Episode 128: Erick Castro Makes the Cocktails You Love

Erick Castro is one of the more influential bartenders working today. The owner of Gilly’s House of Cocktails and Raised by Wolves in San Diego, he’s also the host of the Bartender at Large podcast, and he’s been involved in bar projects from coast to coast. For this episode, Erick shares his insight into the enduring appeal of simplicity in cocktails, and he talks about best practices when making frozen drinks for summer.

Radio Imbibe is the audio home of Imbibe magazine. In each episode, we dive into liquid culture, exploring the people, places, and flavors of the drinkscape through conversations about cocktails, coffee, beer, spirits, and wine. Keep up with us on Instagram, Threads, and Facebook. And if you’re not already a subscriber, we’d love to have you join us—click here to subscribe. 

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Paul Clarke

Hey everybody, welcome back to Radio Imbibe from Imbibe Magazine. I’m Paul Clarke, Imbibe’s editor-in-chief. And maybe you work in the bar industry, or you’re a longtime observer or enthusiastic participant of cocktail culture. Whatever your particular situation, chances are you’ve noticed some significant shifts in the drinks themselves as the years have gone by. 

I first got serious about craft cocktails more than twenty years ago, and at that time classic cocktails—ones that had been around for decades or more than a century, and typically composed of relatively few ingredients—were the guiding light. Bartenders learned to perfect these simple recipes and the techniques required to make a simply decent drink into an extraordinary drink, and that was really the name of the game for the early stages of the Cocktail Renaissance. 

Today, of course, complexity is everywhere, and I don’t want to come off as too jaded about that because the kinds of creativity and innovation we’re seeing in bars today is really special. Modern bartenders have many more options and opportunities than their predecessors did even just a decade ago. That said, simplicity still plays a significant role in our cocktail universe. Whether it’s for folks making drinks at home or in a bar dedicated to keeping things approachable and keeping things affordable, a keen understanding of the power of simplicity can really benefit bartenders and bar owners as well as their regular guests. 

If you think about bartenders who might really personify this kind of elevated simplicity like I’m talking about, Erick Castro in San Diego is one of the first people who comes to mind. Erick’s been working in bars for many years now and currently he’s the owner of Gilly’s House of Cocktails in San Diego and still a proprietor at Raised by Wolves. And he’s also the host of the Bartender at Large podcast and active in many, many, many other projects all across the country. 

Erick’s cocktails have always struck me as models of elevated simplicity. They’re typically pretty easy to prepare, they’re typically composed of ingredients that are pretty easy to find, and they’re invariably delicious and the kinds of drinks you find yourself really hankering for the days after you’ve had one. So for this episode, I invited Erick Castro to join us to talk about simplicity in cocktails and the benefits to be found in it. And since this is summer and we’re all dealing with the heat on one level or another, I’m also pulling Erick into a short conversation about frozen cocktails and the best practices to keep in mind while taking those on at home. 

Before we get started, a note from this episode’s sponsor. This episode is sponsored by Garrison Brothers Distillery, the first legal whiskey distillery outside of Kentucky to produce authentic handmade bourbon whiskey. Celebrate America’s favorite classic cocktail, the Old Fashioned, with them the month of September to raise funds for Boot Campaign at participating bars and restaurants across the U.S. Head to hyefashioned.com, that’s H-Y-E-Fashioned.com, to learn more. 

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Paul Clarke

Erick, welcome to Radio Imbibe. 

Erick Castro

Oh, brother, thank you for having me. 

Paul Clarke

And, you know, this is where everything gets kind of circular, because you and I have known each other for like 16 or 17 years, like since your Rickhouse days, I think that’s when I first met you in San Francisco. 

Erick Castro

Yeah. 

Paul Clarke

And I’ve interviewed you a number of times over the years for different publications. At Imbibe, we’ve had you and your bars, plural, covered a number of times in the magazine, on the website over the years, for one thing or another. And I’ve been on your podcast, Bartender at Large, a couple of times. 

