Smokinlicious® Smoking Wood Tips

Smoked Bourbon Cranberry Cocktail

Cocktail smoker kits have become the new rage! You may have had your first smoked cocktail at a craft bar and became hooked. That led to finding an easy-to-use home kit for crafting your own smoked cocktails. But, what about the cocktail smoker wood chips? If they don’t come with your kit, how do you know what size chip to purchase?

Cocktail Smoker Wood Chips

https://smokinlicious.com/product/minuto-wood-chips/

Cocktail smoker wood chips have one distinct difference from general barbeque wood chips. They are much smaller. Because the purpose is to generate a cold smoking environment to flavor the cocktail of choice, these wood chips need to produce a quick burst of flavor. Most home cocktail kits contain the wood chip fuel source but don’t indicate the actual size of the chip.

Let’s educate you on micro wood chip sizing.

The Higher the Number, the Smaller the Chip

At SmokinLicious®, we follow the European standard for sizing micro wood chips. Since these chips were originally designed for biomass usage (biofuel), the screening or separation process to select sizes was crucial. For cocktail smoking, this point is less needed.

What is important when smoking cocktails is to use a fuel wood chip that fits in the burn chamber and ignites quickly. Trapping the smoke vapor from the smoker wood chips allows the flavor to transfer to your cocktail of choice.

Although cocktail smoker kits have different features, they all require a smoker wood chip to generate smoke. Some kits may include a small amount of the chip product while others don’t. SmokinLicious® has found that most of these kits work best with our Minuto® Wood Chip sizing, specifically, chip size #6 or #8. These numbers reference millimeter sizing of the chip. So, a #8 is smaller than the #6.

With a smaller size, ignition is quick allowing for the smoke to generate and be trapped. Within seconds, you’ll be sitting with a fresh smoked cocktail!

Brands and Models

I’m sure we don’t know all the brands and models of Cocktail Smoker Kits out there but this is a short list of those that work with the Minuto® Wood Chips:

• Breville Polyscience The Smoking Gun Pro
• Crafthouse by Fortessa Cocktail Smoking Box
• MITBAK Smoking Gun with Dome Lid
• Oklahoma Joe’s Cocktail Smoking Box
• Homia Smoking Gun Wood Smoke Infuser
• Aged and Charred Smoke Top Lid Cocktail Smoker Kit
• TMKEFFC Portable Smoking Gun

Cheers to finding the perfect cocktail smoker kit!

Smoked Whiskey Cocktails are great libations for drinking!

Guest blog- Kylee Harris, an events planner and writer.

Let's Smoke the Whiskey for our cocktails Share on X

There are over 550 annual barbeque competition events in the United States. Originally constrained to the Southern states, barbeque is now ubiquitous in most parts of the country. Thanks to the popularity of all things vintage, craft cocktails have made a huge comeback, and although it may not seem so at first glance, these two are a match made in heaven. As creative as barbeque pitmasters can get with their rubs and sauces, so, too, can you with specialty cocktails featuring smoked whiskey to pair with smoked meats.

Smoked Whiskey Manhattan- A Classic Match

You don’t need a pull-behind trailer rigged with the latest smoking equipment to make your own delicious smoked meats. As long as your kitchen is equipped with a stove, you can get in on this delicious food preparation. While you can purchase stovetop smokers, it’s fairly easy to DIY a smoker yourself with household products you probably already own. No matter what you’re serving, a Manhattan will pair beautifully with your meat.

Classic Manhattan

Ingredients:

• Ice
• 2 oz. whiskey
• ½ oz. sweet vermouth
• dash of Angostura bitters
• orange peel
• Maraschino cherry

Shake whiskey, vermouth, and bitters with ice; strain into lowball glass. Rub the rim of your glass with the orange peel and garnish with cherry. Substitute vermouth with 1 oz. of agave nectar and use chocolate bitters and Jim Beam Devil’s Cut (barrel aged whiskey) for an alternate take on this classic.

A Smoked Whiskey Summer Treat

Take this simple, two-ingredient cocktail and kick it up a notch by infusing it with a smokey flavor that matches your menu. With a smoking gun (available for around $100, or you can make your own with some inexpensive tubing and a small-mouthed container), you can “rinse” your chilled glasses with smoke, or even smoke your entire concoction, using the same wood you use for your meat. The tartness of the grapefruit juice will cut the richness of the meat and is perfect for a backyard, al fresco dinner.

Jack Honey

Ingredients:

• 2 oz. Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey
• 3 oz. fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice

Pour over ice into collins glass.

Something Truly Special

If your skills as a pitmaster aren’t the only thing you want to show off, here is a very special cocktail that will wow your guests. The smokey flavor and touch of cinnamon gives the classic whiskey sour a brand new twist that will leave your guests in awe. You’ll need to plan ahead for this one, as it requires two different, homemade syrups, but if you’re looking to win for best bartender, this one can’t lose.

