Powder Keg Cocktails are Exploding Around Town

The next evolutionary step for specialty cocktails seems to be one in which they blow up, or at least sip like they've been smoked over coals for a long time. The bartender Eben Freeman (right) serves a drink at Tailor called The Waylon, made with cherry- and alderwood smoked Coca Cola syrup (recipe here) and bourbon. Bar chef-tinkerer David Arnold, who might soon open a bar with Johnny Iuzzini, gingerly heats his flips with a Watlow Firerod that lights up like a glo-worm "well past 1700°F" and ignites drinks on contact. Elsewhere, Gourmet notes a new wave of smoky cocktails, from the single malt based called Pipe Smoke made by Joe Swifka at Elettaria, to the downright mezcal char found at spots like Mayahuel. Tailor offers classes in cocktails for $50 a pop, and Arnold serves his science fair cocktails at L'Ecole one night a month. And if you just like making things blow up, try this supremely low tech Mentos Rum and Diet Coke hack offered up by Wired.