Erick Castro 

Yeah, a couple of times. 

Paul Clarke

And I finally got you on Radio Imbibe. And let me tell you, I could not be more pleased about this case. 

Erick Castro

Oh, brother, I’m psyched. I’m psyched to be here, man. You’re a good friend of mine. And sometimes it’s wild to think about how fast time has gone by. Because it doesn’t seem like 16 years, but I know it has been. 

Paul Clarke

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. And I want to talk to you now, you know, in the summer of 2025. And I initially, when I reached out to you, I pitched you on talking about frozen drinks or blender drinks, because I know it’s something that you’ve excelled in over the years. But we’re going to get to those in a moment. But I also want to talk to you about your overall approach to cocktails, because there are several reasons I think your approach is really important and really kind of, you know, gripping for people. So before we get to the frozen stuff, you’ve run a number of bar programs over the years. And simplicity, to me, has always been kind of like a throughline. 

Erick Castro

Yeah. 

Paul Clarke

A certain kind of degree of simplicity in the cocktail construction. Is that fair to say that’s, kind of a connection in your approach? 

Erick Castro

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I’ve always taken a very, very classic approach to cocktails. And I don’t think it’s a coincidence. I think maybe the cocktail I might be most known for is the Piña Verde. And it’s like four ingredients. And one thing I always try to preach to my staff when they’re doing cocktail development, I tell them it’s very easy to make a good drink that has a lot of ingredients. But it’s really hard to make a great drink that has a lot of ingredients. And that’s because to a certain point, every time you add something, you’re starting to mask the base spirit.

And I feel like any good cocktail, a great cocktail should highlight the base spirit. You know, this isn’t, we’re not like college kids making jungle juice. We’re crafting cocktails with very, very well-made spirits. And so much of that is like when you look at the cocktails that have stood the test of time, whether it’s the Margarita or the Old Fashioned or, you know, a South Side or Martini. All those are cocktails that showcase the spirit and highlight it. And to me, all the distillers are doing the hardest part of the cocktail, if you really think about it, you know, so much. It’s like they’re crafting this world-class ingredients that deserves to be treated and considered with respect. And I feel like these classic cocktails, these bartenders, you know, 80 years ago, 100 years ago, they knew what they were doing. 

Paul Clarke

And, you know, we’re living at a wonderful time for cocktail people, let’s be very clear. But at a time when you look at menus from renowned bars and internationally acclaimed bars, and in some ways, a lot of these menus, there’s a tremendous degree of creativity and innovation going on. There’s also kind of an arms race in some ways. You know, it’s like a …

Erick Castro

Yeah. 

Paul Clarke

… continual escalation of things. Is it a situation in which the simple three-ingredient or four-ingredient cocktails may not hold as much interest? 

Erick Castro

I think what it is, I think, honestly, I think it’s cyclical, and I’m fine with it because a lot of these cocktails are very …

Paul Clarke

Right. 

Erick Castro

.. delightful and fun to drink. But I think it was coming out of the pandemic. We’re going in the pandemic, a lot of, you know, we couldn’t go to bars, so a lot of people really stepped up their home cocktail game. And they started making Manhattans and Margaritas, like properly, with fresh juices and making really good cocktails at home. So then I think, coming out of the pandemic, they were so eager to have cocktails that are too much of a pain in the ass to make themselves at home. So like, you know what? I’ve been making Old Fashioneds and Boulevardiers for the last two years at home. I want to go have something with chocolate cake that was ran through with Rotovap. 

Paul Clarke

Right. 

Erick Castro

You know, and rotten blue cheese that …

Paul Clarke

Right. 

Erick Castro

… was like, you know, fermented and then, you know, flash infused and distilled into a, you know, local gin. That’s what they want to honestly. And I get it. I think it’s like people wanted a little bit of pizzazz and a little bit of, you know, something to dazzle them. But I would say as fun as it is, I think one of the downsides is now we’re having a generation of bartenders that doesn’t know how to make cocktails. because they’re only making eight drinks that are on their menu and that’s it. They don’t know how to make anything off menu.

