Paper Plane Cocktail with Sara of A Flavor Journal

Our Guest Today: Sara from A Flavor Journal.
We make the Paper Plane she has featured on her site.
https://aflavorjournal.com/paper-plane-cocktail/

Paper Plane Cocktail:
1oz. Bourbon (Buffalo Trace or Four Roses are good)
1oz. Amaro Nonino
1oz. Aperol
1oz. freshly squeezed Lemon Juice
Combine in shaker with ice and shake it up.

1. Swap rum for bourbon. (Then called a Paper Kamikaze).
2. Swap Campari for Aperol (if you like it extra bitter).
3. Swap Amaro Nonino for Grand Mariner (or Gran Gala), and add a dash or two of bitters.

Can a cocktail be deceptively potent and refreshingly delightful at the same time? Find out as we catch up in the Man Cave Happy Hour, with Jamie and Matt and where August shares the excitement of his new job and our recent adventures at a Tigers game. We’re loving the spring vibes and the sleek new bar setup in our podcast studio, courtesy of Firebird Tavern's glassware sponsorship. This episode features Sara from A Flavor Journal, who joins us to unravel the seemingly simple yet complex world of equal part cocktails, focusing on the beloved Paper Plane. Trust us, cocktail enthusiasts—this is a segment you won't want to miss.

Next, take a trip with us to the Wine Garden in Saint Clair Shores, where we meet the legendary Big Tony and score a unique bottle of Amaro Nonino. We dive deep into the caramel complexities of various Amaro spirits and their transformative impact on cocktails. From mixing tips to ingredient order, we share our insights and preferences, celebrating the joy of crafting and enjoying well-made drinks with friends. The communal spirit of cocktail creation comes alive as we experiment with a cocktail featuring equal parts bourbon, Aperol, Amaro Nonino, and lemon juice.

Closing out the episode, we explore the nuances of the New York Sour cocktail, including alternatives to egg whites and the fun of having a well-stocked bar. Sharing our aspirations for crafting recipes for brands and the challenges involved, we highlight our favorite recipes like buffalo chicken sliders with ranch slaw. Plus, get ready for our summer barbecue cook-off featuring bourbon-based sauces! This episode is packed with engaging conversations, useful tips, and plenty of laughs, making it a must-listen for anyone passionate about cocktails and good company.

https://linktr.ee/ManCaveHappyHour

www.ManCaveHappyHour.com

Jamie Flanagan @DJJamieDetroit

Matt Fox @fox_beazlefox

Merch www.WearingFunny.com

Transcript

Theme Song: 0:01

I said, hey, hey, welcome to the man Cave Happy Hour.

I said hey, hey, welcome to the man Cave Happy Hour.

We're gonna drink a fine whiskey and smoke a really fine cigar. Fine cigar

Jamie: 0:15
It is time for Happy Hour, the man Cave Happy Hour, whiskey, cigar, spirits and Stories that go along with it. I'm Jamie Flanagan,
 
I am Matt Fox, 

I am Matt Fox 

no you're not.

Matt: 0:36

You're August Kitschland. I'm August. How are you guys?

August: 0:38

doing, doing good. It's been a hot second. I missed you in the May for the Toasted.

Jamie: 0:45

Yeah, oh, that was a little, was it worth it.

Sara: 0:48

Yes, toasted, that was a gorgeous, gorgeous Tiger game. I was a little jealous.

August: 0:52

Perfect weather, perfect everything yeah.

Jamie: 0:54

We're having a very nice spring. It's warm enough, it's almost summer-esque, but cooling down at night so you can actually sleep. It's kind of nice, kind of nice. I was a little jealous of the Tiger. I'm going to make sure I hit a couple this year, let's sports ball.

August: 1:09

How many sleeps you got now? How many sleeps till you're done?

Jamie: 1:12

How many Jamie Four we're done on Friday?

August: 1:15

We only get like 10 days, 12 days of working in the same city at the same time until next year.

Jamie: 1:25

Yeah, yeah, I I never.

August: 1:25

Congratulations, august, on your new uh yes congratulations welcome yeah, welcome to the beautiful fraser michigan yeah, yeah, the new spot, the new post.

Matt: 1:33

If you're the new post, right, that's good stuff. I'm proud, I'm proud of you.

August: 1:36

I got a good squad over there and, uh, the beauty is they came to me, so that's, that's kind of great. Yeah, it makes you kind of helps rebuild that confidence, just walk in like remember you came to me, so recognize the skills. Yeah, I'm not going to use that tone.

Jamie: 1:51

Fair play, but yeah, so we're in the man cave. Parlor of the Podcast your Voice studios. I love the addition of the bar. I'm just having so much fun with this. I'm here because I'm saying because I got to set up different toys to record in the parlor the only thing that's weird is like us tall guys have to actually hold the microphone as well yeah mac can just stand there. He's got the lean, he's got the, he's got the lean going.

August: 2:15

We can I don't get that casualness, you know you know haters are gonna hate, hey podcast watchers, hey there hey I was gonna get some to get some stools for this.

Sara: 2:25

I was going to get a couple stools.

Jamie: 2:27

But, there's a nice glass rail back here too, so we'll figure it out.

Matt: 2:32

But I'm thoroughly enjoying this bar, this setup.

Jamie: 2:35

Yeah, and the bar. We have our glassware sponsor, the Firebird Tavern.

Sara: 2:39

Thank you guys.

Jamie: 2:39

The glass is lined up, it's with.

Sara: 2:41

Owen, yesterday actually, yeah, yeah, downtown is lined up.

