BevCon®, the annual beverage industry-only conference happening Aug. 19-21 at the LINE Hotel in Koreatown, Los Angeles, and The Perfect Purée of Napa Valley announce the winners of their new national cocktail competition showcasing flavors from The Perfect Purée of Napa Valley: Coleen Speaks and A.J. Goodrich.
Bar professionals from across the country submitted entries to the first-time competition. Recipes were judged on cocktail name and appearance, aroma and garnish, taste and flavor, craftsmanship and incorporation of The Perfect Purée of Napa Valley’s products, as well as interpretation of the theme California Inspired. Entries were judged by Angel Postell, BevCon® founder; Jeff Greif, editor-in-chief of Chilled magazine; writer Virginia Miller; and Bacardi mixologist Manny Hinojosa.
Coleen Speaks of Raleigh, N.C.’s Hummingbird crafted the “Mascarita” with The Perfect Purée El Corazon and Chipotle Sour blends. Her winning entry is a nod to Mexican wrestling and tequila. The word mascarita translates to “masked one” and is often used by Mexican wrestlers as a part of their stage names. With BevCon’s new Los Angeles location, Coleen thought it would be fun and edgy to play up the Latino culture of Los Angeles by using Mezcal as her base spirit. She chose El Corazon for its rich red color and Chipotle Sour for its spicy flavor profile. She rounded out the recipe with lemon juice and Campari, which imparts a slightly bitter flavor and deepens the drink’s rich red color.
Speaks’ drink will be served on-site at the Opening Party on Sunday, Aug., 19 at The Unique Space and at the LINE Hotel from 12:30-1:30 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 20.
“Mascarita”
Coleen Speaks, Hummingbird, Raleigh, N.C.
Ingredients:
2 oz. Bruxo Mezcal Espadin No. 1
¼ oz. Campari
¾ oz. The Perfect Purée El Corazon blend
¼ oz. The Perfect Purée Chipotle Sour blend
¾ oz. lemon juice
Dehydrated blood orange (garnish)
Edible begonias (garnish)
Method:
- Combine ingredients with ice in a shaker and shake until well chilled.
- Strain contents from shaker into a coup.
- Garnish with a dehydrated blood orange slice and edible begonias.
A.J. Goodrich of Bar Mattachine at Clifton’s Republic in downtown Los Angeles created “Semper Sempervirens” for the L.A. Favorite category using The Perfect Purée of Napa Valley’s White Peach. Goodrich, a cinematographer, was inspired by a memory from a 2011 trip through the Redwood Forest while working on a documentary about same-sex marriage.
Goodrich’s drink will be served Monday, Aug. 20 from 12:30-1:30 p.m. at The LINE Hotel and Tuesday, Aug. 21, at the BevCon® seminar “Let’s Get Lit.” The bittersweet backstory to Goodrich’s drink makes it a fitting liquid accompaniment to the popular seminar featuring new work by top beverage writers and authors.
As Goodrich tells it, he was making a documentary in 2011 about same-sex marriage (before it was legalized), walking across the country for eight months from Los Angeles to New York talking to people.
“I was tired and pretty homesick for California by the end of it! On the way back home to L.A., I picked up an ex-boyfriend in Portland and we decided to go through the Redwood Forest on our drive down the California coast. We stopped and hiked through the trees, and shared a bittersweet farewell kiss inside one of the giant tree trunks. I made it home back to L.A. and he eventually returned to Oregon — sadly, he passed away very suddenly a month later,” A.J. recalls. “This drink is an ode to him, to the tallest living trees on Earth (the California Redwoods, aka Sequoia Sempervirens) and to our late summer moment in the trees, which will stay with me forever.”
“Semper Sempervirens”
A.J. Goodrich, Bar Mattachine at Clifton’s Republic, Los Angeles, CA 
Ingredients:
- 1.5 oz Redwood Empire American Whiskey
- .75 White Peach Syrup (1:1 Combo of The Perfect Purée White Peach Puree and fine white sugar)
- .75 oz. fresh lemon juice
- 1 egg white
- 1 oz. club soda (cold)
- .5 Suze Saveur d’Autrefois Liqueur float
- rosemary sprig & grated nutmeg for garnish
Method:
- Combine whiskey, lemon juice, The Perfect Purée White Peach syrup and egg white in a cocktail shaker.
- Dry shake for 10 seconds.
- Add a large rock of ice to the cocktail shaker and shake well.
- Double-strain into a frozen fizz glass.
- Drop the cold club soda into the cocktail.
- Tap bottom of the glass with a muddler until you get a foamy head and a fine line in the drink.
- Drop Suze float into the glass.
- Garnish with a rosemary sprig and freshly-grated nutmeg
