The Bad and Boujee
Much like undercover cops and paying taxes, among bartenders, making vodka cocktails has become a thing to be avoided at all costs. I’m not talking about vodka sodas or vodka Red Bulls. Under the right circumstances, when a guest orders those drinks, they are unknowingly bringing a smile to my face. After all it is much easier to make a vodka tonic, than say, a Ramos Fizz, and at my core I am a pretty lazy man.
Now, when I say vodka cocktails are to be avoided, I mean those cocktails that are forcibly placed onto cocktail menus. In many fine establishments, management and owners know that a decent proportion of their guests exclusively imbibe vodka-based cocktails and, as a result, insist on having at least one vodka cocktail on the menu. Therefore the lead bartender, cocktail curator, mixologist or person by any other such moniker, is begrudgingly assigned the task of creating one of these “vodka cocktails” to appease both their clientele and the powers that be.
Some might be asking why there is so much disdain for vodka cocktails among the bartender community. The answer is that this is very specific to the “Craft bartender” community, who have collectively come to the conclusion that all vodka simply has no taste and lends no character to a cocktail. It generally has no elements of bitter or sweet, or characteristics derived from wood like other aged spirits do.
So, more times than not, when you encounter a vodka based cocktail on a menu, it is usually some haphazard thing, recklessly thrown together and probably designed at the last minute under pressure from managers. Or, something that is intended to be refreshing but nothing else, some version of a lemonade. Maybe a lemonade with cucumber. Maybe one with mint. Maybe one with both. But rarely one with intended substance.
That is what made my first encounter with the “Bad and Boujee” cocktail at Coin-Op Game Room (3926 30th St.) in North Park so pleasantly surprising. Although the cocktail contains both tequila and vodka, it can easily fall under the category of “refreshing vodka cocktail,” and does, but there was some thoughtfulness to its inception, not something that came about as a result of a hole in the cerebral condom.
The vodka used in the “Bad and Boujee” is the recently released Horchata-flavored vodka from Cutwater Spirits. It lends both weight and complexity to this easy drinking springtime tippler, and the cinnamon from the vodka stabilizes the freewheelin’ tropical ingredients with a baking spice backbone.
One might argue that the “Bad and Boujee” is more of a tequila cocktail than a vodka one, but one sip will have you realizing that the Horchata vodka is the dominant component and seems to give support to the tequila, rather than the other way around. But that’s just my opinion. If readers like it like I did, thank bartender Caleb Bonilla for not falling into the craft bartender pitfall of making lazy, thoughtless vodka cocktails.
Bad and Boujee
as found atCoin-Op Game Room
¾ oz. Lime Juice
1 oz. Pineapple
¼ oz. Coconut Syrup
¼ oz. Orgeat
½ oz. Horchata Vodka
1 oz. Rancho Alegre
Place all ingredients in to a mixing tin and whip with pebble ice. Transfer ingredients into a Collins glass with fresh pebble ice. Garnish with grated nutmeg and umbrella.