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Mixology 101
Mixing creative cocktails takes just the right touch – and Stephanie Ruhe's got it.
by Mary Welch
September 29, 2008
F
or most women, the most exciting part of the movie Cocktail was Tom Cruise twirling and
juggling liquor bottles behind the bar. But for Stephanie Ruhe, it was the cocktails themselves.
"I first saw that movie as a girl and I thought, 'wow, that is so exciting!' Something just
clicked and I decided I wanted to be the girl behind the bar slinging drinks."
But Ruhe
had a bit more ambition. She wanted to be a mixologist - someone who comes up with drink
concoctions - sort of a liquid version of a master chef.
"There's a difference between a bartender and a mixologist. People who go to bartending
school do it as a way to learn how to mix drinks and make money. They follow the recipe. A
mixologist is someone who steps into the kitchen and knows how to make cocktails using infusions,
bitters. It's very creative and you have to understand how different things work together."
Ruhe, at the young age of 25, is gaining national acclaim for her ability to invent creative
- and delicious - cocktails. She won the Atlanta contest for the Bombay Sapphire Gin competition in
the "Best Overall Drink" category, where she competed against 15 of the area's top
mixologists. She will know within the next few weeks how she fared against the best of the
best across the country. In all, there are 20 local winners and one national winner. The contest is
sponsored by Bombay Sapphire Gin.
Ruhe, who is the bar manager and mixologist at The Mansion on Peachtree, created the Lady
Sapphire, which is a chamomile-infused Bombay Sapphire Gin along with lemongrass, freshly squeezed
lemon, honey, egg whites, and Liquor 43 (for vanilla flavor). "It's a whole recipe," she says. "You
have to infuse the chamomile tea leaves for three hours, otherwise it becomes too bitter. You end
up cooking everything on the stove."
Since there isn't a stove behind the bar, she is able to make her potion and then bottle it.
"I can make the whole drink in 45 seconds now that I've bottled the mix." It sells for $12.
Ruhe devised the award-winning drink just like she did her previous award-winning cocktail
that used Grand Marnier - she dreamt it. "I just had a dream and woke up and got to work making it.
I knew it would be good. When I first started out, I had to really taste everything but now I
don't. I know what works together. I enjoy being like a chef testing new tastes and ingredients,
such as messing with figs or truffles. I love it when someone comes into The Mansion and asks me to
just make them a cocktail. It's much more fun than just mixing an Old Fashioned."
Ruhe also believes that the cocktail hour is coming back in style. "Up until recently women
would come in and order a glass of wine and men a beer. Now the women are asking for cocktails. The
men are sticking to drinks like Scotch or bourbon. I think there is a gin phase going on because it
brings so many flavors to a drink as opposed to vodka, which, unless you infuse it, really doesn't
have a taste. Drinks really do reflect the times. I mean, the Cosmo was such the perfect drink for
Sex and the City. That is exactly what those women should have been drinking!"
Ruhe, who came from Orlando, Fla. to help open up Trois bar, is spreading her wings -
alcoholically speaking. She is now studying wines and hopes to become a sommelier as well. "The
best part is there are not a lot of women who are mixologists or sommeliers - and certainly not
women who are both."
Right now, Ruhe says she has the perfect job at the Mansion. She gets to bartend, interact
with customers, and practice her skills as a mixologist. But she has her eye on her next goal:
opening up her own bar. "What person wouldn't?"
