With over 18 years of combined experience as a bartender and award-winning beverage consultant, Grey Goose brand master Jason Druckenmiller has a lotta spirit.
After years of crafting beverage programs and customized cocktails in 39 countries, Jason has finally trained his mutant cocktail-making skills on these 7,107 islands (including Scarborough Shoal). And these orders come from way up high. No, I’m not talking about Grey Goose management, silly. I’m talking about his Pinoy wife.
During an interview with the STAR, Jason declassifies the secret to a great cocktail, the best pairing of Pinoy food with Grey Goose vodka, a cocktail using local ingredients and the sureball way of getting rid of a hangover.
PHILIPPINE STAR: So Jason, you’re of German-Irish descent? Then drinking for a living must be the best job in the world for you!
JASON DRUCKENMILLER: (Laughs) As a brand master, I educate clients and distributors of Grey Goose, I speak about our Cellar Master Francois Thibault, his background and how that’s intertwined into the creation of Grey Goose vodka with the best available ingredients from France.
How do you become a brand master? Is it like some sort of iron chef throwdown where the only one left who is not in a drunken stupor is declared brand master?
(Laughs) It’s been a long road.
Really? You hardly look like you’ve been in the industry that long.
I’ve been pickled by the alcohol. (Laughs) I started as a bartender then moved on to beverage consultant, creating drink menus for corporate restaurants, casinos and cruise ships. I got recruited by Bacardi (owners of Grey Goose vodka) in 2007 where I eventually got promoted from brand ambassador to brand master.
Who says drinking doesn’t get you anywhere? So it’s time to earn a living: tell me more about Grey Goose.
Francois is a cognac master who wasn’t involved in the world of vodka whatsoever. When Francois created Grey Goose vodka, he took his expertise from making cognac, wines and brandy and applied it to vodka, something that had never been done before. In the style of a cellar master in France, he kept his hands on the process from farm to bottle. First, he selected the wheat. Other vodkas might be made out of rye or made with potato skins. This vodka is made with soft winter wheat. The wheat — certified Class One bread-making wheat used for croissants and pastries in France — is a perfect balance of starch and protein. Next, Francois selected the water he blended it with — purest water naturally filtered through Grande Champagne limestone in Gensac springs, an artesian well that draws from an aquifer 500 feet beneath the ground. Then finally, for our flavored vodka — Citron, Orange and Pear — the flavors are 100 percent natural. No sugars, no fillers, no additives; it’s just what’s pulled from the fruit and that’s it. Francois says that if he can’t do it naturally, he won’t do it. He has developed a process to make sure the flavors of the soft winter wheat and the fruits are not cooked out in the production process. This is what he called the “Grey Goose” taste.
I’m glad to hear that. I was worried that no goose was harmed in the making of the vodka.
(Laughs) Some people want that hit or bite from a vodka. But Grey Goose is kind of the opposite of that. It goes down smooth with a nice mouth feel. It’s a very luxurious spirit. Vodka is not known to coat your mouth in a very silky-smooth viscosity. So Francois completely broke the mold of how people thought of vodka.
For the armchair vodka enthusiasts, what is the best way to enjoy a good vodka?
Vodkas are always enjoyed cold. If I’m going to enjoy it neat — for a celebration or an occasional toast — I like to keep vodka in a freezer. When you pour it out straight from the freezer, it’s a little bit thicker and it’s got a little bit of silkier viscosity. I can also stir it with a little ice.
For those of us who do not have the intestinal fortitude to drink vodka neat, do you have any recommendations as to how dirty we can get with vodka?
(Laughs) Not a lot of people enjoy straight vodka, so it’s fine to enjoy with Sprite or juice. Grey Goose is also amazing with pineapple juice. If you’re in a climate or a place that’s hot, I like Grey Goose with ice, soda water and a splash of water. But I definitely push people to experiment, branch out and enjoy the many different ways that we can mix Grey Goose.
As your wife has completely indoctrinated you into the Filipino way of life, what would you say are Pinoy dishes that go well with Grey Goose?
Oh, this one is amazing with crispy sizzling sisig. Put a couple of calamansi and 50 ml of iced Grey Goose Orange. Really, really nice.
Ah, the combination of goose and pig, another interspecies romance in the tradition of Kermit and Miss Piggy, donkey and dragon, and Chic and Boy. For the heathen bachelors slash amateur mixologist, what should he strive for when creating a cocktail?
The key to making a good cocktail is a balance of all the different components — it has to have some “sweet” that is balanced off with acid, like fresh lemon or lime or calamansi. When creating drinks, it can be inspired by fruits, herbs, vegetables, local cuisines or local desserts. For example, I have a martini inspired by tiramisu. It’s got Grey Goose Pear, cognac, marscapone cheese, chilled espresso and a little bit of heavy cream and vanilla sugar. It tastes just like a tiramisu.
(DOM representative: When do you add the Ativan?)
As a bartender, do you have the supernatural ability to look at a person and discern what drink they want?
(Laughs) It really comes from their style and how they carry themselves.