Jamie: 2:46

It's with owen yesterday actually. Yeah, yeah, downtown have some fun stuff happening downtown and then we have an array of the shenanigans. August walks in, he goes. What the hell are we gonna do with all of that?

Matt: 2:54

I'm like you can only see my head because I'm hidden behind the array you can barely yeah and you know if we're doing something that has more than two ingredients in it.

August: 3:03

Uh, I usually talk. We probably talk to somebody else, as a bartender, I usually complain.

Jamie: 3:07

Yes, so sometimes we have our friends with the delivery box. We have a whole bunch of ingredients, and the other time we end up with a lot of ingredients is when we end up talking to another one of our good friends.

August: 3:19

Yes.

Jamie: 3:20

Sarah from A Flavor Journal and I was like we haven't talked to Sarah in forever.

Matt: 3:27

I have missed our conversation.

August: 3:29

I'm hitting these buttons incorrectly, apparently. This one or this one?

Jamie: 3:32

The little two-faced one.

August: 3:33

This one, that one.

Jamie: 3:35

Across the.

August: 3:36

There we go. Nice, sarah, yay Technology challenge at the new bar here. Yeah, usually not the button guy, it's usually Jamie's job.

Jamie: 3:48

But they put me in the middle, so I'm like all right, that's where you belong, it'll work. It'll work. It'll work, sarah, uh, welcome.

Sara: 3:51

Welcome back to the man cave thank you, thanks for having me back.

Jamie: 3:53

It's been a while yeah, so we, uh, we got the we. I'm digging the hell out of this bar. You gotta make it to michigan one day and have some cocktails with our swanky mid-century bar here.

Sara: 4:08

It looks awesome.

Jamie: 4:09

No, it's funny because I was kind of snooping on the Flavor Journal website, as one does, because I was looking for like a cocktail to do and I'm like, well, hell, let's just have Sarah on and do it ourselves.

August: 4:23

If someone else can tell us what to do. And so I rang you up and you're like, yeah, let's just have Sarah on and do it ourselves, if someone else can tell us what to do.

Jamie: 4:25

And so I rang you up and you're like, yeah, let's do it. And I was like I was looking at the paper plane and you said about the paper plane that it was absolutely one of your favorite cocktails.

Sara: 4:36

Totally one of my favorite cocktails, yeah.

Matt: 4:38

What makes it one of your favorite cocktails, Sarah.

Sara: 4:41

I like that. There's a lot of different components to go into this and they all bring something interesting to the cocktail. And I like equal part cocktails because it's just easier for me. In general, I'm lazy and I'm just going to throw all these.

August: 4:53

And I like cocktails with the minimum mixer, like you're mixing it with other booze.

Sara: 4:59

And it's very boozy, so that's always a plus.

Matt: 5:02

It's always a plus. So, if anyone's listened to previous episodes, when we start doing our mixes, it's always me going okay, how much.

August: 5:09

But there's three of us. How many ounces in a quart? And there's three of us and what's three times two ounces? What?

Jamie: 5:15

It's my impression there would be no math. But yeah, so, Sarah, we're going to get to the paper plane in just a minute and you can tell us, walk us through the recipe and what you know about the paper plane. But, like I said, as I was snooping around the Flavor Journal a Flavor Journal website it seemed like it had been revamped. It seemed like it's got a fresher look to it. So have you done some freshening up? Is there some new looks on the website?

Sara: 5:41

Yes, I actually hired a girl, I'm going to say a year and a half ago and she was just like a custom web designer, but she was really well-versed in the whole, like Google page speeds and all the stuff that goes along with kind of running a website, all the fun stuff. But she was awesome and she just totally revamped, like rebranded, revamped the whole website and gave it a whole just a refresh, refresh. It was much needed.

Jamie: 6:05

So it looks good, it's very friendly, um, so, yeah, so the flavor journal. We look at the cocktails generally when we're looking at it, but what else? What are people going to find when they come to a flavor journal?

Sara: 6:14

so I do primarily small batch recipes. Um, it's just my husband and I and we're really bad with leftovers just for whatever reason, so I like to make things that are like two to three serving so you can eat it all in one night if you're really hungry, but like you're not going to be stuck with a ton of stuff in the fridge for a week at a time. So cocktails, small batch recipes I like to do sometimes like a date night kind of oriented thing, like a lot of risotto recipes. It's kind of my jam. But yeah, just recipes for two to three people, all right.

Jamie: 6:43

Yeah, and then and again, we, just like I said, I, I, I steal cocktail recipes from there. I check, I check out the flavor journal and find, find something, find something fun. So thanks for providing that, that for us. And so I found the paper plane and I was like, Ooh, this looks interesting and it's fun because there's a couple of variations as well, and I do have. I don't know how deep we're going to go on the paper plane.

August: 7:08

And how boozy it is.

Matt: 7:10

From what you told me earlier, there could be at least three variations of what's in front of me right now yeah, you got enough action there so you can variate like crazy.

Jamie: 7:20

But, sarah, what do you know about the paper plane?

Sara: 7:30

Do you know about the paper plane? Do you know where it originates or where did you find it? Yes, it um. So it's one of those like modern classics, the sam ross, who's a bartender extraordinaire from new york city.

Sara: 7:34

He created the paper plane back in 2008, I'm gonna say for the violet hour bar in chicago all right and originally I think he originally made it with campari and his version, like the official version, is three quarters ounce of each component. I bump mine up to an ounce each because it just feels I don't like fractions either.