So a lot of it, it’s like they’re kind of, they were becoming batch tenders where I’ve had this experience recently where I’ve gone to a lot of these world-class bars and like I order some of the drinks off their menu and they’re fantastic. They taste wonderful. And then I’ll order like a Southside and no one there knows how to make one. It’s like, oh, we don’t have any mint. And I’m like, huh? Like, oh, I just looked it up online and no one knows how to make it. And you’re like, this is ridiculous. Right? 

Paul Clarke

Yeah. Yeah. It’s, I mean, in a way it’s like any other, you know, this is part of the culinary arts and it’s like any other kind of art form where you need to kind of have that mastery of the basics in order to understand how all of the bells and whistles then start to work together. 

Erick Castro

I mean, I like to tell this story of something that happened recently and kind of blew my mind. You know, I’m not like a doom and gloom guy about it, but I was behind the bar at Gilly’s and these three bartenders came and sat in front of me and, you know, they were like, hey, Erick, we’re on a time crunch. We just, you know, we just did like three quick cocktails, you know, could you make us something sparkling? You know, we’re feeling festive. You know, three of the same. Something with, you know, French 75, like, twist, whatever.

So I was like, okay, cool. So I made them three Old Cubans and I put the cocktails in front of them and they were like, oh my God, Erick, these are fantastic. Whoa. Like, what is this? And I was like, oh, you know, it’s just an Old Cuban, a good, you know, and they were like, looked at each other like, whoa, what’s that? Is this one of your cocktails? Did you invent this? And I was like, no, it’s an Audrey Saunders cocktail. And they looked at each other and they looked at me like, who’s Audrey Saunders? That’s when I was like, oh, okay. All right, guys. I didn’t get, I didn’t, you know, I didn’t put on like, you know, my get off my lawn hat or anything. 

Paul Clarke

Right. 

Erick Castro

But I was very much like, hey, she’s this amazing bartender. You guys should look her up. She’s made these incredible cocktails. You know, she used to own Pegu Club, blah, blah, blah. And I kind of went off. And it’s not as an opportunity to educate rather than like, you know, lecture. But I’m like, guys, this is a super simple cocktail. It’s really easy to make. Great pour cost. Doesn’t cost a lot. And it’s just like an incredibly delicious and refreshing drink. 

Paul Clarke

And, you know, and this is kind of where I feel like Grandpa Simpson when I’m talking about cocktails. You know, we put elderflower liqueur in everything as was the fashion back in that day. But when we look back to the aughts, when folks like Audrey or Sasha Petraske or on the West Coast, we had like Eric Adkins and Thad Vogler. Simplicity was key in a way. And it was all about understanding your ingredients and the technique and putting them together. When you’re looking at your menu at Gilly’s or if you’re training a new staff member, how do you reinforce kind of the importance of not overthinking something or, you know, aim for something that’s always going to land solid? 

Erick Castro 

Yeah, guess what it is? It’s like I very much enjoy showcasing the base spirit and I don’t like the main ingredients to get lost, right? So I always try to tell my staff, whether it’s, you know, Raised by Wolves or back when I was at Polite Provisions, it’s like strip whatever is non-essential. I always think of that quote, you know, the Michelangelo quote where someone told him like, oh, how did you sculpt David? And he’s like, “Oh, it’s super easy. All I did was I just looked at the marble and I scraped off everything that wasn’t David.” It’s just like, well, I’m sure it’s a little more complicated than that, but it is, it’s like, you basically have to start to strip the non-essential.

So sometimes, you know, when I’m talking to staff members, this doesn’t mean we can’t have elaborate setups. Like, you know, we’ll still do, you know, we still do fat washes and we still do like forced carbonation and, you know, clarification, all this stuff. But even then, even though we’re using complicated processes, it’s always with simple approaches. And I think that there’s a miscommunication.

