Fresh Produce Shines in True Laurel's Cocktails
True Laurel photo credit Aubrie Pick
The cocktails at True Laurel in San Francisco are understated and often ungarnished, but the work that goes into each of them is significant. “The geeky stuff isn’t in the presentation of the drinks,” says Bar Director Nicolas Torres. “We focus on the produce and our influence on it.”
Prep Pays Off
True Laurel lab photo courtesy of True Laurel
California bartenders made fresh farmers’ market produce an integral part of their beverage programs in the early days of the craft cocktail renaissance. When blood oranges, persimmons, and even tomatoes came into season, many bars would feature them in drink specials, juiced fresh or muddled à la minute into salad-in-a-glass style cocktails. Fewer bars seem to be doing that today, both because of the time it takes to liquify the ingredients by hand, and because drinks can be inconsistent when each bartender is balancing them to order.
Nicholas Torres photo credit Chloe Pressman
At True Laurel, however, Torres puts his influence on the produce in advance, employing pickling, traditional fermentation, lacto-fermentation, making kombuchas, infusing, distilling, and clarifying ingredients in several different ways. These techniques are applied to produce including redwood tips, bay laurel, melons, tomatillos, chiles, strawberries, guava, mulberries, and blackberries among other ingredients on the most recent menu.
Critics have taken notice of the effort – the bar has won sustainability awards and was ranked 30 of the North America’s 50 Best Bars list in 2024. Torres notes he thinks that using a lot of local produce isn’t all that unique in California, but he also thinks locally when it comes to clientele. He says, “We’re centering ourselves as a neighborhood bar with quality and consistency.”
Consistency comes from batching. Before you sit down at the bar or table here, most of the work of making your cocktail has already been done. The fruits, berries, flowers, and herbs have been picked and processed in one of several ways. Spirits and modifiers have been added to the batch, the drink has been adjusted to the proper acidity and sweetness, and the cocktail is pre-diluted nearly all the way. Most drinks only need only to be measured into a glass and given a quick stir over ice.
Cantaloupe for a Cause photo credit Chloe Pressman
Take for example the Cantaloupe for a Cause, a drink that was soon to leave the menu at True Laurel on my recent visit, due to the end of cantaloupe season. The drink is typical of the house style, made with fresh California cantaloupe juice adjusted to a specific brix level, a clarified tincture made of Thai basil from Sacramento, a tiny touch of citrus, an ounce of Bruichladdich The Classic Laddie scotch whisky, and a healthy pour of Pineau des Charentes wine. The batch is force carbonated, then the bartender needs only to pour it over clear ice spheres in a small highball glass. Drinks take a long time to make at True Laurel, but not long to serve.
The Process of Processing
Mai O Mai photo credit Wes Rowe
Some cocktails are on the menu year-round: The Mai O Mai is a milk-clarified Mai Tai with a coffee rum float (and probably the most elaborate garnish seen here – a cherry with a tiny mint leaf). In the Pines, Under the Palms is like a Martinez but made with toasted coconut-infused rye, gin, vermouth, maraschino liqueur, and arak. The Quinine Cobbler is a Sherry Cobbler that includes vermouth, grenadine, and bitters.
Other drinks come and go and many reappear annually when produce is back in season. But each year they may take on a different form. Torres says that drinks are centered on a flavor pairing between some of the ingredients, rather than the final manifestation of the cocktail. “I start with the flavor then work on the format,” Torres says. “Carbonated, clarified, stirred, shaken will all take it in a different direction.”
After enduring reliability problems with commercial centrifuges, Torres is doing more “racking” style clarification and filtration; adding enzymes and letting the solids settle out naturally. The heirloom strawberries that were fermented in last year’s drink might be distilled in next year’s version. The melons that were juiced in the past might be infused into the base spirit next time you drink them.
The Underground Network, for example, started with the concept of a sour cocktail made with slivovitz, but in its finished form includes a mushroom-infused Mexican rum and California guava. The Midnight Marauder 3.0, which is served clear and stirred over a big cube, was previously a shaken cocktail served as a highball. The spirits to accompany the fresh ingredient combination often change as well – the Marauder was a tequila/mezcal drink in the past, but the current version employs sotol.
Other Acids and the House Style
Quinine Cobbler photo courtesy of True Laurel
Despite the focus on farmers market seasonal ingredients, the drinks at True Laurel are not at all that juicy. Torres finds other sources of acids for drinks beyond citrus (often wine of some sort) and then amplifies the acidity as needed with just a hint of lemon or lime. Of the current menu, at least nine out of thirteen cocktails contain vermouth, sherry, or another wine, with little repetition between drinks. There is one blend of vermouth used in the Quinine Cobbler, and a different blend (three vermouths and a quinquina) used in the Laurel Martini.
Asked to describe the house style, Torres refers to most of his drinks as food-friendly, “sessionable,” or “inverted” cocktails in which there is a relatively high proportion of vermouth or other wine ingredient compared to the base spirit. They have acid but are not sours (like Daiquiris and Margaritas with lots of citrus) in construction. And there is nearly always a local spin that may have taken a spin through the centrifuge.
Torres put it more succinctly, describing the typical drink style at True Laurel as, “a spirit we like, balanced with wine, a touch of acidity, and a full serving of produce.”