Latest / Into The Barchive / The Sherry Cobbler — Ice, Straws, and America’s First Cocktail Craze
Transcript
- ITB: And two. Comes alive. Forgotten drinks will revive. ⁓ we thrive. Ship the tails, let them dive. Welcome to the Bark Hive. Welcome back, Bark Abyss. Back to Into the Bark Hive. The podcast where we dive deep into the stories, people, and cocktails that have shaped the way we drink. I'm Tim Wright. Mixologist, your above average curious drinker, and your slightly tipsy guide through this boozy history. And I'm Dr. Blake Jones, historian and certified specialist of spirits, here to pour out the stories behind what's in your glass. And today we are traveling back to a time where ice was a luxury. Bartenders were experimenting with new forms of hospitality, and one simple cocktail that became A symbol of American sophistication. Today we are talking about the sh c cobbler, the sherry cobbler. You know, and it's a drink that sounds simple. Sherry, sugar, citrus, crushed ice, but historically this cocktail was a game changer. So it helped introduce Americans to a new way of drinking, right? Like mainly because it popularized popular popularized the use of ice and cocktails. But then it became one of the First truly American ⁓ mixed drinks, like noticeable in mixed drinks. Yeah, and it also gave us one of the most important pieces of bar equipment in history. The humble straw. Tell me more. So this cocktail, this sherry cobbler was so icy and refreshing that people needed a way to get through all that crushed out ice without freezing their teeth. So grab your favorite glass, maybe a handful of crushed ice, and now your straw. Because today We're sipping through history. Let's get into the barcide. The classic sherry cobbler. A fantastic cocktail to start with. We're gonna put three ounces of Amontato Sherry using our Corbin Pyrip pivot. That's an ounce and a half and a two ounce jigger. We'll do it again. Pull the tab, lock her up. Next, one teaspoonful of a finely super fine granulated sugar, super fine sugar, straight into the tin. A half moon of a lemon. A half moon of an orange. And now we're gonna do a little bit of a shake, a whip shake. So grab some pepperlites. Little bit more than a scosh there. And shake it Into our glass. And Blake, what kind of glass is this again? A Poca Grande glass. A poca grande. In our Poca Grande glass, we're gonna do a party pour. Straight on in. We're now going to top it off with some more ice. And remember, this cocktail is all about the garnish game, including the straw. Throw in some fresh berries. So we got some blueberries there. We have some blackberries here. whatever style of cobbler you like. And then also finish off with a half lemon and a half orange. Making sure that you place your straw right both sit that citrus so when you drink, you get a little extra pop. And here we have our classic Sherry Cobbler. For our second cocktail, we're gonna make a sherry cobbler from the New York City bar Maison Premiere. So similar format to Tim, but like taken to 11. So instead of three ounces of Amontato Sherry, we're gonna do four different sherries. Three quarters of an ounce of manzania sherry. Add that to our tin. Then we're going back to the same Amontato Sherry that Tim used in his classic sherry cobbler. And don't worry, we're going to talk about all of what these sherries are and later in our conversation. So three quarters of an ounce of Amontato Sherry added to the small tin. From there, another type of sherry. Ola Rosso sherry. And we're gonna add three quarters of an ounce. From there, our final sherry is a Pedro Jimenez sherry, sometimes referred to as just a PX sherry. And add that to our tin. Seal that up. Now, from here we're gonna have a little spice with a teaspoon of pimento dram. So I'm just gonna add that to the teaspoon from earlier. Just trying to make sure I don't overflow that. There we go. Teaspoon there. So you might see it as pimento dram or all spice dram. At Maison Premier, they also specifically call out this Stonewall Kitchen Wild Main Blueberry ⁓ Jam. And so they say three quarters amount, so I'm just gonna give it two good burst spoons and call it good. So very premium ingredients there. From there, we're gonna add a half ounce of pineapple juice. And I'm leaving my spoon in the shaker tin because I'm gonna stir that jam in a little more once I get the remainder of my liquids in. Next, a half ounce of lemon juice. And then finally a quarter ounce of Demerera syrup. So this is a rich two to one dimerera syrup. From there, anytime you're using like jam or preserves in a cocktail, we like to kind of stir that in to break up the jam. Because otherwise, like if you shake, it'll clump and things like that. And because that stonewall