A lot of times people think simple and simplistic are the same thing. They are not, right? Like a vodka Red Bull is a simplistic cocktail, right? It’s there to serve, you know, a utilitarian purpose, right? Whereas opposed to, you know, other approaches, it’s like, you know, I would say, but an Old Fashioned or Negroni is very simple, not simplistic by any stretch of the imagination. Because there’s so much complexity there and you’re only able to achieve that by fully understanding the ingredients. And there’s a reason why I think the Old Fashioned and, you know, to some extent, the Daiquiri as well, are two drinks that people use to like, you know, measure the skill of a bartender. Is that’s because there’s nowhere to hide. 

Paul Clarke

Right. 

Erick Castro 

You either know what you’re doing or you don’t. It’s like, it reminds me of like, you know, when you hear about chefs, you know, I don’t know how often this actually happens. It might be more apocryphal than it is like, you know, pervasive. But that’s when people, you know, they’ll apply to work in the kitchen and the chef will say, fry me an egg. And that’s when the, the applicant will get really scared. Like, oh, crap. Are you sure I can make you my mom’s famous clam chowder? Like, no, I want you fry me an egg. Because it’s like you need to understand temperature. You need to understand everything. You need to understand technique. Because there is nowhere to hide. So I do feel like with those cocktails, it’s really like revealing about the bartender and their approach to a cocktail. 

Paul Clarke

Right, right. You mentioned Gilly’s and I want to talk about Gilly’s for a little bit because the simplicity also, when we’re talking simplicity, we’re also meaning approachability. Like you mentioned the Old Cuban earlier and like somebody who’s never encountered the Old Cuban before, put it in front of them. Oh, my God, this is a delicious drink. And just like everything just functions so well. That kind of simplicity and approachability as a cocktail is kind of like the throughline for the menu you have at Gilly’s. And here I’m thinking of drinks like the Kentucky Buck, which is the Erick Castro original that we had in Imbibe of the modern classic cocktail 10 years ago. And the Pale Rider, which we just ran the recipe for that in our May/June issue of the magazine. 

Erick Castro

Oh, thank you. 

Paul Clarke

How do you walk that line today in 2025? And this goes back to your earlier point, when people are accustomed to seeing things like foams or pearls on top of a drink. And this is more for like your guests when they come in. How do you present this to them to be like, OK, you know what? I don’t have the bells and whistles. What I do have is something that’s absolutely delicious. And you’re going to want just want to come back and have it over and over again. 

Erick Castro

I’m going to say something, and I hope this doesn’t come out wrong, because I’m one of those people like my two bars in San Diego. Raised by Wolves is a very elaborate, very, you know, intricate form of service. And it works there because Raised by Wolves is more like a special occasion bar, you know, where people pop in. You know, we have regulars that come in once a week, of course, who work in the neighborhood. But mostly we have folks come in. It’s for like, you know, for date nights, before, after dinner. It’s more of like a treat, I guess, an approach, right? And it works very well within that format. Because we’re not surrounded by tons and tons of housing. It’s more like a mixed use, mixed commercial and residential use.

Whereas Gilly’s is heavily residential. We are a neighborhood bar. We have regulars who come in, like our regulars generally come in three times a week, three to five times a week. So the thing is, a lot of these really intricate cocktails with the, you know, boba bubbles and very, very elaborate serves, I wouldn’t go to those bars two or three times a week, right? That style of cocktail doesn’t lend itself to multiple, multiple servings throughout the week, multiple visits. 

Paul Clarke

Yeah, it can’t be a part of your regular, it’s a sometimes. 

Erick Castro

No, it’s more …

Paul Clarke 

Yeah.

Erick Castro

I mean, I would get sick of them by then, right?  So the thing is, the approach to Gilly’s is like our cocktails have to be delicious, have to be inventive, have to have, you know, some sense of novel appeal. But more importantly, you have to be able to drink them a few times a week. So, and we do have a lot of regulars. I feel like our regulars are a bread and butter in that location, you know? And also people are hanging out, they’re socializing, they’re shooting pool, they’re playing darts, you know, maybe, you know, playing a little bit of Ms. Pac-Man. So because of that, our cocktails have to be able to be drank over the course of an afternoon or an evening. So, you know, they can’t just all be haymakers.

