u/FeelingDiskinserted9

This one is actually pulled from my archives- I made this cocktail after a trip to Alaska last year and it kick started the process behind this whole project. I might do a different Alaska further down the road but I love this one dearly and wanted to share! The mead is from a beautiful meadery in Homer, Alaska, where I was visiting my cousin where she lived at the time.

As always, my bartending adventures and more cocktails are found on my Instagram, @the.conn.troversy

1.5 oz Sweet Gale Wines Spruce Tip Mead 🌲🍯

.75 oz Homemade Smoked Salmon & Kombu Dashi 🍙🍣

.5 oz Homemade Lingonberry & Cloudberry Shrub 🍇

.25 oz Zirbenz Pine Liqueur

2 dashes of Cedar Tincture

Garnish with some fennel seeds

Add all ingredients into a shaker, shake with ice, and strain into a nick & nora.

Salmon dashi: I infused maybe 5 strips of smoked salmon and 10ish seaweed snacks (you know the ones, thin and papery) into a pint water with a ton of salt. Trust me, it works.

The shrub: bought some amazing jellies of lingonberry and cloudberry off amazon, added just a liiiittle extra sugar, water, and apple cider vinegar. Sadly this recipe was from over a year ago and I can’t remember my exact measurements!

The cedar tincture was a gift from an old coworker who is an herbalist. She’s brilliant and I have no clue how she made it.

I’m back! (For now)

I’ve decided to come out of reddit retirement for the time being to post some more cocktails. This was actually the first recipe I made for the project before it got taken to the next level in photo styling, and while there are plans to re-shoot this one to make it more kitsch, it’s still one of my favorite cocktails I’ve ever made and very important to me because… I’m from New Jersey!

I might pop up on here occasionally to post some other cocktails I’ve made that don’t have to do with this project, purely because I realized that even though not everyone will like what I make, I do really like sharing my art. 50 States is still in somewhat of a hiatus due to my schedule and my photographer friend’s getting crazy busy as summer ramps up, but I’ll be here now and again. Some of the photos will be low quality as I myself am a horrible photographer, but I hope you all still enjoy my recipes!

All of my bartending content, as always, can be found on my Instagram, @the.conn.troversy. Anyway, here’s Jersey.

Uncanny Candy: 🍬 an Old Fashioned that celebrates my favorite childhood boardwalk snack, Saltwater Taffy, build on the iconic Jersey spirit, Applejack.

2oz Butter-Washed Laird’s Applejack 🍎

.5oz Burnt Sugar Cordial

.25oz Marshmallow Infused Falernum 🔥

1 Barspoon of “saltwater taffy” saline 🏖️

2 dashes of citric acid solution

Garnished with your favorite flavor of salwater taffy!

Butter washed applejack: melt some butter (I did half a stick) and pour it into a pink of NJ’s famous Laird’s. Freeze overnight and strain.

Burnt sugar cordial: dry-caramelize 500g of white sugar until dark amber, deglaze with 250ml of hot water, add a few drops of vanilla extract, let it simmer for 10 minutes, then cool and strain.

Falernum: melt some marshmallows and infuse into your fave falernum. This is so so good and came about because to me, falernum already has a marshmallow flavor.

Saltwater taffy saline: this one was fun. I heated up some water, added salt and cornstarch with a little vanilla extract and mixed until it thickened. Has a lovely, weird taffy-esque texture.

Add all ingredients into a mixing glass, stir over ice, and strain into a rocks glass over a big cube. Enjoy with some Seaside Saltwater Taffy.

This is the last one of these I’m posting on Reddit for a while. I realized while I was on my trip and taking time between these and turning off Reddit notifies that my mental health got a lot better. I so appreciate the love this project has gotten on here, but the influx of hate really did take a toll on how I felt about myself as a bartender and creative.

I don’t use AI for this project, I take my craft very seriously, I’ve loved savory drinks since getting into bartending, and it’s just overwhelming to have something you make constantly accused of being fake. Same goes for the photos that my extremely talented friend takes. The project will continue on Instagram (@the.conn.troversy) but there will be longer gaps between posts now as summer is going to be very busy for me with work, outside bartending projects, and coordinating schedules with my photographer friend who also has an extremely busy job. Over and out, thank you. Now, the drink.

I’ll have what she’s having! And what she’s having is the Katz’s pastrami on rye sandwich in savory shot form. You’ve heard of pastrami on rye, but now get ready for pastrami fat-washed rye. The final shot in the series demanded something quintessentially New York, and you best bet we delivered.

(Obviously we used photoshop for this; I bought an actual sandwich from Katz’s and we separated it into layers that I held on a spatula. The photos were then stitched together. Balancing the shot on the sandwich was quite a feat.

“Carnegie Cut”

.75 oz Pastrami Fat-Washed Michter’s Rye 🥩

.25 oz Mustard Syrup 💛

.25 oz Dill Pickle Brine 🥒

A dash of black pepper 🖤

Mustard syrup: I made a simple syrup with Dijon mustard. Honestly delicious.

Pastrami rye: I warmed up the meat and stuck it in a pint container of Michter’s rye. Froze it overnight and strained out the fat.

Shake up all ingredients and strain into a shot glass.

Thank you reddit. Over and out.

Hi, it’s me again. I’m enjoying Montreal far beyond what I expected. The bar community here is full of 10/10 humans. I return to New York tomorrow, with a heavy heart and a light wallet. Follow my bar and travel adventures as always on @the.conn.troversy on instagram if you’re so inclined. Now, the shot! This is my favorite of the series of shots.

For the next shot in the NYC series, we’re taking the 7 train to Flushing. The spicy chili wontons from White Bear have a mouth watering spicy, umami buzz, and the challenge was to capture this electric heat in liquid form. Presenting to you…

“Flushing Heat”

.5 oz Baijiu 🥡

.25 oz Black Vinegar 🖤

.25 oz Spicy Chili Oil 🌶️

1 barspoon of Garlic Water 🧄

1 drop of sesame oil 🌱

Pinch of sugar and salt

For the garlic water, I literally just infused water with a ton of fresh garlic.

Add all ingredients into a shaker tin, shake with ice, and strain into a shot glass.

Greetings! I am back. Posting the second NYC shot on day 1 of my Montreal vacation. Tell me where to get the best poutine (and cocktails). Who knows, maybe the next project will be cocktails based on the Canadian provinces. As always, follow my bartending and travels on my instagram, @the.conn.troversy

Brooklyn knows how to do pizza. And the burrata prosciutto pie from L’Industrie can rack up lines that stretch out the door. Tomato cocktails are all the rage right now, so to capitalize on this trend I turned NYC’s most famous slice into a salivation-worthy shot.

“Whole Lotta Burrata” 🍕

.5 oz Aqua Perfecta Basil Eau de Vie 🍃

.25 oz Tomato Water 🍅

.25 oz Famille Migneron Whey Eau de Vie 🫕

.25 oz Burrata Brine 🧀

1 barspoon of olive oil 🫒

1 drop of saline

I made the tomato water with this excellent tomato powder I found at a specialty grocery store in Manhattan. A just add water and strain situation.

The burrata brine is exactly what it sounds like- the liquid in burrata I picked up at the grocery store.

Add ingredients to a shaker tin, shake with ice, and strain into a shot glass. Enjoy with a slice of pizza.