Lukas B. Smith behind the bar at Cotton & Reed. (Photo by Farrah Skeiky)

By DCist Contributor Meghan Markey

Take a glance at any cocktail menu at bars across the city and odds are there will be some peculiar ingredients making up those drinks. In Shaw, Hazel has offered up a drink that uses cricket bitters (made with…surprise, crickets). On 14th Street at 2 Birds 1 Stone, cocktails have incorporated roasted banana-infused Irish whiskey. Bartenders are infusing, smoking, dehydrating, and torching. They’re using techniques with unconventional ingredients and spirits that are pulled straight from a chemistry lab.

We asked some of the area’s top bartenders about the strangest ingredients they’ve ever used and seen (smoked turkey bones, anyone?), and experiments gone wrong (pro tip: stay away from radishes).

Julien Pierre-Bourgon
Bar Manager, Masseria (1340 4th St. NE)

Weirdest ingredient you’ve ever used: Olive oil. Currently we are using a clove-infused olive oil to garnish a cocktail [on the menu, “I’m the King of Brooklyn… For All She Knows] with tequila, soured blood orange, and Szechuan peppercorn. We drop three to four drops in the bottom of a chilled coupe, and then by pouring the drink on top, you break the olive oil into lots of tiny droplets on the surface of the drink.

Failed experiment: One of my bartenders tried to infuse radishes into Suze, a French liqueur. He mandolined the radishes paper thin and did an overnight cold infusion. The next day, we opened the container and all I can say is thank goodness no guests were in the restaurant. It was definitely in the top three worst smells I’ve ever smelled. We went back to the drawing board on that one.

Funkiest cocktail you’ve ever had: Todd Thrasher, my previous boss and mentor, once made a cocktail with sesame seeds and sesame oil. A “toasted sesame seed orgeat,” or syrup was made in-house and stirred into Cognac. A few drops of sesame oil was then used as a garnish on the surface of the drink. It smelled amazing!

Advice for experimenting: I like to use neutral acids like acid phosphate, because if I’m using an unusual ingredient that I want to stand out, a touch of sugar and a flavorless acid will help the flavor pop without masking the ingredient. I’m using this technique with wild gooseberries. They are super tasty but somewhat delicate, so it’s been fun trying to keep their flavor as the star of the drink.

Chantal Tseng
Bartender, The Reading Room, Petworth Citizen (829 Upshur St. NW)

Weirdest ingredient you’ve ever used: Probably seaweed, although it was just a garnish. I’ve also used rambutan, beet juice, kombucha, fermented pineapple, and passion fruit juices.

Failed experiment: Some versions of Malort and other similarly bitter drams have been met with failure on my end. The level of bitterness would throw everything off balance.

Funkiest cocktail you’ve ever had: I’ve had drinks with fermented fish sauce, which I tend to love in certain foods, but didn’t enjoy in a cocktail.

Advice for experimenting: Try subbing the spirit in for a common ingredient in a classic drink to start. Sub in aquavit for gin or vodka in a martini or a highball, and then go from there.

Adam Bernbach
Bar Director, 2 Birds 1 Stone (1800 14th St. NW)

Weirdest ingredient you’ve ever used: The most hesitant I’ve been with an ingredient was with a batch of oranges cured in salt for over three years. As much as I’ve used salt-cures over the past several years, there’s no pause now. But the first time I pulled an orange out of a pack dated three years prior, I was very uncomfortable.

Failed experiment: Sriracha—the drink was terrible. This was about nine years ago, and I can’t remember any other ingredient or anything else about it other than it was a terrible, terrible drink.

Funkiest cocktail you’ve ever had: Chantal Tseng [see above] made a drink with green-onion infused cachaça. I can’t remember ever having an onion in a cocktail any other time. It was delicious.

Advice for experimenting: Research as much as you can about the ingredient and previous attempts to use it—and be very comfortable with failing a bit.

Nicole Hassoun
Distiller and Bartender, Jos. A. Magnus & Co (2052 West Virginia Ave. NE)

Weirdest ingredient you’ve ever used: We have used some very strange ingredients in cocktails, from infusing a whole carrot cake in vodka to color-changing blue pea flowers. I have tried absolutely everything.

Failed experiment: The absolute biggest failure I have ever had was a watermelon-radish tonic water. I thought for sure the earthiness and pepperiness of a radish would make the best tonic in the world, but after about six hours, that beautiful radish turns to intense sulfur smell. I had made a “fart tonic.”

Funkiest cocktail you’ve ever had: I love funky cocktails. There is honestly nothing too funky for me. But I have definitely pushed limits. We recently put a red eye on the menu, which we made as a Bloody Mary flip with imperial IPA and a deviled egg on top. It was absolutely delicious, but it sounds scary as hell.

Advice for experimenting: My advice is never be afraid to fail. I have made some of the most disgusting drinks. In doing so, I have also been able to expand my boundaries and learn new flavor combinations. Don’t be afraid to throw a drink down the drain.

Lukas Smith
Bartender, Cotton & Reed (1330 5th St. NE)

Weirdest ingredient you’ve ever used: The most unusual ingredient I’ve used in a cocktail has to be smoked turkey bones. We made what we called “bone-washed” bitters for the Double Dragon cocktail at Dram & Grain (2007 18th St. NW).

Failed experiment: I’ve tried repeatedly to use pronounced mushroom flavors—porcini, e.g.—in cocktails, and though I wouldn’t call any of them failures, exactly, they’ve never done quite what I had hoped for.

Funkiest cocktail you’ve ever had: Oyster shooters have gone more spectacularly wrong than any other category in my experience. For example, honey mustard oyster shots? Really? How else was that going to go down?

Advice for experimenting: First, don’t get weird for the sake of getting weird. Alternative ingredients are of no value if they don’t make sense to the palate and expectations of a seasoned enthusiast. Second, and most important, never run the risk of endangering your guests. Know the fire you’re playing with.