kitchen main wild blueberry jam, it's really chunky and all natural. We wanna break some of that up before we shake our cocktail. Like Tim, we're going to be using the whip shape technique. So take a scoop of pebble ice and then we'll pour that into the big tin. Seal our tins and give it a shake. Again, 10 to 15 seconds. Once we're done shaking, we'll break the seal. Make sure we get all that goodness out of there. And then we will pretty pour into our Poco Grande glass. You can see the effect of the blueberry jam gives a nice ⁓ purplish wine type color to it. Fill our glass with some more pebble ice before we get ready to garnish. And for the garnish, add a little slice of orange. We're going to then take a couple blackberries and add to the cocktail. And then from there, we're going to take some mint. And so we've got a bunch of mint here, and I'm going to pinch off quite a few of these. These are pit fresh. this morning to get a little bouquet going along the way and we want to slap that mint kind of crush it we can clap it between our hands like so and then we're going to put it in against the side of the drink like that and then finally end with our straw right by the mint and we have the Maison Premiere Shiri cobbler cheers Now that we've built the cocktails, let's build the context. What is sherry? Well, you know, sherry is one of those categories that people misunderstand. Yeah, I mean, when I first heard the word sherry, right, I'm thinking that creamy bottle style of liquor that sits in your grandparents' cabinets that's like tucked away, dirty and dusty. Yeah, and I mean that's the kind of connection most people have with sherry, but historically sherry is much broader and a lot more fascinating than that old bottle of cream sherry in the grandparents' cabinet. Yeah, I'm gonna say both both of these cocktails pack a good punt with layers and layers of flavor. So what is Sherry? So Sherry is a fortified wine from the region of Jerez in southern Spain. So when we say sherry, we're talking about a place as much as we are a drink. ⁓ okay. So kind of like ⁓ we did for tequila and champagne. They all have their regional aspects, so it has to be from this region. Yes. Okay. So it has to be from Jerez. It's primarily made from white grapes, particularly the Palomino grape, and then they fortify the wine with a grape. spirit. kind of similar to I guess Italy's grappa type, that kind of grape spirit or something different? Or maybe just like a neutral grape spirit, maybe an unaged brandy, something like that. Okay. Then when we go from this type of fortified grape spirit mixing in with these, you know, this regional ⁓ where does it come from? How does it work? How does sherry get made? So the magic of sherry is that after you take the grape, the palomino grapes, you crush them, you add the yeast, let the yeast do its magic, you know, sugar gas, alcohol. Yep. Yeah, alcohol CO2. The magic is when the producers decide how the sherry will age. And that's where we get these different styles. Yes. I had one in mind. You had The ⁓ what seemed like an entire liquor cabinet, and that's not even breaking the ice on probably ⁓ the plethora of other styles that are out there. Yeah, and I mean, so just like a quick 30,000-foot overview of the styles of sherry. The first style is called pheno sherry. Okay. It's pale, it's delicate, and it's dry. So a lot of times when people think sherry, they think sweet. Okay. But pheno is like. Bone dry. Okay. Like something you might ⁓ drink with your oysters. Okay. So what they do with pheno sherry is they age the wine under a layer of yeast called floor, F-L-O-R. Okay. And this layer protects the wine from oxidation. And so it creates flavors in the phenotyrea that are almost almond-like. They're it's saline. Fresh, maybe even a little bready. Yeah. Fino gives that salinity type, a coastal breeze, right? There's this wine that definitely goes well with a coastal, I would say, dinner palette, food. Yeah. Okay. Absolutely. Then from Fino we have manzania, which in many ways is still Fino, the only differences it is produced near the coastal town of San Lucar de Barrameda. and it okay. Yeah sorry for butchering the pronunciation. Better than I would have. But manzania sherry oftentimes offers more salinity and freshness where it's aged along the coasts and things like that. But again, dry. So this the manzania was the first type of sherry I used in my cock. Gotcha. Yeah. ⁓ Fino, yes, I've had manzanini. I can't actually recall like specifically having that in a cocktail prior to today. Okay. So the next Sherry. Amontillado. Yes. Okay. So Amontato made up all the alcohol in yours. Yes. And it was one of four in mine. Okay. So amontato ages under that layer of yeast, the