Basically, yeah, we have a lot of fun doing that menu and we also lean a lot into classics. Our staff is very, very versed in classics, which back in the, I feel like a few years back was not anything special, but nowadays it’s like a novelty in the bar world. Well, this guy knows how to make a Planter’s Punch. It’s weird. It is a strange thing.

So, yeah, so a lot of our cocktails, when I look at some of our top-selling cocktails, you know, it’s like, it’s mezcal with hibiscus and orange bitters. Irish whiskey and coconut, they’re inventive flavor combinations but in a way that’s very refreshing and very, I don’t want to say sessionable, but yeah very sessionable. You know you can kind of hang out and then you can also rotate between them you know you can come in having a Negroni then you switch like you know have you know Tommy’s Margarita and then you switch to a beer you know our staff is just there to take care of you and provide something delicious regardless of what mood you’re in

Paul Clarke

Right, right. And we talked kind of the appeal of this style of cocktail for the for the customers for for the guests coming in. But for you as a bar owner they also matter as well because here we’re also talking about cost. And I know this is a big big issue for you and really to all bar owners yeah exactly you know we live in a world that’s kind of dominated by inflation and a very inflationary environment. So this is something you have to keep it in your head that cost component in line for for these times. How do you do that and how does this kind of program play into supporting you as an owner?

Erick Castro

Oh I mean it comes back to what I was just saying and things. It’s a lot of these bars that people are going to nowadays, right? I do feel like out of the pandemic, I feel like a lot of a lot of places start going crazy with their prices. And maybe I think it is a little bit a little bit about you know like but we need to start offering people stuff that they can’t make at home, you know. So let’s give them something like really interesting or this really cool bottle that’s kind of hard to find. But next thing you know the prices on these cocktails started skyrocketing. I would say I don’t think the quality of these cocktails was skyrocketed at that same level.

It’s one thing to pay $22 for a delicious well-made cocktail, it’s something else to pay $22 for a cocktail that’s like not even all that great and then you kind of just feel and you feel cheated over it right. It’s like a one thing I like to bring it back to Gilly’s is that Gilly’s like I said we have a lot of regulars. We’re in a heavy residential neighborhood so we have a lot of people who come in two, three times a week, you know. Sometimes five days a week and because of who can afford to drink $22 cocktails all week? Not me, not me. And I think it’s like we want to make sure people don’t get sticker shock so we legitimately put a lot of time and effort in a making sure that our cocktails are approachable and friendly to your wallet.

And we’re very lucky in the sense that we don’t have a kitchen you know we have full liquor license but we don’t really have food or anything besides like potato chips and beef jerky that we sell at the bar top so because of that I don’t have preps to pay, I don’t have a sommelier to pay. I don’t have you know a host desk to manage. It’s really just bartenders, barbacks, and, you know, security guard.

So because that our labor’s low so it allows us to price our cocktails accordingly and because of that I think in where the economy is today our clientele appreciates that. And like oh this place is cool, the drinks are great. Shoot a little bit of pool. You know, hang out with with other locals meet people in the neighborhood and it’s like it doesn’t break the bank, you know? And even if like you know our cocktails are at $13 you know but then we have a great happy hour minute it’s at eight and on Monday nights we do all night happy hour so people can come in and socialize have some delicious drinks and never really feel like they’re being taken advantage of or you know cheated in regards to prices.

Paul Clarke

I mean, for bar owners or for folks opening up bars, this is a time you know we have no idea when our economic situation is going to change when when the pressure may come off of inflation. So for folks looking to start a place or to create a program or putting together a program for a client in the in the year or the next couple of years ahead, what kinds of things are helpful to kind of internalize in your thinking about that program to keep those costs in line but while still providing something really cool for the guests coming in?

