No," Klemm said. "That's what bartending has been for the last 100 years." He joked, "One day, we're just going to put all this in a database and our drink will be made by a robot."

I'm looking forward to the Save the Bartender party at next year's Tales of the Cocktail.

Jason Wilson's Spirits column appears every other week. He can be reached at food@washpost.com.

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