THE ESSENCE SYSTEM
ESSENCE
noun
/ˈes.əns/
The basic or primary element in the being of a thing; the thing's nature, or that without which it could not be what it is.
2. Tasty particles.
Pure alcohol acts as a solvent for essential oils, absolutes, and resins.
This small fact has been strangely overlooked in the development of cocktails and liquid flavour extractions.
Whether known or not, this principle is not well applied to the world of bars.
Elsewhere, it has started two disciplines : perfumery, and the flavour industry.
The Essence System is my vision for the use of this simple technique.
It brings intense, pure, natural flavour, in a manner that is efficient, intuitive, easy, cheap, everlasting, and even fun and a bit dramatic.
This memo it its basic outline.
THE METHOD
All the traditional extracts of volatile oils, i.e essential oils, absolutes, and most resinoïds, are soluble in pure alcohol.
They will dilute fully.
A high concentration of these volatile oils in alcohol is called a perfume. It’s that simple. The perfumes of today were born from this basic technique : concentrating nature’s oils, and putting them in alcohol. Only after that did the synthetic, unedible elements come.
Most oils, naturally extracted and suitably diluted, are edible. Those are more than two hundred flowers, herbs, woods, citrus, seeds and roots.
A low concentration of these oils in pure alcohol creates what I call, generically, an Essence. With the right dilution, a few drops of these Essences bring flavour to a drink, without altering its balance.
In other words : make a classic gimlet, and you may add to it any flavour of combination of flavours, even after it is already served.
To reiterate. Although the volatile oils are not soluble enough in drinks, liqueurs, syrups, when mixed with alcohol first, they become soluble enough to play with. How does it work ? To put it simply, the oil is very soluble is alcohol, and the alcohol very soluble in water. The oil is thus forced into the water content.
The small separation of solids that is experienced during dilution, this little clouding effect called louching, can be considered irrelevant, at least for cocktails, and most fortified preparations.
What’s the consequence of all that ? We can now bridge the “gap” between the ingredients and methods of (natural) perfumery, and those of cocktail making.
What are those ingredients ?
They are “flavours” of the natural world, simply extracted from steam distillation, co2 extraction, concentration, or, in the case of citrus, expression of the peel. They are usually far superior to what can be bought in solid form, or even locally grown. They reveal new facets of popular ingredients, the leaf of the cinnamon tree being richer and more complex than the popular cinnamon bark. They also bring to light edible ingredients that are rarely used, but legally usable, in food or drinks, like benzoin, vetiver, or sandalwood.
Because these Essences can be concentrated or diluted at will, they let you achieve an effective separation of Aromas and Taste (see footnote 1). As drops, they do not alter the balance of your drink, like a syrup, cordial or altered spirit. They can be simply added on top.
They are easy and fun to use, being immediately ready in little bottles on your bar, and everlasting. When a note is acquired, it is effectively yours for years of use.
Thus the world of aromas becomes a gallery of “unlocked” notes, that you may combine at will, like a perfumer does.
You will be able to enter any perfumer’s shop, even a cosmetics shop, and find a very direct inspiration there.
You will tap into thousands of years of History and invention.
You will developp a new understanding of flavour, scent, and botany.
You may use just a few to push your existing cocktails. For example, a few drops of Grand Vert Basil in your Basil Smash, and done. Even a very high-volume bar would be able to add Essences to their batch in a literal minute.
If you have more freedom, you may do as I do, and put all your notes together, in a beautiful Flavour Organ - named after Perfumery Organs (more below).
But what is the right dilution level ? How to source those extracts ? How to use them during service of prep ? What about legality and safety ? What about costs ?
This memo answers those questions. This is the Essence System.
THE BALANCE
If you have the time and ressources of a perfumer, by all means, use a micropipette, and add microns of Essential oil to your final batch. Because the ratio of oil to total alcohol in the batch is very small, it will dilute.
But if, like most bartenders, you operate from your bar with the usual conditions of service, and if you would like to create “off-the-cuff”,
Then here is the magic solution : 1:1.
