Self-taught bartender Daniel Purdue has been at Story since 2014, often incorporating cooking techniques into his cocktails, such as using a sous vide to make turbinado syrup for the spring cocktail list.
Local produce and seasonal ingredients are often the catalysts he uses in creating a new drink like the Strawberry Breeze, which contains a homemade strawberry shrub. One of the area’s more lighthearted cocktails, the drink leans on fresh fruits and is tied together with elderflower liqueur.
Strawberry Breeze
1 oz Tito's Vodka
.5 oz St Germaine
.5 oz Cointreau
.75 oz fresh squeezed lemon juice
.5 oz house made strawberry shrub
3 dash Fee Brother's Peach Bitters
Shake all ingredients and strain into a chilled cocktail shell. Garnish with some fresh mint. To make the strawberry shrub, heat up 1 cup of water and 1 cup of white sugar on the stove until the sugar is dissolved, then add 2 cups of sliced strawberries and let simmer over low heat for about 15 minutes and strain out the strawberries.
Purdue likes to add 1/4 cup of a mild white wine vinegar, but it can be left out. Store it in the fridge and it will stay fresh for a couple of weeks. It also makes a great strawberry lemonade: just mix 1.75 oz strawberry syrup and 1 oz lemon juice with 4 oz of water.
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