Sara: 7:52

Yeah, it's still fractions like it's still going to be the same thing if I'm going to make one like might as well throw an extra ounce ounce in there, anyway, yeah so, but sam ross created it, um, and it's based on the last word cocktail, which is another equal parts, but it's gin, lime juice, maraschino liqueur and green chartreuse.

August: 8:10

So he just kind of took interesting components, switched it up a bunch and then came up with Jamie immediately turned to me when you said green chartreuse, as that is one of my all time favorite spirits. Yeah, it is hard to find. I walked into a little bar in Rochester Hills, Michigan, the other day and they had it. I'm like I probably shouldn't be drinking this on a weeknight, but give me some chartreuse please.

Matt: 8:30

Because you actually have some. Which bar was that? The Eastman, the Eastman.

Jamie: 8:35

Okay, I was there this weekend, yeah, okay.

Matt: 8:38

Yeah.

Jamie: 8:51

You actually stopped as well, if I don't know. If I'm not mistaken, we did a park looking for a 24 year old.

Matt: 8:53

We did a, we did a bar crawl through, uh, this little city, rochester hills near us, and uh, there's a bar. Matt used to dj, for god, you were there eight years.

Jamie: 8:57

I was there from uh 2000 until 2012 12 years, okay, yeah, I knew it was a long stretch and it was so uh, yeah. So I took a picture of the facade and I'm like, oh no, funny story, actually it just blew up like a week ago, did it really?

Matt: 9:10

yeah, yeah, it was a restaurant down the street, a restaurant down the street did blow up, but uh, I was actually there about two months ago and when I looked up at the rafters, my mirror ball is still hanging at Main Street Billiards and I haven't been there in nine, ten years.

August: 9:27

Oh, my Twelve years. Yeah, All right. So to get back on track, are we?

Jamie: 9:31

trusting.

August: 9:31

Matt to make this cocktail.

Jamie: 9:33

No, no, we're going to hand the ingredients over to you.

August: 9:37

I knew this was coming, so I was just trying to get it there. I've got all the electronics in front of me. We I got all the electronics in front of me.

Jamie: 9:43

We have to switch spots with Matt. Let's switch. You can be in the middle. Are you going to go over to the end with it? All right, just culturally inappropriate fire drill. Thank you August. Culturally insensitive fire drill.

August: 10:02

Go About sucking in our guts.

Jamie: 10:05

No, you guys were Anyway. Oh, you put the ice over there. You're a good thinking man, he's a good thinking man.

Matt: 10:13

That's why he's the barter.

Jamie: 10:15

Sarah, it's bourbon right, it's a bourbon-based cocktail.

Sara: 10:19

It is yep.

Jamie: 10:21

Let's talk about each of the spirits here that we have, because I had to go out and buy, so I went. You said you were pouring Buffalo Buffalo trays, isn't that one of your favorites? I do like Buffalo trays A lot of times you make it with four roses.

Sara: 10:36

Four roses. When it comes to like mixing cocktails, I think it's an easy one too.

Jamie: 10:41

I trust it. I trust it. I trust it implicitly. Uh, and then this, uh apparel. Am I saying that? Right, you are. Yep, there are now this apparel. This has been a thing like I think it was last summer, the summer before, uh, it became like a miller light thing and everybody was putting these uh a a splash of this in their Miller High Life bottles. What Really Were they not?

Sara: 11:07

I don't even know what's going on.

Jamie: 11:09

Oh, correct, yeah, so people have been like, in the summertime, putting a splash of this as a float on the top of their beer, some kind of, you know, light, crappy beer to make it less light and less crappy. I don't know, but what is Aperol?

Sara: 11:26

It's one of those like bitter italian liqueurs, but it's really. It's not nearly as bitter as like campari this is way more sweet. It has, like it's supposed to have, like rhubarb kind of like orange notes to it.

Matt: 11:37

So just rhubarb rhubarb. Yeah, just the color of it. I was, I would almost think it would smell like cherries.

Jamie: 11:42

It's very effervescent in color. It's very candy, candy apple sweet, I don't know color.

Matt: 11:50

It looks very fireball-ish.

August: 11:52

Yeah.

Jamie: 11:54

Lemons. We got some lemons up here. We squeezed, we pre-squeezed our lemon juice. We got smart Instead of making Matt struggle during the broadcast. We pre-squeezed some lemon juice. We had some fresh lemons and what can you tell us about lemons?

August: 12:07

What am I putting? It's a fruit. I don't have a written recipe here.

Jamie: 12:12

Oh no, we're still walking through the different screens. And then this Amaro that you made me, that you suggested.

Sara: 12:20

You made me, you made me, I forced you to get that.

Jamie: 12:24

Nanino Amaro suggested, you may have made me.

Sara: 12:27

I forced you to get that non nonino non, non you know, amero nonino.

Jamie: 12:36

Yep, it's um it's delicious.

Sara: 12:37

It's pricey, as you now know, yeah, but it's really, and it lasts you for a while.

Jamie: 12:39

So no, but I call. So it's like we got uh, yeah, we have some of our favorite uh uh party stores and uh. So I call up uh big tony at uh, the wine garden in saint claire shores and I sent him a text. I'm like, hey, tony, I'm looking, I I found it on the line right and he texts like a like a new jersey gangster, it's your voice sounds like when you're texting hey, tony, hey tony, uh, do you have this?

Jamie: 13:03

and he's like, as a matter of fact, I do, and he goes and it's amazing, come and get it. And I'm like, all right, so I did, I take your word for it, of course, but, uh, you know big tone and I was so glad that one of my favorites had it. So, yeah, um, I didn't check keiko's because tony had it. They were gonna be because I was over on that side of town. Um, but so, yeah, so what? So what can you tell me about the amaro?