floor, but eventually the longer you let it sit, the floor will kind of dissipate and allow oxygen to start interacting with the wines. So you get the best of both worlds. Some of the freshness of the pheno, but also richer notes of Yeah, like the nuttiness that comes through from that oxidation. Like that's the very first thing is like. Notes of ⁓ of like I said, nuts, some caramel, maybe some, maybe even dried fruit, ⁓ going kind of that pruney, grapey, you know, getting dried fruit in it. Yeah, so this is like this nice bridge between the brightness of the pheno and the richness of the sweeter styles of sherry. Then the other one you had in there, it was Olaroso? Olaroso, so that was sherry number three for me. ⁓ Olarosso ages entirely without floor, meaning it is oxidizing from the beginning. So it's darker, it's richer, and more aromatic than an amanteado. So your flavors are toasted nuts, maybe some baking spices, leather, some more intense dried fruit. Okay. But then there there has to be a sweeter style, right? Because We all kind of had in our mind it was always this sweet, creamy kind of is that the PX? Yeah, the sweet style of sherry or the sweetest is Pedro Jimenez, often called PX. So where most of these other styles of sherry are produced from the palomino grape, Pedro Jimenez sherry is produced from the Pedro Jimenez grate. Gotcha. And so Piet Sherry is often intensely sweet, like almost syrupy. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, like if you work a lot with like liqueurs and stuff, if you don't open a bottle fell well, it'll have like a little sugar ring it can be difficult to open the bottle, like when I open the the drill. The the Coravin pivot. Yeah. On the Piet Sherry, there was a little sugar crust there in a way that there wasn't for the other three. and Piet Sherry gives you raisins, figs, and almost a molasses-like flavor. And this cream sherry we talk about is really a blend, like taking some of the sweeter side, blending with some of the drier. So it's not when we talk about cream sherry as a category, it's really a blend of these other styles. Understood. So when somebody says I don't like sherry, right? It's kind of like when they say they don't like other things, it's probably just because they haven't met the right one yet. Exactly. Or they've always got the bad stuff. And just like vermit, right? When you open a bottle of sherry, it's fortified wide. Yes, it needs to be in the refrigerator once you open it. It needs to not sit out on a cabinet in the hot attic or in the dusty cabinet for eight years. Yes. It's gone. Yeah, this is not a bottle of whiskey or a bottle of tequila. This is wine it has an expiration date. The birth of the sherry cobbler. Where are we going with this one? How how did this thing come about. So, you know, we've talked about the most the main ingredient, the sherry. Yeah. So when we talk about the cocktail, the sherry cobbler appears in American cocktail history for the first time in print in 1838. By the mid-19th century, it's everywhere. Okay. So it's one of the earliest cocktails we can point to as a true American phenomenon. And as we all know, ⁓ one of the things that America did was bring the cocktail to the world. So one of the earliest forms? Yeah. Because it's simple. Like when we go back to episode one, right? The ⁓ the original cocktail wasn't a generic term applying to all mixed shrinks. It was a specific spec spec. It was you know, spirit, sugar, water bitters. The sherry, the cobbler is essentially fortified wine, sugar, citrus, water. Yep. And so, you know, before the sherry cobbler and stuff like that, people drink their spirits and fortified wines simply. You know, maybe you drink your whisk whiskey meat, maybe with a touch of water, maybe you had it as a The original cocktail with sugar and bitters, but the cobbler represents something new. Well, one, it's refreshing, where the other ones were very simple in its take. This starts to add, well, one, introduction of ice, becomes very cooling, ref again, a refreshing cocktail, where drinking a whiskey unchilled, possibly even undiluted, is serving a specific purpose, and that purpose is to Well, be hot. Yeah. Well, and I mean, the other thing is look at these drinks. Yeah, they're sexy. I mean, mine is now kind of gone down of into my glass a little bit more, but when it first starts off, there was a I guess a hospitality to it was the word that we used in the intro, right? It looked enticing. That's this is one of the cocktails that you see it go across the bar and you're like Immediately you look and go, What's that? I'll have one. Right? It has this exotic allure to it just because of the garnished game is fun. Yeah. The vessel is cute. Yeah. And it's one of