Show your credentials at a cocktail bar and also you may simply be acknowledged with an esoteric shot from the bartender. Early on within the fashionable cocktail renaissance, that “bartender’s handshake” would doubtless have been Fernet-Branca, the bracing, bitter Italian liqueur. During the last twenty years, it might equally have been then-obscure orders like Chartreuse, Cynar, mezcal (or M&M pictures), or, for those who had been in Chicago, the bitter bomb generally known as Jeppson’s Malört. However currently, it appears, the trending bartender’s handshake has inexplicably change into Stoli Blueberry, a flavored vodka not often seen exterior of school dorm rooms.
“I feel we now have all type of gotten over ourselves a bit the previous few years, and realized that typically one thing is simply actually good and we’re allowed to suppose that,” says Ramsey Musk, of Confederate in Los Angeles, who additionally cites Midori and Malibu Rum as becoming into that class. “Like, Fernet isn’t dangerous, however it’s clearly slightly polarizing.”
Certainly, the previous decade or two of bartender’s handshakes constituted what may finest be categorised as dares—difficult spirits or liqueurs thrown again by seasoned professionals to determine their insider standing. Recently, nonetheless, there appears to be a shift: The bartender’s handshake has change into much less of a dare and extra of a deal with, and what as soon as may need been embraced solely sarcastically can now be appreciated in earnest, because of a loosening of bar world dogma.
“I feel individuals are simply being trustworthy about what they suppose is tasty and what they wish to have after they exit,” says Musk, who notes that Stoli Blueberry doesn’t even need to be anathema to the craft cocktail scene. He calls it “considerate and crafted rigorously,” explaining it’s made with precise blueberries and black currant, balanced by lemon and juniper.
At Confederate, Stoli Blueberry isn’t on the backbar, although; it’s extra of an IYKYK state of affairs for regulars or trade buddies who may be handled to a shot. Whereas Musk normally drinks Stoli Blueberry topped with soda water backed by a Miller Excessive Life, the flavored vodka has begun to make its method into cocktails as effectively. Musk recollects a current visitor who ordered a Stoli Blueberry Bloody Mary—“Unhinged, however they cherished it, so who am I to evaluate?”—and he’s at the moment contemplating placing a Stoli Blueberry Lemon Drop on the bar’s “Trashy ’90s Drinks Performed Proper” comfortable hour menu.
Musk isn’t the one bartender experimenting with Stoli Blueberry in cocktails, both. “Eighteen years of bartending and it’d one way or the other be one of many higher drinks I’ve ever made,” says Iain Townsend Griffiths of their Espresso Martini riff, the Dunkin Delight, which additionally makes use of Stoli Blueberry. Their profession has taken them all over the place from London, the place they labored with the Lyan group of bars, to Brooklyn, the place they now work for Empirical, whose Doritos-flavored spirit is one other ingredient within the Dunkin Delight.
“I’m not essentially certain if it’s change into a bartender’s handshake, although,” Griffiths is fast to notice of Stoli Blueberry, maybe as a result of not many top-tier bars carry the flavored vodka, a class which has, for many years, been appeared down upon on the planet of craft cocktails. As an alternative, Griffiths sees it extra as a dive bar name for trade insiders who like to combine it with soda water or lemonade.
“A Stoli Blueberry and soda with a lemon—not a lime—is an ideal, refreshing, crushable beverage for those who’re at a dive bar, for those who’re avoiding an excessive amount of sugar, or are only a blueberry stan,” says Erin Hayes, of Los Angeles’ Black Lagoon pop-up bar. She’s been a fan of the drink, and served it, since her earliest days of bartending again within the late aughts. “In more moderen years, I’d undoubtedly be the one to name for those who wanted to know the place to seek out it at a bar or a retailer.”
Musk additionally notes that Stoli Blueberry has change into part of queer tradition. “I don’t actually know many gays that additionally don’t simply gravitate in direction of [it], particularly bartenders, so it’s undoubtedly an attention-grabbing overlap,” he says.
Bartender’s handshake, dive bar name, signifier of queer tradition—regardless of the case, Stoli Blueberry has change into the proper emblem of recent bartending proper now, when high- and lowbrow can seamlessly coexist and “drink what you need” is the reigning mantra. “We as an trade are transferring away from pretension,” Musk explains, “and leaning into simply having extra enjoyable and permitting the visitors that come and help us to really feel that enjoyable and ease.”
