As head bartender at Vicia, Daniela Pedraza knows what it means to make a great cocktail. Granted, there are essential elements of the actual drink that work together to create a pleasant taste, but to her, a truly exceptional cocktail is about much more than what’s in the actual glass. This holiday season, as you find yourself entertaining a large group or just your immediate family, she suggests taking the time to think through who you are serving and how you want them to feel. Intention, she notes, is perhaps the most important ingredient.
How do you begin to think through building a great cocktail? For me, both personally and professionally, I always begin by thinking about nonalcoholic cocktails. You can always take those flavors and turn them into cocktails with alcohol by adding booze, but if you are focused on the flavors rather than the cocktail, I think you can think through things easier. For instance, I am working on one with cranberries, pomegranate and herbs and am thinking about how those flavors work together before I think about the alcohol. I look at what I have on hand—maybe I have some strawberries that I froze earlier in the summer that can be made into a holiday-style drink. I also like to go along with the theme of the meal and build from that.
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Is that similar to pairing wine with a meal, or are there key differences? It’s not necessarily so different from wine, but the lens is just changed ever so slightly to adapt for the medium. Wine is made from grapes, so you think of the hundreds of different varietals that all have different flavor profiles, and you can then pick sparkling, white, red, and dessert. There are so many ways of thinking about it. When it comes to cocktails, whether they are alcoholic or nonalcoholic, I like to begin by thinking of how the weight of the drink sits with you through your meal. This can either be a flavor profile or the viscosity of the drink. I’m one of those people who can drink anything at any point in a meal, but a lot of people would not want to have something like eggnog at the beginning of the meal. I also like to think about the main meal components. Say it’s a holiday, and I am having something with cranberry in the second course, whether that’s side, sauce, or salad; if that’s the case, then in the first course, I might start with a cranberry cocktail because it’s very nice and acidic. Drink in the first course as a soft introduction to the flavor and then eat in the second, rather than pairing a cranberry dish with a cranberry cocktail. I like to think of it as flavor layering throughout the meal.
Are there any essentials you feel that every home bar should have? In terms of spirits, I think you should buy what you drink. Then, if you are curious about branching out, I’d take the time to read up on the spirit you are branching out to or go into a local shop. We have so many shop owners in town who are crazy knowledgable about particular spirits it would be a disservice to not use those resources. As far as mixers go, I love to have sparkling water on hand to splash into cocktails. It elongates the drink and gives you a little something to sip on. When it comes to tools, you can use just about anything you have on hand to make a cocktail, but I do recommend a decent cocktail shaker. I also like to keep seasonal herbs around; right now I think of things like sage, rosemary and thyme, but I also suggest not being afraid to try other flavors like cinnamon. I’ve made plenty of teas from dried herbs you can get at the grocery store that can be turned into a flavored syrup.
Cocktails are at the center of celebrations during this time of year. How do you recommend still being celebratory when it comes to beverages for those who aren’t drinking? I think it has a lot to do with attitude. When you present a nonalcoholic drink to a guest in your home, have a happy attitude and let them know, “Look what I made for you; I had you in mind when I came up with this.” I think that is what true hospitality is: making someone feel good about what they are consuming. This goes along with intention. I know my partner is a low-ABV drinker right now, so if I am making something for us, I’d probably just opt for an NA option because it would feel so much more meaningful. I think attitude counts for a lot. The point about knowing how to host people is to be able to guide them to the experience they want. This is a moment where you can show people your love, and being aware of what they want and need is a great way to do that.
People often think of food when it comes to holiday traditions. Do you have any drink-related ones? My mom, my sister, and I make tamales using leftover turkey from Thanksgiving; then we do the same thing at Christmas. It’s just the three of us girls, and we can’t eat a whole turkey by ourselves, so we do what is most natural to us and turn it into another food that is so comforting. It’s so much fun. I’m pro assembly line-style cooking as a way to foster warm family connection. What we drink depends on our mood. My mom is a big red wine drinker, but we are not strangers to the añejo tequila and coffee combination. We’re Mexican, so it’s natural for us to have añejo tequila in our home bar. We will make coffee; my sister likes to make it with cinnamon and orange, and then we will add a little shot of tequila. Even if you don’t want to add that, the coffee itself is still delicious.
It sounds like a good time. It’s a lot of fun, which I think is the most important thing when it comes to entertaining or being together at this time of year. I am a firm believer that everything can be fun if you have the right attitude whether you are drinking alcohol or not. The holidays are a wonderful time of year to cherish the space we share with others. Whether you’re toasting with a sparkling apple cider or a Champagne from Champagne, the magic of the moment doesn’t depend on what is in the glass.
RECIPE: Daniela Pedraza’s Fig Old Fashioned
Pedraza believes the most important thing that goes into a cocktail is intention: Knowing your audience’s likes, dislikes, and attitude toward drinking alcohol and general preferences can help you craft something that is uniquely tailored to them, which is the ultimate mark of hospitality. This luxurious riff on a classic Old Fashioned was concocted with cooler temperatures in mind for Vicia’s seasonal cocktail menu, but you can play around with the different flavors (subbing a different fruit syrup for the fig, for instance) to make it your own.
Ingredients:
- 1.5 oz. whiskey
- ½ oz. amaretto
- ½ oz. fig syrup
- 5 dashes of angostura bitters
Directions:
- Combine ingredients in a mixing glass.
- Stir over ice, and pour into a rocks glass with fresh ice.
- Garnish with an expressed orange peel.