For 1cl of pure alcohol, use 1 drop of essential oil.
For a paste-like absolute, weigh precisely, and start with a 0,5% concentration.
If you find that your product is unusually strong, reduce the ratio. If it is unusually weak, augment it.
If your drop feels very viscous / heavy, go back to using a good scale. The typical drop of essential oil is 0,032g. Estimate from there.
The goal in any case is to create a bottle of Essence, that can efficiently bring flavour in 4 to 8 drops. This way, you can do one drop too much or too little without ruining the drink.
This balance is your Equal Temperament, to again borrow a term from the music world. You want to tune your Organ to a similar strength throughout.
Prepare a bottle. Mine are 6cl.
Then, use a classic glass pipette, and add, say 6 drops to your cocktail. If it is too strong, you will tweak your setup to reach the same balance on all notes (equal temperament). But 1:1 is the starting point.
Before you go on to the next drop, prepare a small glass filled with pure alcohol. There, clean your pipette inside and out. It’s like cleaning your brush in water. When it gets too dirty, sink it and refill.
THE FLAVOUR ORGAN
Perfumers often work with what they call a Perfumery Organ. It is in fact a piece of furniture : a desk surrounded by shelves displaying all the essential oil, absolutes, resinoids, powders … that can be used to compose a perfume. A notebook, a pen, a scale and a few pipettes complete the picture.
If you create a large kit of Essences, you will be able to build a Flavour Organ, for active use in the bar or the lab. It is the equivalent of a backbar for flavour. Instead of a pantry, that has to be replenished, varies through the seasons, and has to be “translated” into liquid by culinary methods, this Organ allows direct, stable access to the imagination of flavour. It is in fact very close to an instrument, once you catch the hang of it. Each note is a key. You can create ready chords like perfumers do, and treat those as notes. What could only be achieved through costly cold distillation - a library of flavourful liquids - can now be acquired quick and cheap.
In my bar, the 18Bar, the Organ is the centerpiece. This year, we’ll increase it to around 317 essences. Such a complexity is in itself a project. Just like a perfumer, part of the routine is learning the materials. It is a daily look into nature and flavour. It trains the nose.
Really, the Organ should have existed in this form for decades, at least.
The basic fact, that essential oils are soluble in pure alcohol, will be news to most. Yet it has been a fact of perfumery for a good 6000 years at least, and it has been explored by some bartenders. For various reasons, because they underestimated it, or used it in secret, they failed to develop a complete vision around this technique. It was not, for them, a System, opening up most of perfumery to bartending, allowing a discret control of flavour, but more of a trick or finishing touch.
With the Organ, you will not only finish or push a cocktail with one Essence, but enter true composition. It’s like putting a setting control panel on flavour. Up with one note, down with the other.
See your spirit and culinary techniques as notes in an imaginary perfume. Complete it with the Organ. Strike the right balance of drops. And a cocktail is born. Usually much more subtle, lasting, and rich than the usual creation.
SAFETY
Natural oils (absolute and essential) are quite powerful and should NEVER be used in undiluted form on the skin, or ingested. At a minimum, they can be irritating; at a maximum they can cause serious health hazards.
If you wish to sample the flavour of an oil, first dilute it in alcohol, then in water, so that it reaches a usual spirit or cocktail level of strength. Even then, only take sip, before you write down your impression. Any off-flavour, especially one that feels petro-chemical, indicates a poorly-sourced, altered product. Do not use those.
For safety, you should:
- Keep oils out of the reach children.
- Maintain absolute hygiene, cleaning up spillages on you or any surface immediately
Keep in mind that those oils have just begun to be thought of as ingredients for food. Only a few chefs and bartenders have worked that way. Only a few companies advertise and label them that way. Always dilute to the extreme first (0,1% to 0,5% of solute to solvent, and then use in drops). Always double check the naturalness and purity of your extract, especially in the case of absolutes, and very popular ingredients.
