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Feature
Cocktail stories: Key Lime Pie, Youngblood
At San Diego’s Youngblood, which offers a three-course cocktail experience, the best is saved for last.
*This feature was originally published in the April 2024 issue of The Spirits Business magazine.
To drink cocktails at Youngblood is to enter a world of pure imagination. A top 50 bar in North America in 2023, it exists within Neighbourhood and past Noble Experiment, two cocktail destinations in their own right. Customers enter through a fake fridge door into an intimate room lined floor-to-ceiling with exotic spirits.
There is no menu at Youngblood, which instead offers a three-course bespoke cocktail experience. The first course is light and citrus-forward, the second is boozy and stirred, and the third is the liquid manifestation of your favourite dessert. Head bartender Zach Sheldon joined Youngblood in 2022, and says the custom programme allows him to play creator and caretaker.
“We take our time to chat with guests and make a connection that leads to a more curated drink,” Sheldon says. “Guests will give clues and triggers that can spark an idea. I’m always listening and paying attention.”
The reservations-only bar attracts a serious cocktail crowd, so Sheldon challenges himself to construct mind-melting flavour combinations, especially for the dessert course. Tempus Fugit Crème de Cacao and Sfumato with cream and salt tastes exactly like peanut butter, he discovered.
“People are often surprised we can mimic some of these flavours in a cocktail without it being overly sweet,” he says. “We always strive for balance.”
Sheldon whips up cocktail versions of tiramisu, a walnut fudge brownie, and Key Lime Pie, the last of which he takes particular pride in, having cracked the code for successfully mixing cream and citrus, which can easily curdle. The key, he says, is to add the citrus elements to the shaker before the cream, an opposite process to making a clarified Milk Punch.
Then, he had to land on the right ratio of citrus to cream, finding creative ways to emphasise the tart lime flavours. “I like it if you’re a little confused,” Sheldon says.
Youngblood works because the bar staff is constantly experimenting. “We could write a menu a day,” he says.
Key Lime Pie
Ingredients
Peel of 1 whole lime
11ml Lime juice
Barspoon of honey syrup
30ml Heavy cream
30ml Giffard Vanilla Liqueur
30ml Nikka Coffey Gin
Pinch of salt
Method
Add all ingredients into the shaker, with the heavy cream last. Shake with a large Normandie cube for 20-25 seconds, strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with expressed lime peel.
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