Sara: 13:25

no nino amaro, and you know, I don't know how much you know about amaro's, but they're all so very different from each other. Um, it's. It's just a little bit more like it has kind of a caramel note to it and it's just very complex and I think that it adds just a really cool note to everything else in this cocktail too, despite its price.

Jamie: 13:44

I feel like it's just yeah, I'm not afraid of putting a good bottle on my shelf, so yeah, no, it's this one's not going to stay in the man cave suite, it's going to come home with me you're going to marry that one, yeah, so what was the msrp on that?

Matt: 13:58

on that tomorrow?

Sara: 13:59

I was right around 50 bucks, I think yeah 45 50 in that ballpark we are some citrus, there's some herbal, there's some caramel, like it's just a cool, I don't know cool yeah, but but, sarah, you said that it's going to last for a while, so yeah you're thinking maybe an ounce of drink, or less than that per if you were to use it in a cocktail definitely this one.

Sara: 14:23

Technically should just use three quarters of an ounce of it, but yeah, you won't use too much of it unless you just drink it by itself, which I do a lot.

Jamie: 14:29

So we only have two ounces of lemon juice poured.

August: 14:33

Oh right, I think we'll survive.

Jamie: 14:34

So, um, it's supposed to be equal parts One, one, one. So, uh, it's, it's, it's uh, right, it's uh. One ounce of bourbon, one ounce of the Aperol, one ounce of the Amero and one ounce of that. So let's just make a two, you know, and just divide it between three of us.

August: 14:52

Whatever you guys say, that works. So we're doing the bourbon, the Aperol and the fancy stuff.

Jamie: 14:58

Yep, and then two. So two ounces of each. So it's one ounce of each. We're going to share, we like to share. I'll shake it up. Well, I'll make it work. Yeah, and when you shake it up, it works. And then, because there's a couple of variations that that will dive into as well, is there anything that we should know as we're putting it together? Is there anything we should be wary of?

Sara: 15:20

No, I don't think so I think.

Jamie: 15:22

Should you put the bourbon in first, or should you put the other ones in first? Don't you don't want to bruise the gin, I don't know. Is there any of that kind of bruise? You?

Sara: 15:31

No, I don't, it's just my own personal thing. I usually do citrus last, but I don't know if that really makes a difference.

August: 15:36

Okay, I do too. I'm with you.

Jamie: 15:39

All right, I'm so excited that we're doing this at the bar. This makes me sad.

Matt: 15:47

I can't tell you how happy this makes me.

August: 15:52

Don't scorch the milk August.

Matt: 15:56

I don't know what that means, but I'm not going to do it by what you put in first don't know what that means, but I'm not gonna do it by what you put in first.

August: 15:59

Don't scorch the milk. You did the ameri already. It looks like all right that like bright pink color.

Sara: 16:07

Obviously there's, um, there's this other liqueur that I really like. That's similar to aperol, but it's made they. They make it with a natural carrot juice to give it its color. It tastes delicious, but the paper plane cocktail, specifically, is that bright hue. It just doesn't do the same thing. Aperol is the only, unless you went the Campari route, which would make it the same color but way more bitter.

August: 16:30

Aperol is kind of like.

Jamie: 16:33

He said carrot juice. Is there a garnish that goes with this? I didn't.

Sara: 16:39

So the original one is someone took like a little tiny post-it note and made a tiny paper plane and I wanted to do it. I couldn't figure out so.

August: 16:47

I don't know. Well, we dropped the ball on that one. Yeah, I should have asked that.

Jamie: 16:51

Yeah, it's.

Matt: 16:55

I have lots of time today to work. That's a pretty. Oh it is.

Sara: 16:59

Look at that. Yeah, it's really bright, it's fun, it's a good spring summer.

Jamie: 17:03

Are you seeing that on the camera?

Sara: 17:05

Yeah.

Jamie: 17:05

Okay, good.

Sara: 17:07

It's really pretty. You could do a lemon twist if you want.

Matt: 17:11

I don't think I have some lemon.

August: 17:14

I'm glad I didn't do three parts because this is perfect.

Jamie: 17:16

I have little lemon wedges because those are big ice cubes in there. Alright, so get a picture of that bad boy. That looks great, that looks wonderful. So, yeah, that place that we went, eastman, and they have those little itty-bitty baby clothespins, yes, and then they clothespin like crap to the drinks, you know, yes, proofy things.

August: 17:43

Thank you for the beat-up lemon slices.

Matt: 17:45

You're welcome.

Sara: 17:46

It's better than nothing.

Jamie: 17:47

They're pre-chewed. Yep, they are absolutely pre-chewed. That's what I use to squeeze the lemons with.

Matt: 17:56

Squeeze the lemon.

Jamie: 17:56

Yeah, waste not want, not fellas. All right, I'm in on the paper plane. Sarah, do you have yours there? I have mine. Oh my gosh, Look at that. Look at that. Is this supposed to be in a footed glass. Did we fuck that?

Sara: 18:07

up. No, yours is perfect.

August: 18:12

I don't think it changes the taste that smells really that smells really refreshing smelling. Gotta be honest with you, Cheers guys.

Matt: 18:18

Cheers, cheers, that's yummy.

August: 18:27

Much more refreshing than I expected it to be, that is.

Jamie: 18:30

I thought the Amero was going to be overpowering.