Whenever possible, use well-established furnishers, giving full COA (Certificate of Analysis). Those documents will certify that the ingredient is edible and authorized in your market. If you are in the US, be aware that some ingredients (Tonka Bean, for instance) available in Europe will be unavailable to you.
Look for a FEMA number.
Never use Aroma Chemicals.
Of course, always use food-grade neutral alcohol.
SOURCING
Here are the furnishers used so far for my Organ :
Robertet
Landema
Hermitage Oil
Florame
Saint Hilaire
Aftelier
The rest we distill / tincture.
Research them and apply all safety measures.
COST
The mean dilution is as stated 1 drop to 1cl of neutral alcohol.
The mean amount of drops to ml is 20.
The price range for 5ml bottles of essential oils is 7 - 80 euros
The mean price is closer to 14 euros.
We dilute one drop of essential oil to 200 drops of Essence (1cl of neutral alcohol).
And use 4 to 8 in a standard application.
Factor in your price for your local neutral, and you will discover that a small investment in oils will yield many thousands of applications.
You will in fact discover that, for a well-functioning bar, this new technique’s price is almost negligible.
You should in fact spend as much on the bottling and pure alcohol, as you will on the oils themselves.
Disregarding the alcohol, all of Nature (that is, everything that can be extracted through its volatile oils with an edible result) can be acquired for around 4 to 5 thousand euros.
The more expensive machines, Rotary Evaporator, Centrifuge etc, are wonderful tools. But they do cost much more than the complete Organ, and that is before you bought any produce and alcohol.
Do you need the complete Organ ? You would go mad with the amount of new information.
I advise you start with a basic set
3 woods
3 citrus
3 herbs / greens
3 spices
3 florals
And the alcohol to dilute them.
THE ESSENCE NETWORK
Another nice thing about essences : because you just need a drop for a cl, your small bottle of essential oils will give you around 100cl of essence. That’s a lot.
And so you could swap your essences with the essences of another bartender. Have him buy what you have not bought. Give me few drops of the essential oils you have, I will give you a few drops of one of mines. Just like cards.
This way you will be able to spread out the costs, and discover new interesting notes.
DISTILLING
The world of Essences should spark an interest in the process of water-distillation. After all, that is how most essential oils are made. That is in fact the “first distillation”, that we must have pursued since time immemorial.
If you can link two vessels with an isolated tube, you can distill. It’s a process as fascinating as watching a fire.
It’s also more fool-proof than alcohol distillation, and much easier on the legal side.
When you distill oils yourself, you will be able to capture your local varietal of rosemary, of this or that mint.
It will also give you access to two by-products :
Hydrosol, or distilled water. When you distill a botanical with water, you then let it separate between water and oil. But that water still has a small amount of oil fully diluted in. When you buy Orange Blossom Water, or Rose Water, those are hydrosols. The hydrosols keep for around two years in the fridge before decaying. They take more “space” in the cocktail than our drops of Essences. But they are without alcohol, can be used as dilution, can make up part of a cordial, can dilute a strong alcohol into a lower proof, can be used as sprays on top of drinks … anything a perfect infusion would do.
Residue. When you distill oils, you should stop when the amount of oil stops rising. That can leave you with a good amount of water in the still. That water will have been infused, and cooked, with all the sugars, acids, “hot” compounds, and colourful compounds, of the ingredient. Because of the concentration and cooking, it will usually look brown, and have a distinct vanilla / caramel note + anything in the ingredient that could not distill. For spicy ingredients, it creates a bomb of flavour. Careful. For most others, it creates a subtle infusion that can be used for a syrup.
Create a cocktail using an Essence, a Hydrosol, and a Residue Syrup of the same ingredient, and you’ll experience the fullest flavour imaginable - basically that ingredient recomposed and elevated.