Smokey Sour

Ingredients:

• Ice
• 2 oz. whiskey
• ¾ oz. fresh lemon juice
• ½ oz. cinnamon bark syrup (.3 oz cinnamon bark, 1 cup Turbinado sugar, 1 cup water; bring ingredients to a boil and simmer over low heat for 2 minutes, let sit for 2 hours, strain and keep refrigerated)
• ¼ oz. Lapsang souchong tea syrup (3-4 tea bags, 1 cup Turbinado sugar, 1 cup water; bring ingredients to a boil and simmer over low heat for 2 minutes, let sit for 2 hours, strain and keep refrigerated)
• 1 egg white

Add all ingredients to a shaker and shake until frothy. Strain into a coupe glass.

The bold, rich flavor of whiskey is the perfect complement to a rich, smoked meat dish; both American traditions trace their roots back to the South. If you are looking to skip the same old beer next time you smoke meat for your guests, you can’t go wrong with whiskey cocktails, either made-to-order or batched for a larger group. Let the elements of barbequing guide you to experiment with new techniques and flavors and take your pairings to a new level.

SmokinLicious® products:

Wood Chips- Minuto® & Piccolo®

More related blogs:

-How To Maintain A Safe Kitchen Environment

-HOW TO MAKE THE BEST SMOKY COCKTAILS

-SMOKY BOURBON CRANBERRY COCKTAIL

Smoked Cocktails are the best way to bring in the smoky flavors during the cold wintry nights! Or to just add a pre-taste to your upcoming BBQ! Learn the easy steps

HOW TO MAKE THE BEST SMOKED COCKTAILS Share on X

An easy way to give your guests or yourself for that matter, a change from the old cocktail is to smoke the entire drink or a component of the cocktail. I’m going to provide you with some examples of how to take any cocktail recipe and advance its flavor to something spectacular. Once you see how simple it is to build a balanced cocktail with smoke infusion as one component, you’ll be ready to upgrade your cocktail recipes to include smoked cocktails as your hidden talent.

SMOKED COCKTAILS- What to Smoke

The easiest method to achieve the smoked cocktail is to smoke the finished drink. However, depending on what cocktail ingredients your using, this may result in a drink that is too strong. Generally, speaking, a sweeter drink can tolerate more smoke vapor.

Here are some options for you to consider when contemplating a smoked cocktail: you can smoke the entire drink, you can smoke one ingredient of the drink, or you can smoke the water to make the ice for the drink. One of my rules is the more ingredients in the cocktail, the more likely you can smoke the entire drink.

For ingredients, any one or a combination of ingredients can be smoked. Simple syrup, cream, citrus, etc. are all good options. Keep in mind that smoke is attracted the most to cold items so if you want an intense smoked cocktail, chill the ingredient first prior to smoking.

Tasting Notes: Keep in mind, when you cold smoke using a handheld food smoker, the intensity of the smoke can be high. Due to the immediate ignition of the micro chips, the smoke production is great. You can control the level of smoke by only trapping a small quantity of smoke for a lighter infusion versus allowing the container to fill completely with smoke vapor.

#handheldsmoker

SMOKED COCKTAILS- Balancing Smoke with Other Flavors

Whether the cocktail contains fruit, hard liquor, or cream, you can make a flavorful and desired cocktail. For a drink like the Jack Frost which contains lots of sweet juice and cream of coconut, smoking the entire drink provides great balance. For a drink like the Harvest Sparkle, smoking the simple syrup works well. Our Cranberry Bourbon cocktail goes hardy whether served hot or cold when we cold smoke the whiskey. And the Winter Wonderland enjoys a smoky layer to the cream of coconut for a luscious take on this four-ingredient cocktail. Never forget, when in a pinch, consider simply smoking the water to make the ice cubes for a no-fail option on the smoked cocktail, that will remain subtle for most any guest who is served.

Do you have a favorite smoked cocktail? Leave us a comment to let us know and subscribe to our channel to get all the tips, techniques, and recipes we bring your way. Always eager to share our expertise on all things wood fired, that’s SmokinLicious®!

SmokinLicious products used in this blog:

Wood Chips- Piccolo®

More related reading on smoked cocktails and specific drink recipes in our recipe blog!

Additional reading:

-SMOKY BOURBON CRANBERRY COCKTAIL

-ELEVATE YOUR KIWI CAIPIROSKA

-THE SMOKED PEAR BELLINI COCKTAIL

-STRAWBERRIES GET SMOKY FOR AN AQUA FRESCA COCKTAIL

Dr. Smoke- It is easy to make smoked cocktails with a handheld food smoker!