Lustau Solera Stand Out 2017 Semi-Finalists Announced

By Chilled Magazine

Last week at The Broken Shaker, one of the most trendy and desirable bars in Miami Beach, we celebrated the Lustau Solera Stand Out Competition semi-finals.

The event was a great opportunity to share with participants, invitees, and the expert judges, who had the challenging task of choosing the winning semi-finalists.

During the event, four semi-finalists were chosen and are now on their way to Spain to the last part of the challenge; mixing up their winning cocktails for the final round of judging in The Stand Out.

Great cocktails, awesome food, music and fun, are just some of the ways to describe the unbelievable night.

Thanks to our expert judges Marita Leonard, Gui Jaroschy and Paul Sanguinetti, Chilled magazine for co-hosting, and to all the participants who entered in this year’s Stand Out.

Here are the winning bartenders and their cocktails:

La Sobremesa cocktail

La Sobremesa

La Sobremesa

Recipe by Alexandria Jump

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 oz. Lustau Brandy de Jerez Solera Gran Reserva
  • 1 oz. Lustau Manzanilla Pasada de Sanlúcar
  • 1/4 oz. Leopold’s New York Sour Apple Liqueur
  • 1/4 oz. Lemon Juice
  • 1/4 oz. Milk Syrup
  • 6-8 dashes Marcona Almond & Goat Cheese Tincture

Preparation: Combine all ingredients into a cocktail shaker & top with ice. Shake well & fine strain into a chilled Nick & Nora glass. Garnish with a Manzanilla Olive & an additional spray of the Almond & Goat Cheese Tincture.

Milk Syrup

Ingredients:

  • 200 g Superfine Sugar
  • 200 ml Whole Milk (Organic if Possible!)
  • 15 g Citric Acid Powder
  • 85 ml Water

Preparation:

  1. Combine citric acid & water to create a 20% citric acid solution
  2. Combine sugar & milk in a sealable container like a quart deli. Shake vigorously until well combined.
  3. Add 1/2 oz of the citric acid solution to 500 ml of the milk syrup. Stir to combine.
  4. Store in fridge!

Tincture

Ingredients:

  • 4 oz. Blanched Marcona Almonds
  • 1 oz. Mone Enebro Goat Cheese (or any similar soft ripened Goat’s Cheese, i.e. Bucheron)
    Vodka

Preparation:

  1. Combine Marcona Almonds & Goat Cheese in a mason jar. Pour enough Vodka into jar to cover the almonds & cheese, but no more (should be less than 5 oz of Vodka).
  2. Let sit in the fridge for at least 12 hours, but up to 48 hours
  3. Strain & jar. The tincture may be cloudy, but that is ok. Leave jar in fridge when not in use.

Garnish: 1 Manzanilla Olive

Glassware: Nick & Nora

Cocktail Inspiration:

Sitting around the table after dinner while discussing sports, politics, world news, family business, et al. shouldn’t sound like any kind of foreign affair, but in the United States, it is a concept that has nearly been forgotten. In Spain, however, “La Sobremesa” represents the time that families spend together after a meal. Literally translated, it means “over the table”, which is appropriate, since the term represents the delicate time that people spend together while sitting at the dining room table.

My cocktail is meant to be a representation of that time spent together, perhaps while snacking on a plate of Spanish provisions like Goat’s Cheese, Jamón, & Marcona Almonds. The flavors of intense dried fruits & rich walnuts & almonds in Lustau’s Brandy de Jerez Solera Gran Reserva are the backbone of this cocktail, while Lustau’s Manzanilla Pasada de Sanlúcar & Leopold’s Sour Apple Liqueur provide saline, acidity & a rich green apple flavor. The cocktail is completed with a Marcona Almond & Goat Cheese Tincture which enhances the salinity & nuttiness of the Manzanilla Sherry.

Imagine sipping on this cocktail after dinner while chatting with friends & family about your day… Regardless of if you are sitting outside on the patio in Sanlúcar, waves rolling in the distance, the wind dragging the smell of salt & sherry through the air, or if you are sitting on your patio in Brooklyn, NY with the sounds of the city surrounding you, this cocktail should bring you the feeling of Sobremesa.