Sara: 18:34

No. I feel like the lemon really kind of brings everything together and doesn't make it too weird.

Matt: 18:39

That's hitting my back molars in a really good way. I just feel in the back of my head.

August: 18:43

That's what you said last night Shit.

Matt: 18:47

Yes, thank you, August. You were there too, All right.

August: 18:53

That was only the first sip of a drink I've had. It's the first one.

Jamie: 18:56

Nothing weird about that.

Sara: 18:58

It only gets weirder. That's great.

August: 18:59

She didn't say it's Pride Month, it's okay.

Jamie: 19:07

It's our month to explore.

Sara: 19:08

It's really what it is.

Jamie: 19:10

We've decided to take a little exploration. No, I do. It's fun summer color.

Matt: 19:20

So this is an ounce of bourbon, an ounce of the Aperol and the ounce of Amero with a lemon. An ounce of lemon as well.

August: 19:29

And the Aperol is what gives it its color? In all honesty, there's a lot of lemon juice in there. Have I made cocktails for 15 years? It is a dominant part of the cocktail. Usually don't put that much juice in there.

Jamie: 19:42

You don't see that. Am I getting the bourbon? Are you getting the bourbon? I don't get the bourbon.

August: 19:46

I don't get the bourbon at all. The citrus takes it right away.

Jamie: 19:48

Yeah, which I'm?

August: 19:49

okay with.

Jamie: 19:56

It's not boozy, but I got the booze. I want to know what this tastes like on its own.

Matt: 20:01

Fair enough. You know that it's a boozy drink, but you don't know what booze it is. If I'm being honest, if I didn't know, there was bourbon in this.

August: 20:11

I wouldn't know. I'm like what is that? Oh, this would wreck my mom at the wedding shower. Yeah, because baby shower coloring.

Jamie: 20:19

but man kick yeah. The Amero is 35% and the Aperol is very mild, oh is it. Delicious. Do you know what the APV on the it smells?

Sara: 20:36

better. It's around like 12, maybe Aperol at 12?. I don't think it's very high.

Matt: 20:40

No, yeah, that's actually very mild.

Jamie: 20:43

But the Amero is 35, so that's coming in 70 proof. Yeah, it's not wimpy.

Sara: 20:48

Right yeah, Aperol is 11, apparently Huh.

August: 20:56

I'll tell you that you can taste that in the cocktail.

Matt: 21:00

I have to stop on the way home now.

Jamie: 21:02

Rhubarb. You're right with the rhubarb, Rhubarb rhubarb, rhubarb.

Matt: 21:06

I got to stop on the way home and pick up some of these items.

Jamie: 21:08

Yeah, I love making these. I get on a kick for the New York Sour. I do the New York sour, but I don't do the egg white. Just because that freaks me out, I don't know when are you at. I'm just like isn't it salmonella? Can't you die from doing that? I don't know. Is an egg white dangerous, or do you do that at all for any of your recipes?

Sara: 21:32

I do, I do, yeah, and I feel like the lemon juice and the sour kind of cuts out any of the risk of the egg white or like a ton of risk, I guess. But as long as it's pasteurized I think you should be okay.

August: 21:43

It's coming out of a fresh egg. Yeah, I dated a girl who was obsessed with egg white drinks. She wanted that foamy foam.

Jamie: 21:52

Oh no, I just loved it. Oh no, I just loved it. It just seems like a lot of work it really is. At a bar, that's all.

August: 22:01

Well, I guess I'm lazy, Honey. Do we have any eggs? I want to get drunk. I'm a little egg-phobic I guess.

Jamie: 22:07

I don't know what it could be a thing.

Matt: 22:13

I was going to say something but I said not to.

August: 22:17

That's not how we do things here.

Jamie: 22:18

Matt Fox, Obviously First thought, best thought.

Matt: 22:21

Put that back in your pocket.

Jamie: 22:22

No, that wasn't appropriate, put that thing away. All right, I like that. I will do that again at home. I will make that for friends. I'll even make it for you guys.

Matt: 22:32

Even us. Thanks, August, for making that. Yeah, no problem.

Jamie: 22:35

Thank you for whipping that up. No, that's nice.

Matt: 22:37

I can't imagine what it would taste like if I had made it.

Jamie: 22:40

But I like that.

Matt: 22:41

And I like that.

Jamie: 22:41

It's just You'd still be pouring things in there, even though the four is four equal parts, so it's like you're not like half of this boom One, two.

August: 22:52

So I see some other ingredients out here and I'm not afraid of shaking up another drink as long as it doesn't need lemon juice. Yeah, no, no, oh they do, do they?

Jamie: 22:59

Oh, they do, if you use too many.

Sara: 23:01

You could cut the lemon back just to try it, but we got Matt.

Jamie: 23:04

Do you want to get the cutter? Yeah, so I have another shaker. So, sarah, tell me about the variations. Did you come up with these variations, or are these just standard variations?

Sara: 23:17

These are just standard variations that are just available if you want them. But you can do instead of the bourbon, you can do rum instead.

Jamie: 23:28

Yeah, so bourbon, do we want to do the rum one? Yeah that's what I was looking for here, because I bought a little baby Grand Meunier too, because I didn't have any and I'm like, ah, it's nice to have that on hand because some recipes call for that and I just wanted to have it. For the picture. I needed a photo op. Grand Meunier photo op.

August: 23:48

And I won that. This came from a basket of booze. I wanted a charity church thing, so I don't even go to church. I came across this zaya z-a-y-a. It's now on like the top shelf at tokuro yeah, it's a rum.