those things you could put this in a highball glass, things like that. But you know, it adds a little more fun to do it in these Poco Grande glasses. And it's really customizable, right? You could shake with Or garnish with different types of fruit depending on what's in season, things like that. So gives you a lot of flexibility. But not only was it refreshing and visually appealing, it's it seems like it's very customizable. I could have just as easily dropped this out for my three ounces of one cherry and put in three ounces of another, or split base the hell out of it like you did. Yeah. And and one of the other things is the Part of the reason the Sharing Cobbler became one of the most famous cocktails in America at the time was really because of one ingredient. And that was ice. Of course. We mentioned that earlier. So ice it wasn't coming around until what, the 19th century? Yeah, later in the 19th century. Like there were people like Thomas Jefferson had like an ice house. You know, dug into the ground, things like this. But this is ⁓ particularly in the early eighteen hundreds, ice isn't something you're like, ⁓ yeah, let me go back to the freezer and grab some ice. It it was intentional, shipped to you most of the time and then kept in a very specific location, typically underground and well insulated. Yes. And large scale ice harvesting, because this is the day before mechanical ice making, you're getting out of freshwater lakes and rivers. Yep. ⁓ but by the mid 1800s, even when you're still harvesting from lakes, they've got commercial ice companies taking a lake ice and shipping it around the country and even air nationally. Ice was big business. It sounds like it's big business and it made other businesses better. Yes. And I mean the cobbler is a perfect example of that. And the cobbler is a drink that showcases this luxury that was ice. Yeah. A luxury. So again, walking across the bar, you see this crush pros possibly shaven or crushed at the time, not the pellet that we're using now, but it walks. I want one of those. It's not only a thing of, ⁓ it's it looks sexy. The fact that I have that shows that I have a status to uphold. Like I've got the funds to throw around to have something like that. Exactly. And in many ways, it's con like connected to the mint julep in that sense. Sophistication. Yeah, is that the mint julep is another simple drink, spirit, sugar, mint. Yeah, that is ridiculous that it's a sophistic like it's a sophistication sign back then, because right now, ice to most people, it's a toss away. Like they completely Forget about it. It's an afterthought. Most people actually uneducated think too much ice in their cocktail is a bad thing instead of it serving its purpose and making sure that your ice, I mean your cocktail stays perfectly temperatured and not overly diluted. Yeah. And and so here in many ways, the ice itself is the spectacle of the drink. Sure. I mean, the while sherry is the the key forefront, it does. It's elegant. So the cobbler now becomes popular? Yeah. How? So like the cobbler is popular because of the sophistication. I mean, and it becomes so popular, it even is hitting pop culture. So like Charles Dickens, the famous British novelist, wrote Christmas Carol, Tale of Two Cities, stuff like that. He does this American tour. And in his novel, The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. He references the Shuri cobbler, and you know, it cements the drink's reputation as this fashionable American beverage. Like this one right here. Yes. Cool. And so, like in the book, Martin Chuzzlewit gets his first ever Shuri cobbler, and he kind of sums up the sentiment around the drink in the 1800s. Dickens writes, quote, Martin took the glass with an astonished look. applied his lips to the reed and cast up his eyes once in ecstasy. He paused no more until the goblet was drained to the last drop. I will not mimic the rest of that. And he said, This wonderful invention, sir, said Mark, tenderly patting the empty glass, is called a cobbler. Sherry cobbler when you name it long, cobbler when you name it short. And so, you know, like It made it to the big time, a Dickens novel. Yeah. Like you you cannot in that era have hit a higher standard, right? No. How does it go from there? So from there it goes from literature to physically going overseas. So in 1843, there was a a bar in London that was devoted to making American iced drinks. Because again, ice is a novelty. So, you know, instead just serving like cascales and wine and straight whiskey or things like that, this bar is turning out cobblers and juleps. In 1867, there was an American bar at the Universal Exposition in Paris. And they went think like a World's Fair sort of thing. They went through 500 