Frontflip/Backflip cocktail

Frontflip/Backflip

Frontflip/Backflip

Recipe by Vinny Starble

Ingredients:

  • 1 oz. Lustau Brandy De Jerez Solera Grand Reserva
  • 1 oz. Peychaud Aperitivo
  • 1/2 oz. Lustau Fino Jarana Sherry
  • 1/4 oz. Smith and Cross Jamaican Rum
  • 1/2 oz. Fermented Honey*
  • Whole Egg
  • Smith and Cross Spritz

Preparation: Combine all ingredients into cocktail shaker. Dry Shake. Add one large Ice Cube. Shake Vigorously. Double strain into chilled Port Glass. Garnish with Yarrow Flowers and a Smith and Cross Spritz.
<h4″>*Fermented Honey

Ingredients:

  • 6 parts Honey
  • 1 part Water

Preparation: Combine ingredients and cover with a cheesecloth. Let sit for two weeks.

Garnish: Yarrow Flowers/Smith and Cross Spritz

Glassware: Port Glass

Cocktail Inspiration:

Ive recently become intrigued and inspired by cultural drinking traditions all across the globe. Learning why people drink what they drink, when they drink it, has always fascinated me. This cocktail is an attempt to play on one of the most classic drinking dichotomies: Apertif and Digestif. The idea was to bring together ingredients and flavors that lend themselves to before dinner consumptions with those that lend themselves to after. The Peychaud Aperitivo and Fino Sherry bring a bright and bitter dryness to the cocktail. Then balanced with the depth of the Lustau brandy, all flavors are folded into the texture of a flip to give this cocktail the unique ability to open your palate as a starter for the night, or provide the satisfaction as dessert or post consumption drinking.


Como la Flor

Como la Flor

Como la Flor

Recipe by Helen Diaz

Ingredients:

  • 1 oz. Lustau Brandy
  • 3/4 oz. Palo Cortado Sherry
  • 1/2 Lemon
  • 1/2 oz. Coriander Honey Syrup*
  • bar spoon of Orange Marmalade (store bought)
  • 1 dash Celery Bitters

Preparation: Shake, double strain, pour into rocks glass with large ice.

*Coriander Honey Syrup

Steep 2-3 tbsp. of coriander for 45 seconds in boiling water. Cold plunge for 1 minute then blend with 1:1 honey to water (1 cup honey/1 cup water).

Garnish: Coriander Flower

Glassware: Rocks

Cocktail Inspiration:

Lustau is a big beautiful brandy with deep complex notes. I was inspired by my favorite Selena song “como la flor” and wanted to give this cocktail some feminine characteristics- pretty, delicate but still bold in flavor. The brandy offers rich notes while the palo cortando brings balance and restraint. The Lemon is a refreshing component that gives the cocktail life. The orange marmalade is the hidden flavor I find with each sip of the brandy and the celery bitters is a little bit of an off-note that I think really makes this cocktail more interesting, and delicious.


The Spanish Inquisition cocktail

The Spanish Inquisition

The Spanish Inquisition

Recipe by Jeff Seymour

Ingredients:

  • 1 oz. Olive Oil-Washed Lustau Solera Reserva
  • 1/2 oz. Lustau Manzanilla “Papirusa”
  • 1/2 oz. Lustau East India Solera
  • 1/2 oz. Pierre Ferrand Pineau des Cherantes
  • 3/4 oz. Cocchi Americano Rosa
  • 2 drops Lustau Pedro Xemenez Sherry Vinegar

Preparation: Combine 1 part Columela olive oil with 5 parts Lustau brandy (or 1. .750ml bottle of brandy with .150ml of olive oil) and let sit at room temperature for 5 days, then seal and place in freezer overnight. Remove and discard the separated olive oil and run the remaining brandy through a cheese cloth.

Combine 1 oz. of this olive oil-washed brandy with other ingredients into a mixing glass and stir until chilled. Strain into a Nick and Nora and garnish with a Manzanilla olive on a seafood fork.

Garnish: Seafood Fork with a Manzanilla Olive

Glassware: Nick and Nora

Cocktail Inspiration:

The inspiration for this cocktail was quite simple actually, it’s my love of Spanish cuisine and what I would like to drink and pair with a night out eating Jamon, salty, cured seafood and oysters. I drink sherry with nearly every meal, so a balance of Manzanilla and East India play beautifully with the brandy.

I chose the Columela olive oil to wash the brandy with because it’s what I prefer to use when cooking or with cracked-pepper and bread and charcuterie. It gives the cocktail a really nice, velvety mouthfeel without adding too much salinity. The Pineau des Cherentes and Cocchi Rosa for body and roundness, then just a couple drops of the Lustau PX vinegar for acidity and aroma makes this a perfectly balanced, low(er)-abv sipper.

Garnished with a Manzanilla olive on a seafood fork to be enjoyed after helps this cocktail play throughout an entire meal.

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