Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/960891
102 / the tasting panel / april 2018 MOST EXPERIMENTAL BARTENDER Hemant Kumar Pathak Junoon in New York, NY "Glenfiddich Goes POP!" The Serve: In collaboration with Junoon's pastry kitchen, Pathak prepares three pas- tries modeled after Pop-Tarts and pairs them with a pour of Glenfiddich 15 Year Old. He also mixes the expression with a paste of almond flour and confectioner's sugar for the pastry dough, which is filled with a fig and ginger reduction jam, more Glenfiddich, and mascarpone with a hint of black pepper. The Inspiration: "For this serve I went back to my roots—I loved Pop-Tarts as a kid!" Pathak says. "Combining a cherished childhood memory with what I do now to create something special is what this pairing was all about." PHOTO: TIMOTHY MURRAY PHOTO: TIMOTHY MURRAY Seamus Banning Ashton Cigar Bar in Philadelphia, PA "The Eye of Balor" The Serve: Banning's serve celebrates the layers of flavor hidden within Glenfiddich 12 Year Old Single Malt Scotch, which are revealed and accentuated by allowing the whisky to drip at a rate of just 300 drips per hour through a mixture of herbs, peels, and spices (including Szechuan peppercorns, citrus peels, bay leaf, rosemary, thyme, and coriander) housed in a Kyoto cold-brew coffee-drip tower. After the drip is complete, Banning pours the brewed whisky over ice and a demerara sugar cube infused with Angostura Bitters into a hand-carved limestone mug created by Red Celt Stone Sculpture. The drink is then placed in a wooden cigar box under a glass dome, into which the smoke of dried jasmine flowers is piped to "smoke" the surface of the cocktail. Banning lifts the dome as he serves the cocktail alongside a plate of olives and an Ashton Symmetry Belicoso cigar; the Nicaraguan/Dominican tobacco blend's "creamy and peppery smoke flawlessly syncs with the layers of aromatics" in the cocktail, Banning explains. The Inspiration: Banning named his serve after Balor, an ancient Celtic god of destruction also known as the "Irish Cyclops." Legend has it that Balor used seven cloaks to subdue the powerful forces within his eye, and with the removal of each cloak, the depths of this awesome power were revealed: Heat began to build and intensify, caus- ing smoke and sparks to emit from the ferns and trees until, with the shedding of the last cloak, the entire landscape burst into flames. "For my serve, Balor's seven cloaks represent the seven layers of flavor revealed as the cocktail develops over ice: Classic Glenfiddich apple and pear notes accentuated by citrus peel, followed by jasmine smoke, Szechuan peppercorns, bay leaf, herbs (rosemary and thyme), and spice (coriander)," Banning says. PHOTO: FELICIA PERRETTI PHOTO: FELICIA PERRETTI