Jamie: 24:05

Have you seen that or? No, I don't think I've seen it zaya zaya, it's a 16 year as it's 16 year it ain't cheap.

Jamie: 24:13

Age 16 years yeah, so, uh, but it's nice we were, we were sipping us on the rock. Did we do it on the show or we just did it off to the side? We did it off to the side. I want to see just how we. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so I mean I have bacardi over on the shelf in the podcast studio because it's like I have like six or seven, ten different podcasts, that podcast in here and come to podcast your voice and they make their voices heard. Uh, and I have a bar just here. Help yourselves, you know, it's just there's pop, there's water, there's shenanigans. Help yourself, you know, just to make people comfortable and at home, uh, I don't, then there's a secret I don't usually leave the 16 year out for for the for the average podcaster.

Jamie: 24:53

Uh, you gotta be on the good show behind the bar to get the good stuff. What's the next one we're doing? What? What's the one with rum called?

Sara: 25:04

It's called a paper kamikaze.

Jamie: 25:06

A paper kamikaze. Again, equal parts Instead of one bourbon, it's one rum. Do you want to do one? One and a half I have three new glasses.

August: 25:16

Mine's empty, unlike yours. You lazy drinkers, it happens when you talk too much, which is what we're here for.

Jamie: 25:23

I was convincing and behaving myself. Sometimes it gets to be a long night in the man cave.

August: 25:34

We've had a couple. One of our. I don't know, sir, what part of the country are you in?

Sara: 25:39

I'm in Kansas City.

August: 25:40

You're in Kansas City. Okay, so we call them party stores here, other people call them bodegas, other people call them liquor stores. We have some good friends that are liquor store owners, and one of them, a&b Liquor, brought in 12 different barrel pick, bourbons and ryes. It's like, yeah, we're going to try them all. We're like, how about we pick your best three? It just kept going and going. I called in sick the next day.

Jamie: 26:02

They were super high octane because they were barrel picks.

Matt: 26:08

This was eight, nine months ago. We're still talking about it.

August: 26:13

I visit the pictures on my phone about that night fondly.

Jamie: 26:16

They came in. They had rolling suitcases, yeah. Rolling suitcases of booze.

August: 26:22

Wow, oh man Squoze the lemon, so let me make sure. So this is the exact same recipe, except it has the rum instead of the bourbon, right.

Sara: 26:29

Exactly yep.

Jamie: 26:31

Are you doing 2-2-2?

August: 26:32

Yep, alright, because Matt got two more out of the lemons there man, I've never seen anyone squeeze the juice out of a lemon as fast as you did, did you? Use your thighs. He did really well. Colleen's gonna be pissed because I'm working out yeah I took all the lemons from home.

Jamie: 26:46

You go through a lot of lemons. I hope colleen doesn't.

August: 26:49

Colleen goes through a lot of cocktails I was gonna say watching the in the morning, keeping up with Hoda and shit.

Matt: 26:54

That's it. She puts it in her tea and her water. All right, all right, sarah, I and her gin and her vodka. I really do have to say that the paper plane with the bourbon honestly is one of my favorites thus far.

Sara: 27:09

Awesome.

Matt: 27:09

Yeah, awesome.

Sara: 27:11

I love it. I'm so glad you like it too.

August: 27:14

This is fun and again from a bartender's perspective, this is a lot of citrus juice and that's fair, which I'm okay with. I mean, if I was going to make this in a big batch, I'd probably just buy a two liter of lemonade and just dump it right in there. If I was making this as a party drink, you know.

Sara: 27:30

Yeah, which is doable?

Jamie: 27:33

Not at 50 Bucks of Bali.

August: 27:36

I throw classy fucking parties. I don't know Dive bars and ham tram admission.

Sara: 27:42

Come on, tips, tips, tips.

Jamie: 27:43

Shake it, shake it shake it, shake it.

Matt: 27:46

Tips, tips, tips, tips, tips.

Jamie: 27:49

Oh there, it is Rum. So, yeah, we haven't. We did rum once, we did dive into to some rum once, but we haven't done a ton of rums, and that was that was next on our. Our list is to to do a little venture into rums when, when you make the kamikaze um, is there a rum that you pick? Or when you're making cocktails in general, is there a rum you go to?

Sara: 28:13

I feel like there's is it? The plantation is probably one that I use the most, but there's you know, like the some that call for silver rum, some that call for aged rum. Um, what have I been making? I've been making something lately with oh what espresso martinis were kind of a big thing. Aged rum with that is really good, so I love it. I love a good age room with that, with coffee.

Matt: 28:35

So not the Kraken.

Sara: 28:36

Not, I'm not, I'm not done much with the Kraken.

Jamie: 28:43

Am, I, am, I, a, am I a Yahoo for liking the Kraken? I love it.

August: 28:47

I love it with ginger ale with like a diet ginger ale Are we?

Jamie: 28:52

are we showing our no? I? Are we showing our no, right I?

Sara: 28:55

honestly just don't do much with rum in general. Okay, okay, fair enough.

August: 28:59

I visited our friends at Tokororo yesterday and they are up to, I think, 106 rums on their shelf Wow. They have every rum you can legally buy in Michigan and a few that were brought in other ways.

Matt: 29:09

Yeah, so real quick explain to Sarah what Tokororo is.

August: 29:14

Well, it's actually a Cuban bird but it's a bar in Eastern Market, michigan. Eastern Market is like the longest oldest running continuous farmer's market in the country and it's a great neighborhood. It has amazing bars kind of surrounding it that are kind of legendary bars Raised barbecue.

