Precision and consistency are key to successful bar programs, and for spirits and syrups infusions, few techniques are as accurate and flavor focused as sous vide. The French cooking method, which means “under vacuum,” has found wide acceptance at bars as a means to infuse spirits and mixers for use in drinks. It achieves potent flavor in a shorter amount of time than traditional infusion maceration techniques, and it can lengthen the shelf life of the end product.
In short, with sous vide, ingredients—spirits, produce, garnishes, mixers, etc.—are placed in a food-safe, vacuum-sealed bag and then submerged in a warm water bath that’s set and maintained at a precise temperature for a specific amount of time. Once done, the bag is often moved to a second, cooler water bath. Because all of the ingredients are bagged together, there’s no evaporation to deal with, resulting in a flavorful infusion. In addition, because the ingredients are vacuum sealed, they can maintain a longer shelf life while in the bag.
“It’s a really great way to extract flavors without burning or over-cooking ingredients,” says Deke Dunne, the creative and beverage director at Washington, D.C. bar Allegory. “It’s also extremely accurate and consistent, which is important for our cocktail program. The process is great because you can extract very bold flavors consistently. Sous vide mitigates the variability in flavor and concentration.”
Allegory has an ambitious cocktail program and Dunne says 13 of the 17 drinks listed on its current menu use a sous vide infusion of some sort. Popular selections include the Chapter 3-Mardi Gras ($19), made with coconut-washed Mount Gay Black Barrel rum and Teeling Irish whiskey, house-made “epic mango” and shio-coconut syrups, and chia seeds. For the drink, the epic mango syrup is made with sous vide. The Chapter 16-Growing Up ($14) is also well received. This drink is a zero-proof Margarita mixing Almave Blanco and Amber non-alcoholic Tequilas, elote spices, huitlacoche, nixtamal corn tortillas, and lime juice. The zero-proof spirits are cooked sous vide-style with the spices, huitlacoche, and tortillas, and that blend is then mixed with clarified lime juice and sugar to form the cocktail.
“Sous vide helps us bring really bold, delicious flavors to the table,” Dunne says. “Heat really increases the extraction process, but if you do it over a stove you run the risk of evaporation and over-concentration. Sous vide bags are sealed so you don’t experience any evaporation, and you control the exact temperature at which the ingredients cook. You can sous vide pretty much any spirit, and the higher the alcohol levels the more extreme the extraction will be.”
In Chicago, beverage director Kevin Beary says he lives by sous vide at his cocktail havens Three Dots and a Dash and The Bamboo Room. Beary notes that most bars with serious cocktail programs use sous vide for infusions, adding that he believes the technique is more convenient than traditional bar prep. His venues offer drinks like the Coconut Midnight Stinger ($16), made with coconut-washed Eagle Rare Single Barrel Bourbon, Fernet Branca, toasted coconut syrup, and lemon juice, for which the Bourbon is cooked sous vide with coconut oil for the fat-wash. For nostalgic guests, Beary also makes Ants On A Log ($20), a cocktail version of the celery-peanut butter-raisin snack. This drink mixes peanut-infused R.L. Seale’s 12-year-old Barbados rum with celery-infused Dolin Blanc vermouth, cane syrup, raisin-infused H&H Boal 10-year-old Madeira wine, and saline. Both the celery vermouth and raisin Madeira are infused via sous vide.
“Sous vide allows for perfect temperature regulation and thus, perfectly balanced syrups,” Beary says. “Often the most delicate flavor and aroma characteristics are the most volatile. When the recipe is heated these volatile compounds vaporize, but they’re trapped in the bag. This keeps the delicate flavors and aromas in your recipe.”
Ben Yabrow, a partner and head bartender at New York City bar Sip & Guzzle, touts the speed at which sous vide infusions work, as well as the quality of the end result. “We can shorten an infusion from a week to just a couple hours,” Yabrow says. “We can extract different flavors from different ingredients depending on the sous vide temperature and duration.”
Yabrow notes that longer sous vide cooking infusions done at cooler temperatures can preserve freshness for some ingredients, while shorter cooking times at higher temperatures tend to bring out richer and more savory elements. Sip & Guzzle lists drinks like the Tomato Tree ($24), made with dill-infused Roku gin and SG Shochu Kome—each of which is cooked sous vide with fresh dill—plus Skinos Mastiha and St-Germain Elderflower liqueurs, tomato water, and lemon juice. The bar also serves The Chinatown No. 5 ($31), made with Bacardi Original rum cooked sous vide with jasmine tea and then mixed with Tio Pepe Fino Sherry, simple syrup, lemon juice, dragon fruit, red apple, and lychee.
But for all its pluses, sous vide does have one drawback—it requires tools that can be expensive to buy and maintain. Florian Thireau, the bar manager and director of mixology for San Francisco’s Bar Crenn, says the initial investment on his sous vide equipment, including high-quality vacuum bags and a vacuum bag sealer, plus a thermal bath circulator, was roughly $4,000. Of course, there are cheaper options available, but Thireau prefers the professional-grade equipment.
“The benefits justify the investment and approach,” he says. “Our high-volume, quality-focused drinks program allows us to amortize the equipment costs across thousands of cocktails annually. The reduction in product waste alone—through precise portion control and extended shelf life—covered our equipment costs within the first year of implementation. The technique has become a point of distinction for our bar program, allowing us to create signature flavors that would be difficult to replicate through conventional methods.”
Bar Crenn serves the mezcal Negroni drink Rio ($20), made with Legendario Domingo mezcal, Campari, Cynar, and mandarin olive oil, for which all four ingredients are cooked sous vide, then frozen to separate and remove the oil, and then clarified and mixed with house-made red mandarin and eucalyptus essence and a salt solution. The bar also offers a reimagined Espresso Martini called Eclipse ($21), which mixes Wheatley vodka and El Dorado 3-year-old white rum that are cooked sous vide with coconut oil and then blended with Merlet C2 Café coffee and Cognac liqueur, house-made cold brew coffee, and simple syrup.
“I use sous vide extensively, and I have for ten years now,” Thireau says, adding that his bar makes more than 50 bespoke drinks ingredients using sous vide. “Without sous vide technology we simply couldn’t deliver the same quality, consistency, and precision. Sous vide softens the edges of spirits, making them notably smoother, and allows flavors to blend together more harmoniously to create a refined taste profile.”