To Make Great Cocktails, Bartenders Head to the Farm
"Joseph Simonson, head of cocktail and process development at Los Poblanos Historic Inn and Organic Farm in Albuquerque, New Mexico, says that, while a rotovap is intriguing, he doesn’t think “that level of nerdery” is scalable for a property where they often serve 500 people per day. Plus, he’s clearly more excited about the unique varieties of herbs and fruit growing on the property’s farm that simply can’t be sourced from a store. “I challenge myself to never make the same drink twice at Bar Campo, so I’m always trying to put new flavors together,” he says. “That’s easy though, because with the wide variety of infusions we’ve made, really, the possibilities are endless.
Although lavender, first planted in 1999, is the marquee plant at Los Poblanos, this regenerative agriculture project is also home to an apiary, indigenous crops like string beans, blue corn, and pumpkin, as well as many herbs that define the cocktail program. Given that focus, Dylan Storment, director of wine and spirits, says the incorporation of fresh ingredients falls along one of two paths: simple macerations, or vapor distillation. Los Poblanos makes two gins in a copper pot still—another technology used to deal with agricultural surpluses."