Jamie: 29:31

Yeah, there's usually a guy out front playing like a drum kit.

August: 29:35

That's Burt's oh it's Burt's, Not Burt's right. Tokoro is a dear friend of mine from years and years in the bar industry. Finally was like I'm done opening. He's an opener, the guy you hire to open up your bar, your restaurant, and then they fire him as soon as they get rolling and bring in someone else. He knows that's his job, right. He opened his own place and just never left. Yeah, and it's a great, trendy kind of cool place and they're really focused on rums. They want to do a lot of rum cocktails there.

Matt: 30:00

So do you bring your own tiki glass in there too?

August: 30:03

They're going to graduate to tiki pretty soon once the arcade opens.

Jamie: 30:06

Okay, okay, all right, they're going to go a little more tiki oh see All right, I'm smelling the rum in this more than I smelled the bourbon. This is a strong rum. It is a strong, it's a very flavorful rum.

August: 30:17

This is different than your average bourbon.

Jamie: 30:22

I was a little worried about that. I was like, oh, maybe I should pull out the.

August: 30:24

Bacardi. No, this is the right rum. For this. I see bats. This is the right rum.

Jamie: 30:27

All right, yeah for yeah.

Matt: 30:30

But I'm still getting that fruit, you know that effervescent, that refreshing feel to it, even though I feel the rum.

August: 30:36

You feel the rum much more than you felt the bourbon.

Matt: 30:39

Yeah, but I still enjoy the refreshing. You're not mad at it. No, I still feel the refreshness on it.

Jamie: 30:46

This is more of a tiki drink with the rum.

August: 30:49

I agree. This should have something burning in it, one of those little things sage, or something you set fire to. Everyone should walk up with a squirt bottle and go and hit you in the face with it. Make some rumbling noises, with the volcanoes erupting. Can you tell I've been to Captain Nemo's at Disney World. Thanks, joe. Oh wow, this is fun. This one has a different kick to it and I like it.

Matt: 31:15

Yeah, but you like rum in general, do you not? I do, I do.

August: 31:20

I'm not afraid of it Okay. Yeah, I like rum and ginger. Cocktails like rum and lime.

Matt: 31:26

It's rum, for it's more of a rum forward feel yeah.

August: 31:29

Oh, yeah, I agree. Yeah, I agree, and I don't do like rum and Coke. To me that's disgusting, I can't, I don't get it. Come in a can now. Yeah, I know it's awful, those canned cocktails. We got to do a night of just those canned cocktails and just how saccharine they all are. So many of them are so sweet. Yeah, you got to pick, like let's do margaritas. Yeah, I have not met one that I really love so far.

Sara: 31:51

Why, on God's good earth?

Jamie: 31:53

would you can a Jack and Coke.

August: 31:56

Because they want to corner the Coke market.

Jamie: 32:00

That sounds bad, it just strikes me as so ludicrous.

August: 32:05

Everybody was putting lime in their Southern comfort, so they came up with SoCo and lime.

Matt: 32:10

But you haven't meant. You just don't enjoy the canned version.

Jamie: 32:16

Not everybody likes it in the can matt so we were talking about sarah, we were talking about toko ro-ro moving around. Uh, we mentioned toko ro-ro and and how he was, uh, he launched bars. You've been working with some bars, uh, and doing, uh, some photography, because I always, I always rave about your photography on a flavor journal. So a flavor journalcom, just if you just go, if you just love cool pictures of food and cocktails. She does great, great photography so you've been um? What have you been doing with some?

Sara: 32:49

with restaurants, love late um, I went to new york recently ish, and and then I shot um Bobbo that go, there's like some really cool restaurants that I got to shoot there with beautiful cocktails, um, and that was really fun, like just something completely different from the usual. And then this coming week, actually starting tomorrow, I'm shooting a bunch of restaurants and bars kind of just around Kansas city. It's fun. We have a really we have a. I mean, I guess with any of those kind of midsize cities we have a really fun bar scene and a really fun just like there's just a little bit of everything. So it's cool to to get to know new people and try new cocktails and do all that. But yeah, expanding the photography side of thing has been really cool and something I didn't really see coming, but I'm happy that it's happening.

Jamie: 33:31

And you said you've helped with a couple of craft recipes for a couple of places.

Sara: 33:42

I do primarily for like brands. Like there's a dairy brand in the Midwest and then if you ever go to like Chinette, like the paper plate company their website. A lot of their recipes are my, are ones that I've created for them, and then my photography as well.

Jamie: 33:53

All right, so those are more food.

Sara: 33:55

More yeah, yeah.

August: 33:56

Stuff you see in the back of the boxes and they say this is how you use our product better.

Sara: 33:59

That's my goal yeah. Okay, I'm still online at the moment, but that's my goal.

August: 34:04

Two recipes in the back of Mr Ben's rice, you know, there's two of them in there.

Matt: 34:10

Yeah, all right, so my goal is always to cook something on a Chinette plate and cut through it, so is that what you're trying to avoid?

Jamie: 34:18

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. How do you avoid the soak through? How do you avoid the soak through?

Sara: 34:24

I try to make things that are not so sauce heavy. I guess there you are.

Jamie: 34:29

That sounds like something for research and development.

August: 34:32

She's the other side of that. She's making the good stuff.

Jamie: 34:34

All right. So what of the food recipes that you put together? What's one of the ones you're like oh my gosh, I love, love, love this. I'm going to make it again next week at home for me, what's one of the ones that you nailed?