Erick Castro

I would say a lot of it is basically just you really have to know your ingredients. You have to be really in touch with your ingredients because there are a lot of ingredients out that convey value that aren’t expensive. You know like pandan, you know is a great example where pandan, most people don’t have that around the house. Most people don’t even know where to buy it.

But it’s one those things if you make a pandan syrup and then you add you know just something like Beefeater gin or an ingredient that’s kind of it fairly inexpensive you people don’t mind paying a little bit more for that because like well I don’t have that ingredient around the house. And then it’s a few dashes of rosemary bitters, I don’t have rosemary bitters either. So when the people see inventive additives and flavors they might not have around the house it does a convey value even if these ingredients aren’t you know aren’t expensive.

Or if you have a cocktail with muddled mandarins or something mandarins again are something when they’re in season they’re very cheap but they communicate a value proposition that people don’t feel cheated or being ripped off for right. There’s a lot of teas I think a lot of teas are like that, a lot of herbs other botanicals even some like really cool amaro ingredients. So it’s important to learn these ingredients and familiarize yourself with them so then you can you and your staff can provide your clientele with something a little bit better tasting, a little more inventive than they would make at home, but at the same time you know still allows you to give them something delicious at a good price.

Paul Clarke

Right right and it ties into what we were talking about earlier where this is kind of this is part of the culinary arts and this gives you an opportunity to to kind of of engage with that without having to buy a Rotovap or, you know, or a Spinzall or something like that. 

Erick Castro

No, absolutely. And I think that if when you look at a lot of like, you know, regional cuisines that are done really, really well, I think those will also fall in line with places like this. Like if you’re in the South and you go have fried chicken, it’s generally not super expensive. Right. But the thing but the thing is, you’re still people can still go there and eat it because like, man, the way they’re processed, they make it. I’m not making like that at home or at least it’s me from some, like, you know, when they soak it, inject the buttermilk and I’m like, I’m not doing all that stuff.

So, you know, you can have some of these these foods. Barbecue is another thing like that. Right. Like I’m not I don’t have a cooker. I’m not going to, know, slow cook something, barbecue something for eight hours overnight. So I pay a little bit extra for that, even though I know it’s like it doesn’t necessarily cost a lot of money, but it’s more about the process. So that’s why I like doing syrups, infusions, fat washes.

A lot of these low cost approaches to add flavor, inject flavor into cocktails. But but maybe the consumer wouldn’t do that at home because it’s like it just seems like a pain for them. Right. So and also, here’s the thing when someone tells me, oh, I had a cocktail that was amazing. And I’m like, well, it was $25. It should be amazing.

I don’t you can’t even really brag about that. Like, oh, our drinks are so good. I’m like, well, I mean, twenty five dollars, they better knock my socks off. Otherwise, it’s a rip-off. I remember I heard a quote a friend of mine. He said he worked at this nice steakhouse and he asked the guest like, oh, hey, so you didn’t mention your steak. How’s the food? And the guy’s like, oh, it was incredible. Like, you didn’t say anything. He’s like, well, the steak was $125. It should be incredible. 

Paul Clarke

Yeah. 

Erick Castro

Like what I mean by that is it’s so hard to overdeliver. But when someone’s buying, you know, an $8 cocktail, a happy hour and, you know, and like, damn, this is good. Like really good. Like, yeah, like for $8. It’s honest. When we when we first took over the space, because Gilly’s going to be 20 years old next year. And when we first took it over, I remember people being like a lot of customers are freaking out. Like, hey, I don’t get it. What do you mean? Like, do you work here? And I’m like, yeah, yeah. Like, so it’s cocktail. I ordered an Espresso Martini. It’s outstanding. It is eight dollars. And then my girlfriend, she had a Negroni and the bartender asked what if she had a preference of gin. Like, wait, what? 

Paul Clarke

Yeah. 