bottles of sherry every day. Just making cobblers. Just making cobblers. In fact, the famous American bartender Harry Johnson declared in 1888 that the Sherry Cobbler was, quote, without doubt, the most popular beverage in the country, with ladies as well as gentlemen. I mean, by the way that you ex like explain the different styles, it hits every person's flavor profile that needs to be there. If you want something sweet. You can go get it with the PX if you want something dry. You can get it back with Atheno if you want something in between. Mix and match. Yeah. Okay, how does this like stay popular now? Well, the issue is it didn't. ⁓ Is that by the end of the 19th century, the Sherry Cobbler was eclipsed in popularity by refreshing spirit-based highballs. So like the Ricky. Yeah. Jin Ricky, the whiskey highball, so you have the ice, you have the long refreshing drink, so it's nice and cold, but hats a little more punch. Is that also I guess attributed to the decline of why people don't drink or know more about sherries now? Yeah, absolutely. Is kind of the death knell of the sherry cobbler was prohibition. And I mean sherry can only be produced in Spain. Yep. ⁓ and so the issue is, is during prohibition, if you're like drinking on the sly and you're having to either make your bathtub gin or your moonshine, or you're having to buy smuggled rum or Canadian whiskey or something like that, you probably want something a little stronger than a fortified wine to get you there. Gotcha. So it's like, why do I want to drink Sherry Cobbler? Give me some whiskey. Give me some jam. Something you were drinking again with intent and not necessarily and that intent wasn't always to just enjoy, it was to get hammered. Get you there. If I'm risking it, might as well make it worth it. Exactly. And if it's so expensive, like if it's like, okay, let's imagine I can drink. ⁓ a gin or whiskey drink for the same price as the sherry drink. Yep. I'm going gin or whiskey. Gotcha. If that's my end game. ⁓ let's talk about the cocktails real quick. Breaking down the sherry cobbler then. So why does it work? How does it work? So obviously the first place we start is the sherry itself. Okay. It's fortified wine so it's lower proof. Yep. Then spirits, whereas most space spirits you're gonna start at 80 proof or 40% ABB. Sherry is gonna be 15, no more than 20% ABB. So a lot lower. So it's lighter, it's very food friendly. So like this is a drink that you can easily enjoy with a meal. I mean, like a glass of wine. Yep. ⁓ The next thing is the sugar. You know, whether it's that teaspoon of super fine sugar, the the jam or the dimmerer syrup and mine, it's not just about sweetness, it balances out the acidity and the sherry itself. Okay. That's the sherry, the sugar. So now the citrus. Yeah, the citrus gives the brightness, it gives aroma, right? I think this is one of the reasons like highlighted in your cocktail where you shook the wheels of orange and linen. It's not just about getting juice. Like in mine, it was citrus in the form of juice. Yes. But with yours, by doing that shake with the pieces in there, you unlock some of the oils and the rinds and things like that. And then we have to talk about the crushed ice. That's ingredient number four. Yeah, I mean, the big thing is the ice controls dilucia. A lot of times when we think about surface area, right? Crushed ice has lots of surface area. So you think, okay, it's gonna melt more quickly. And it's true if I took one piece of pebble ice and a two square inch cube that I clear cube, I'm putting an old fashioned. Yeah, that Hell it's gonna melt faster. Correct. But if you pack a glass full of crushed ice, it's gonna control dilution. Correct. This is one of those things where if you just put a little ice in it, it's gonna melt a lot faster. And this is kind of the mistake you alluded to earlier. Is a lot of people are like, you know, most of my drink, my drink was only, you know, that much, and the rest of it was ice. I'm getting cheated. It's like, no, the ice is there for a purpose. It's to keep it nice and cold, but the the more ice you have, the more it controls and slows down the dilution. So I'm this is one of those times that you would tell me, hey Tim, this is a great example of where the cocktail, right? Where the technique is what creates the drink. Not necessarily the drink is the drink. It's the technique that creates it. Yeah, so like if we took yours and said because there's no citrus juice, what if we did a regal stir? You did three ounces of Amont Sherry, teaspoon of sugar, threw in those lemon and orange halfmins, put it in a stirring glass, put like big cold draft cubes in and stirred it and strained it. Different cocktail. Entirely different. Yeah, I I