What ingredients define the cocktail avant-garde right now? After poring over several dozen drink lists from top bars across the country, we identified five novel ingredients that were represented with the greatest frequency, and then asked the bars to explain why and how they use each. Here, now, six cocktails that symbolize the spirit of ingenuity that defines many of the country’s top bars, from the unexpected use of black trumpet mushrooms in Billy Sunday’s I’m Ya Huckleberry, to the creative application of chocolate flavors in Pouring Ribbons’ Colonial Affair, to beer syrups in Trick Dog’s Ronnie Buders and Montana’s Trail House’s The Buddy System. New techniques for using dairy find expression in the the NoMad’s Sakura Maru, while eau de vie shines in Death & Co.’s Strange Encounters.