Erick Castro

Like, but this place looks like a janky little dive bar. Why are the drinks so good? I’m like, well, we just like to overdeliver. We want to make sure, you know, everybody’s having something good. 

Paul Clarke

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. You know, I approached you for this episode to talk about frozen drinks. And we found other things that we thought were really fascinating to get into. And I’m glad we did. But we should come back to it at some point because it’s July. It’s hot as hell out there. People are roasting all summer long. And there’s an awesome appeal about putting your booze in a blender with a bunch of ice. There was a time when cocktail nerds like me used to be sniffy about frozen drinks after all those crappy frozen Margaritas from the ’90s and so on. What was the convincer frozen cocktail for you? What was the one where you said, OK, you know what? These don’t all have to be crap. 

Erick Castro 

You know, I would say what really convinced me was, like, a lot of the tiki bars. We’re lucky. I was lucky. I kind of came, you know, of age in the craft cocktail scene, at least, in the Bay Area. And in San Francisco, particularly, there was always such a strong tiki presence. And craft tiki presence is what I mean. So I just always felt like the tiki guys understood the appeal of a delicious, cold, frosty cocktail. And I remember having Mai Tais, you know, before Smuggler’s Cove. Remember when Martin Cate used to be at Forbidden Island? 

Paul Clarke

Forbidden Island in Alameda. 

Erick Castro

Yeah. And I remember the first time I had a proper, well-made Mai Tai. It was just like, it was like less of a cocktail, more of a revelation. Where it’s just like, you know, he did a flash blender with the crushed ice. I mean, it’s super frosty. You pour it in the glass and instantly the outside of the glass just frosts up and get that, like, nice, icy sheen. On the outside of the cocktail. And I was like, okay, this is what a good, like, frozen cocktail is supposed to taste like. And granted, this isn’t in the blender, but, you know, the appeal is much the same. It’s just like frosty, ice-cold, crushed ice, a spent lime garnish, and a big fat mint sprig on top. And it was just, this is heaven. 

Paul Clarke

I think all of that is appealed to me, but also, you know, a number of years ago when I went to Cuba, and I went to La Floridita, you know, the Cradle of the Daiquiri. And, you know, they are running their blenders all day and all night long in that bar, just churning out one frozen daiquiri, one frozen rum drink after another, for good reason. I mean, Cuba is hot. It’s never not hot there. So it’s kind of a survival mechanism.

But you can see this kind of beautiful balance. You can get nuance. You can get delicate components. Well, still, it’s a big, slushy glass of a frozen drink. So, you know, obviously, a lot of bars today, American bars, use frozen drink machines to make frozen drinks because it’s convenient. It’s more easy. You can do it on a larger scale. That said, for folks listening at home, what are some best practices for approaching frozen drinks, like the ones you mentioned or others out there? Are there things that are really helpful to keep in mind? 

Erick Castro 

There are two that I can really think of. You know, you can use a traditional blender. You wanna have a good blender, I mean, not saying everybody has to go buy, like, you know, $400 Vitamix. But I even kind of like how some of the cheaper blenders will still leave a little bit – they’ll leave it a little chunky. I actually kind of like that, especially for Margaritas. Some people obviously like to have, like—they like it to be velvety smooth, right? Like, you know, I feel like a lot of, like, the Cuban bars will do that, and it’s delicious. I still enjoy the appeal of, like, a chunky Margarita, like, you know, out of the blender.

Here’s a little tip I like to share with people. It’s like if you have a Sonic or, like, a Coffee Bean in your town, they sell their pebble ice. And you can go in there. You can go to Sonic and be like, oh, hey, I’ll take 10 pounds of your pebble ice, and they’ll sell it to you. And that stuff makes great, great frozen cocktails because you can make Mai Tais out of it, but you can also put it in a blender, and it blends really nice. I have, like – I have a crushed ice maker at home that I bought off of, you know, online for probably, like, $40, which is great. Also good for frozen cocktails. Another thing, if you do really want to lean to this, I’d recommend getting a Hamilton Beach blender, the ones all the tiki bars use. 

