Aidan Cloet - cocktail photographer
Words by Aidan Cloet
Photography by Aidan Cloet
I'm a relatively new bartender - I started around two years ago, moving out from kitchen prep and being trained by two incredibly experienced bartenders at Hermanos Restaurant (a South American-style steakhouse & bar in Winnipeg, Canada), and I quickly developed a passion for creating cocktails and educating myself further in that field.
Photography has been another hobby of mine for several years, and I've taken the time to take photos of my cocktails whenever I get the chance. Because of the podcast my friends and I also run, I had started a column called "Taste Notes" where I try to create a cocktail based on one selected album every so often, here is one such example: https://www.intune.fm/taste-notes-caligula/
I'm currently on day six of self-isolation, and yesterday I decided to make another cocktail and set up a space to take some photos, with this being the end result:
Vermillion
(image above)
Inspired by a variety of Valentine's Day-themed cocktails, a thoroughly sweeter, more floral riff on the Cosmopolitan. I used the grenadine rather sparingly, as I really wanted to make good use of the raspberry simple syrup.
1 ½ fl oz The Botanist Gin
½ fl oz Grand Marnier
½ fl oz lime juice
1/6 fl oz grenadine
½ fl raspberry simple syrup
Shake all ingredients, fine strain into chilled coupe glass. Garnish with lemon twist.
Many Flowered Crown
Caligula is a masterfully crafted industrial noise album by Lingua Ignota with just as much light as there is darkness, something that I think is captured in the brightly lit artwork itself. Something that I tried to capture as well with the ingredients and taste for this drink. For me, the blackberries themselves harken to the Biblical themes throughout the record, while the addition of Pernod provides that strong "bite" and bitterness. I loved how the colour ended up getting darker gradually in places, which I really enjoyed capturing visually. A combination of inspiration from both the Fade to Black and Moonraker cocktail helped birth this one.
6 fresh blackberries
2 fl oz Spiced rum
¾ fl oz Freshly squeezed lemon juice
½ fl oz simple syrup
½ fl oz pasteurized egg white
¾ fl oz Pernod
4 drops of Angostura bitters
Muddle blackberries in shaker, add other ingredients. Shake with ice, strain back into shaker. Dry shake and fine strain into chilled flute glass. Garnish with 4 drops of Angostura bitters.
Gold & Grey
Sure, Baroness' Gold & Grey may feel like a bit of a departure to a softer sound, but believe me, this band can still hit and feel heavy when they choose to. Which is where the main inspiration for the drink came from. Slightly adapted from the St. Lawrence recipe.
Alongside wanting the colour to fit alongside the album artwork, I wanted to capture the harshness and bitterness with something like bourbon, while balancing it with sweeter moments with maple syrup. With a few alterations, this has become a feature cocktail at Hermanos Restaurant & Wine bar (no simple syrup, instead honey syrup and more Angostura) called the "Riqueza" – Spanish for wealth.
2 fl oz Woodford Reserve straight bourbon whiskey
2/3 fl oz Maple syrup
2/3 fl oz Freshly squeezed lemon juice
2/3 oz simple syrup
2 dash Angostura bitters
Shake all ingredients, fine strain into chilled old-fashioned glass. Garnish with orange zest/dehydrated orange wheel.
La Villa
La Villa was inspired by certain aspects of the Jaded Lady, but due to lacking advocaat liqueur and struggling to find a spec that made good use of blue curacao, I pivoted to the "apricoty" flavours of Southern Comfort, while also getting some of the orange-y flavours to play nice.
To honour the passing of Neil Peart, I wanted to try and replicate an album by Rush as a cocktail. Rush played a pivotal role in my love for music when I was younger, and Neil's skill on the kit was a major part in that.
I chose to try and do Hemispheres, as it's one of my personal favourites in their discography (listen to La Villa Strangiato). I wanted to try and work with the two-hemisphere concept Rush had for the record. So, I went with a layer of creme de cassis to play a little nicer with the gin.
1 ½ fl oz The Botanist gin
1 ½ fl oz Southern Comfort
½ fl oz freshly squeezed orange juice
1 dash orange bitters
½ fl oz crème de cassis
Shake first four ingredients with ice and fine strain into chilled old-fashioned glass. Carefully pour crème de cassis with spoon to sink to the bottom.
Berry Cloudy
This one didn't have any musical inspiration behind it – but at the time I was feeling creative, desperately craving to use gin and orgeat syrup in something. I decided to come up with what the birthchild of the Sourise and a Saturn could be like, adding a slight floral aroma and taste with lavender bitters.
2 oz Patent 5 gin
½ oz Tina Orzata syrup
½ fresh lemon juice
5 drops lavender bitters
1 pasteurized egg white
Dry shake all ingredients (without ice). Shake again with ice and fine strain into chilled coupe glass. Garnish with a raspberry.
Final Frontier
This recent one feels like a bit of a work-in-progress, but one I'm optimistic about. Taking some inspiration from the Japanese Pear cocktail for its use of sake, I thought I would also add watermelon juice into the mix, as well as some rhubarb-esque bitters for taste and tint. The name comes from the photos associated more than anything else.
1 ½ fl oz Patent 5 vodka
1/3 fl oz watermelon juice
1 ½ fl oz Geikkeikan Sake
1/3 fl oz simple syrup
1 dash of Abiding Citizen Manitoba Aromatic Bitters (for taste & tint)
Shake all ingredients with ice and fine strain into chilled coupe glass.