FURTHER TECHNIQUES AND PRACTICES
As per Tony Conigliaro’s work, working with essential oils themselves, or in my case very concentrated Essences, allows you to create minute alterations on a big batch. One of the problems of bartending is measurement. When creating a 10cl solution, your intervention can not go much lower than one drop to 10cl. But when creating a 3L batch, suddenly your drops become very subtle. That way, you can sculpt flavours like a perfumer, using trace elements to round off a flavour, push another, etc.
As per Emanuele Balestra’s work, working with Essence-like products allows for the use of “perfumes” on the drink. For instance, I keep all of my citrus Essences, more concentrated (around 4:1), in atomizers, to finish my drinks with. I also do this with peppers, coffee and the Palo Santo fruit. I could do it with anything. The same way you finish a drink with a zest, you can finish your drink with an Essence. This will give a nose to the drink, an evolution from first to last sip, and an opportunity at strong contrasts. It also frees you from the seasonality problem of citrus. I have Blood Orange all year.
You can also research Balestra’s other techniques. He likes to use honey as a solvent for oils. He has an interesting technique to create Essences through the cooking of pure alcohol maceration. And of course, a whole approach of perfume, the nose, down to the shape of the glass.
A few bars have had a perfumery theme, or a menu created with a perfume house.
In general, research pure alcohol and its applications. A few pages of Liquid Intelligence show how it may act as a clarifier. Play with macerations at different temperatures. Discover the world of tinctures, shared by bartenders and perfumers.
As for perfumery itself, read Mandy Aftel and Jean Carles.
Oh, and you can also create spirits with Essences, by the way. See Footnote 2 for details.
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE ?
It’s not only a technique. It’s another layer on our work. And a world of endless possibilities.
Perfumery too started small and practical. Then through invention and imagination it became a whole discipline. Like cooking, cocktail-making can become a full craft. Personally, what attracted me to bartending is this ‘freshness’. There are still things to invent, discover. It will soon be a full craft. I see the Essence System as a major step of this development. Alcohol being the tool shared by drinks makers andperfumers is kind of revelatory after all. Through this simple fact, we will create new and more intense flavours, and share the beauty that is to be found in distillation, botany and perfumery.
FOOTNOTES :
1. Flavour = Aroma + Taste
It’s good to set words right. Flavour is everything experienced in a sip or a bite.
Taste is Sweet, Acidic, Bitter, Salty, Savory Hot, Cold, Spicy … the “Balance”.
Aroma is the distinct experience of one set of compounds, that gives its identity to an ingredient. Banana has an aroma, independant of its taste. It can be studied, divided, recreated, expanded, etc.
Scent is everything experienced in a whiff. It is mostly influenced by aromas, and then, for the most discerning noses, by taste.
Distillation separates aroma from taste. That is how perfumes are made, why the rotary evaporator is a fun machine, why spirits are spiritual, why gins are popular, and how essences work.
All that !
(Thanks to Remy Savage for drawing attention to that distinction)
2. Reversed Gin
Gin is neutral alcohol, basically vodka, redistilled with juniper berries and an array of botanicals.
Its flavour comes from the same volatile oils as those that make up Essences.
So, another way to make gin - to reach the exact same result, it through vodka (neutral alcohol), juniper essence (juniper in neutral alcohol), and an array of botanical Essences.
If it’s the same result, why bother ?
Well, you can create a gin in 10 minutes now.
You can increase or decrease the “volume” of one botanical at will without the time and investment of a new batch.
You’re not blind to what happens in the still.
You have access to the best botanicals on the market - because the best stuff always goes to perfumers.
And you can push the volume of one note, or the whole gin, beyond what is usually available in traditional distillation.
The cost of the whole will in principle remain below that of a good gin. It will mostly depend on your choice of vodka.
Blend a 3:1 essence of juniper (3 drops to a cl). Add 8 drops to 10cl of vodka. And go wild.
The legalities there, if you wanted to actually make and sell gin that way, are still a complete mystery to me. It might be a new spirit family. I just know that it works. Given the importance of gin in what we do, I see, there also, a great door flung open on a world of possibilites, and might dedicate an ulterior memo to it once I venture into making my first commercial bottle.
—————————