need the shaking to help muddle for your a lack of a better word, like to get that friction to get some of the flesh out to get some of the extra juice out. And the oils. Again, shaking it gave me more oils than I think I would have if we've just stirred the stirred the cocktail. Well, and too, the because if you pack in enough crushed ice, it slowly melts. And so your drink evolves over time. So the first sip, it's stronger, yep, boozier. It's more aromatic. The last sip is softer. Yeah. Yeah, refreshing. Absolutely. That's part of the magic of the sherry cobbler. The cocktail evolves over time. Yeah. much like Martin, I I'm getting ready to finish mine because it is that darn good. Let's jump into the modern renaissance of the Sher Sherry Cobbler then. Like, let's discuss it a little bit. Well, so The sherry cobbler disappeared really for a while. And you know, a lot of those pre-prohibition classic cocktails fell out of fashion during the twentieth century. So instead of sherry cobblers and mint juleps and bees-nees and old f fashions, you'd replace them with Harvey Wallbangers and Sex on the Beach and So it ultimately takes bartender's Just rediscovering someone like you going through a book, seeing a thing, it was like, you know what? Let me give this a try. Absolutely. So a modern interpretation comes along like yours. Yeah. So what the people at Mason Premier did, it's a bar in New York City known for ⁓ being an oyster bar. They have an absinthe program. They focus on ⁓ classic cocktails with like a New Orleans lens. Okay. But you know. Martinis, Absinth, you know, some of these older like early eighteen, mid eighteen hundreds style drinks, and their Sherry Cobbler became a benchmark of their cocktail program. And what makes this interesting then? Like how did they keep this going and people coming back for more? So a lot is they keep the spirit of the original, but then they refine the structure. Of course the key idea here is layering. Yes. And and like as it's essentially they apply Don the Beachcombers ⁓ principle from Tiki Drink. So What what one room can't do four can. Yes. Okay. So but they revise it. What one Sherry can't do four can. Okay. And so instead of one sherry, They're using multiple styles. The amonciato brings complexity. Yep. The olor riso and the PX bring ⁓ richness, sweetness. The manzanilla brings some brightness. Okay. And so you've got a lot of varieties of style. And you know, that's a very modern idea in bartending. Take one ingredient category and explore its range. It's like the whole idea of split basing. But instead of saying, ⁓ we're gonna do like part rum and part whiskey, we're gonna take one spirits category or fortified wine category and just go through and have explore the different options along the way. Sherry is is one flavor you're saying saying that they're going, no, sherry is like a world of flavors, and it just matters how you mix and match it. As we draw a conclusion to today's sherry episode. Any more tidbits? Well, the Shuri cobbler is a fascinating drink because it tells a story about trade and changing tastes. It's a drink about Spain and America. It's a drink about ice. And it's a drink about how simple ingredients can become iconic. And maybe what most importantly, what does it do? It reminds us that cocktails don't have to be complicated to be meaningful. Sometimes the best drinks are just wine, sugar, citrus, ice, and a little bit of care. And I mean, the other thing that kind of just slipped my mind in all of this is the straw. Is that when you think about it, like with all this ice, you know, people did this. Oral hygiene was not good at the in the 1800s. Yeah. So the introduction of a straw now gets past that piece straight to the mouth and to the throat without having to go teeth andor gum. Yeah, and that's one of the other lasting contributions of the Sherry Cobbler. Thank you there. Is the straw. ⁓ well, we hope you enjoyed this episode. Please hit that like or subscribe button if you're on ⁓ YouTube, Twitter. ⁓ no, YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok. TikTok now. ⁓ on our podcast. If you're following us ⁓ or subscribing to us on Apple or Spotify, we're coming out to you each week. We have yet to miss a Thursday. We plan on pushing through, keeping that up for you. ⁓ what do we have next time? So next time on Into the Barchive, we're heading south of the equator as we explore the drinks of Brazil. ⁓ We're going Cassasha? Absolutely. So we're gonna explore Brazil's national spirit, Cassasha, and the cocktails that showcase it, including the bright and refreshing caiparinha. Yes, sir. And the creamy tropical bachida. So until next time, keep exploring ⁓ the past, one drink at a time, as we dive deeper into the bark.