(DOM representative: What would you serve somebody like me?)
RJ (to DOM): A subpoena.
In Miami, for example, it’s very popular to pop collars, to unbutton shirts to the chest and to wear sunglasses indoors. With men like these, it’s easy to guess what they want.
A fashion stylist?
A martini, hands down. As for his date, who might not be carrying herself as flamboyantly you’d give her—
The number of a reputable dating service?
I’d make something for her with fresh passion fruit, a little bit of vanilla sugar, a little bit of cream, and then Grey Goose Pear.
What’s the best way cocktail a man can order to impress the ladies when it comes to ordering them a vodka drink?
(DOM representative: Especially a drink that will help me look more gwapo after, say, seven or eight drinks?)
It’s always the classic martini. Everybody looks cool while holding that glass no matter what. It will always make you look sophisticated, elegant and luxurious.
(NGSB representative: So there is hope even for me!)
If it’s made properly — stirred for 15 seconds, with no ice chips in it — it tastes delicious. That’s 50 ml of Grey Goose, 25 ml of vermouth, stirred, with a dash of orange bitters and topped with an olive or an onion or a lemon twist. Everybody always likes to go with an olive. But personally, I like to go with the onion because it’s different.
Does your wife know about you and the onion?
James Bond ordered a lot of this kind of cocktail because they were different. Just like when he got his martini shaken? It was unheard of at that time to have shaken martinis; they were only stirred. I don’t promote shaking martinis, too. But I do like his style and how he ordered things to stand out from everybody else.
Those were one of the lesser-known licenses issued to British spies. The license to shake martinis. For the non-licensed among my heathen bachelor reader, what would be a good ice breaker-type drink to start of a date?
Something that’s not too feminine nor too masculine, because you never want to push her into something she doesn’t want. I would do calamansi, sugar water and Grey Goose Orange. Everybody loves that cocktail.
And if you don’t sink like the Titanic after that opening cocktail, what’s the next drink you might want to offer her?
You can get a little bit more sophisticated and do something in a champagne flute.
(DOM representative: Is it comfortable to do it in a champagne flute?)
A champagne flute is nice because you can toast with it even in an intimate setting. For this drink, I would do a Grey Goose Pear, a little fresh lemon, a little bit of sugar water, shaken, strained it to a champagne flute and topped it with club soda to give it a little effervescence. Let it sparkle and roll on the palate, then you can do that nice champagne toast.
Once you’re both toasted, what’s the next drink to cap off the night?
An aperitif for a nightcap. At this point, your palate is acclimatized to the vodka so you can always go for the martini. Remember, the key to a martini is that it has to be very cold so that it goes down easy. This will get you extra loose so you can enjoy the rest of the night.
(DOM representative: Then what do you serve her for breakfast?)
RJ (to DOM): Asa ka pa. Jason, what have been the more interesting drinks you’ve made with Grey Goose?
One of the more exotic drinks I made was with chico for a big event in Miami. Cut a chico in half, take about four spoonfuls and put it in the glass. Add a very small pinch of sweetened lemon juice. Smash up the chico, put two ounces of Grey Goose Pear, shake it, strain it into a tea strainer to remove all the chico’s grittiness and keep the essence and the juice. Then you top it off with just a little bit of martini proseco. That’s it.
Since you’re learned to speak Tagalog and proudly wear a polo barong, what have been the Grey Goose cocktails you’ve made with local ingredients?
I recently did a punch for the after party of my daughter’s baptism. I soaked fresh local watermelon in Bacardi for about four hours. Then I hand-pressed about 15 bags of calamani.
You hand-pressed 15 bags worth of calamansi!? You truly are the epitome of Pinoy male domestication.
Then I took white grape juice, some locally-grown yellow lemons and mixed them all up. I made five gallons of this punch and it was gone in four hours.
There must have had a lot of happy, drunk kids running around during the after party. After enjoying a good drink or five, what do you recommend as a hangover cure?
The main component of a hangover is dehydration. The key is to hydrate, hydrate, hydrate and drink something with vitamins. That’s why the Bloody Mary is the most famous drink for getting rid of a hangover — tomato juice, celery, salt, fresh lemon, a little bit of Worcestershire and, if you are a little daring, a little bit of alcohol. The Bloody Mary tricks your body into forgetting about the hangover while you get in the vitamins.
(NGSB representative: So that’s what a Bloody Mary means, I always thought it was a euphemism for something else…)
RJ (to NGSB): Go and stand in the corner!
The best thing to avoid a hangover is to have a full glass of water in between each drink. That will keep you hydrated throughout the night and you’ll feel okay the next day. But if you need the hangover remedy the next morning, have something with high protein like eggs, a glass of tomato juice, water and a couple of multivitamins as well.
Add a dash of soft winter wheat, artesian spring water and a pear, then you’ve got a complete breakfast.
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For comments, suggestions or if you want to be shaken, not stirred, please e-mail ledesma.rj@gmail.com or visit www.rjledesma.net, Follow rjled on Twitter.