August: 34:45

We're not going to turn this into a cooking show and do it here live, like we did the cocktails we might. I'm bringing a hot plate you got a hot plate there those are banned, you know okay better for the letter finish. That's my fault.

Sara: 34:59

That's my fault uh, just today actually I photographed, just I mean, it's simple stuff, but like buffalo chicken sliders, like it's a cheddar bacon, buffalo chicken mixture and then it's like ranch cabbage, green onion slaw on top. Pretty simple, but just fun.

August: 35:16

You had all those white boys at ranch.

Sara: 35:18

Yeah.

Jamie: 35:19

I was going to say I'll go there.

August: 35:20

It's my favorite vegetable.

Jamie: 35:21

Totally.

August: 35:27

And this is why they bring me along. That's perfect.

Jamie: 35:34

All right.

Matt: 35:38

So, the brands that you've been working with, uh, with sarah, what are some of the next next things that you're focused on over the next number of years? Or actually over the next year even. What are some of the things you're looking to do?

Jamie: 35:45

what do you want to be when you grow up?

Sara: 35:46

yeah right, I know, um, I really I would say my ultimate, ultimate goal would be to write a small batch recipe cookbook.

Sara: 35:56

So, that's kind of my my end all be all like. Once that finally happens, I feel like I've checked off a huge box because it's something that I've I've had in the back of my head for probably like seven years now, but I just it's very time consuming and I'm like I'll get to it. So that's, I'm trying to like just kind of finally solidify plans that I've had in place for a long time and just make them happen.

August: 36:15

So well, not not to nerd out with you, but is it is the cookbook or a subscription service to your recipes online?

Sara: 36:22

The way to go with it?

August: 36:24

Yeah, the way. I mean, how do you go with that? I mean, it seems like this cookbooks are everywhere.

Sara: 36:27

Yeah, they are, and I think that it's more like you know. You have to kind of like, develop a following. We'll buy something you know like that's actually going to be shipped to our house rather than there's such a huge resource of free online recipes. So it's like, yeah, how do you really kind of tap into that?

Matt: 36:43

But it's a physical journal as well that you'd want to keep say, hey, these are things that I have. But in the back of the journal there are back of the cookbook, there's an additional journal for you so you can write down and make your own things right that would be. That's awesome, actually, yeah I'm just thinking out loud or when you clip them on the paper you can tape them in there if you haven't noticed.

August: 37:05

A lot of what we say is, we shouldn't even be saying out loud, but that's how I started this whole thing.

Sara: 37:11

As I was making, I would find these recipes on pinterest. I was like I mean, that was fine, but like I would probably do this differently. So then I started a flavor journal because it was like oh, I'm going to keep that record of what I changed. So that's actually like a perfect combination of how this started and what it maybe should be like.

Jamie: 37:27

And then you're back and it'd be your journal.

Matt: 37:29

Yep yes.

Jamie: 37:35

Flavor journal, your journal? Yes, exactly, I like it All right. So all you got to do is send us a copy when you print it, that's all.

August: 37:40

Send us a PDF, you don't even have to print one, and then the challenge would be each one of us has to make one of the dishes and bring them in here and we'll taste test that way.

Matt: 37:48

Oh boy.

August: 37:49

We're going to do that.

Jamie: 37:51

It fell apart last summer, but we're going to do a barbecue cook-off.

August: 37:55

Barbecue bourbon cook-off. We've got to make a barbecue, a rib challenge, chicken or ribs.

Jamie: 38:02

I forgot what we're going to do, but we're going to do a barbecue sauce, but bourbon-based, and then pair it with a bourbon, and the three of us we're going to try to do, we're going to do this summer, it's happening this summer on the deck. All right, that sounds awesome. You got to make it to Michigan.

August: 38:16

I'm telling you, I'll come up for that. We'll make it a thing I don't want to mess with. No Kansas City barbecue, they got it.

Sara: 38:21

Yeah.

August: 38:22

It's next level over there. We're spoiled yeah you are All right, so, sarah.

Sara: 38:41

Been there, had it it enjoyed it.

Matt: 38:42

Yeah good, I'm glad you liked it.

Sara: 38:43

The website is simply just a flavor journalcom. Oh, there you go, notnet don't forget the?

August: 38:46

a notgov flavorjournalcom. Yes, the real deal. The university of michigan, the, the a flavor that's that's us.

Matt: 38:52

That's honestly. It's so good to see you and catch up with you. Honestly.

August: 38:56

It's wonderful to meet you. I hope I didn't offend you too much.

Matt: 39:01

No not possible. Sarah's got thick skin.

Jamie: 39:04

This is the worst remake of Three Amigos ever.

Matt: 39:08

I actually just watched that today.

August: 39:10

Why did you watch that today? You came right from work.

Matt: 39:15

How did you watch Three Amigos today? I watched it in my head, I was driving.

Jamie: 39:21

Mercy sakes.

Matt: 39:24

Sarah it's fantastic to see you. Thank you for being in the man cave with us. Thanks.

Jamie: 39:29

You've been so generous with your time with us. We really appreciate all the time that you've spent with us. Thanks time with us. We really we really appreciate all the all the time that you've you've spent with us, and thanks again for today. This is delicious. I really enjoy this.

August: 39:39

Yes.

Jamie: 39:41

Yeah, I got another one. I got another one for the, for the, for the bar cards. Yep, I got the bar, I got the bar cards. I got cards on my bar that I will do repeatedly. So, all right, sarah cheers, Cheers.

Matt: 39:54

Sarah, great to see you.

August: 39:56

Thanks so much, this was great. Clink, clink, clink, clink.