Paul Clarke

One of those, like, the top blenders. 

Erick Castro

Yeah, the spindle blender. 

Paul Clarke

Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Erick Castro 

Those things – we have them at Gilly’s. We use them all the time. Like, we have a lot of tiki pop-ups, and it’s funny. They always love, like, oh, but you don’t really see these in, like, non-tiki bars. I’m like, no, man, I love them. They’re great. You know, because we sell a fair amount of Mai Tais and stuff like that. One other thing I would say, I think—I know sugar sometimes gets a bad rap in a lot of drinks.

But the thing is, you have to add a little bit of extra sugar to your frozen cocktails. And I think that sometimes people are shocked by that, you know, because they’ll try to make one at home. They’re like, oh, it’s just really, like, acidic. I don’t understand why it’s not as good as the ones I have at the bar. That’s because extreme temperatures —well, I guess extreme for, you know, food and drink—inhibit—will inhibit sweetness.

So when something’s really cold, it’ll kind of shock your palate a little bit. So it’s hard to – it’s hard to perceive sweetness. That’s why, you know, room temperature ice cream, when you let it melt, it tastes so much sweeter. But when it’s, you know, straight out of the freezer, it doesn’t seem like that. So go ahead and add, like, an extra, you know, extra quarter ounce or half ounce of, you know, simple syrup mor sweetening agent to your frozen cocktail. 

Paul Clarke 

It’s also a textural thing, too. Just that kind of unctuous quality on your palate. 

Erick Castro 

It does. 

Paul Clarke 

You have that slushy aspect, it kind of gives it a little bit more body, in a way. And so it just feels heavier. One thing, also, I hadn’t even thought of this when I was talking to you, and then you brought it up with talking about Forbidden Island. Strong flavors. Strong flavors function pretty well in frozen cocktails. 

Erick Castro

Yeah. 

Paul Clarke

You’re thinking, like, you know, big potently flavored liqueurs, know, coffee, things with those big kind of potent flavors, because you’re thinning it out with that extra ice. 

Erick Castro 

All that water, yeah. 

Paul Clarke

Yeah, but it still, like, it still gives that good punch of flavor on the palate. 

Erick Castro

Mm-hmm. That’s why I think when you see a lot of, you know, I guess a lot of the tropical cocktails, you know, even some of the proto-tiki cocktails, a lot of those that were, like, served-frozen, right? It’s, like, a lot of them have, like, very big, aggressive flavors. Like, it’ll be two sweeteners. It’ll be, like, grenadine with the orgeat, Jamaican rum, overproof rum, mint, lemon, orange juice. There’s a lot of ingredients in there, because it’s, like, when it gets that cold, it’s, you know, the aggressiveness of the flavors actually kind of complement the overall, I guess, final product of the cocktail. 

Paul Clarke

Erick, thank you so much for being on the podcast and for sharing all of this with us, and I am badly overdue for a trip to San Diego, and I need to come down and see you again. 

Erick Castro

Brother, I couldn’t agree more. Thank you so much for having me, man. And we look forward to having you back in San Diego soon. 

Paul Clarke

Cheers. 

Erick Castro

Cheers. 

[music]

Paul Clarke

You can find Erick Castro online at bartenderatlarge.com. And Erick’s also on Instagram at Hungry Bartender. We’ve got those links for you in this episode’s notes. 

Thanks again to this episode’s sponsor, Garrison Brothers Distillery. 

And that’s it for this episode. Be sure to subscribe to Radio Imbibe on your favorite podcast app to keep up with all our future episodes. We’ve got plenty of drink recipes, articles, and more for you on our website at imbibemagazine.com. Keep up with our day-to-day exploits on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and Threads for all your social media needs. And if you’re not already a subscriber to the print and or digital issues of Imbibe, then let’s get you on the team. Just follow the link in this episode’s notes, and we’ll be happy to help you out. I’m Paul Clarke. This is Radio Imbibe. Catch you next time.