The Grand Encounter: ELEVATED+LOCAL with Deniseea Head

Episode 3: Deniseea Head

The Grand Encounter: Behind the Bar journey now comes to its end with the final episode of the season. We now travel to New Orleans, the homeland of jazz and the city where one of the biggest global events in the bar industry takes place, Tales Of The Cocktail. It’s New Orleans that enables another Grand meeting, the one between the series’ host, Carina Soto Velasquez, and an industry pioneer, award-winning cocktail consultant and educator, Deniseea Head.

The last episode, elevated+local, concerns the great ability of Deniseea Head to combine elevated experiences with a local and approachable way, creating a grand encounter in her own cocktail activations. And she has been doing so since the creation of her companies, Chicken and Champagne and Good Trouble, through which she uses spirits and cocktails to tell stories about Black and American history and Activism.

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/watch?v=EeY8dH0Z-Bg

According to Deniseea, “Local bars are more connected to the city…they are the heartbeat of the community”. Thanks to that unique positioning, they can make elevated experiences more inviting and approachable. Ingredients can do the same too, since “You can make a great cocktail anywhere. The space doesn’t dictate what you put in a glass”. And ingredients are the focus of her Grand Encounter cocktail, the Grand Jam, creating specially for The Grand Encounter Behind the Bar: a simple cocktail inspired by NOLA’s local drink scene and made of both superior ingredients and ingredients that come straight from your kitchen, mixed up through an easy technique. Nothing but the Grand Encounter between Local and Elevated.

The Grand Jam by Deniseea Taylor

Ingredients

• .75 oz Espolòn Blanco Tequila
• .75 oz Grand Marnier
• .75 oz Lime Juice
• 1 spoon of Strawberry Jam

Garnish: Dehydrated strawberries and pinch of Tajin.

Instructions:

• Add all ingredients to shaker tin and agitate with bar spoon to incorporate the jam
• Add ice and shake vigorously and pour unstrained into a rock glass over pebble ice.
• Top with additional pebble ice and garnish with dehydrated strawberries and a pinch of Tajin.

---

Watch Episode 1 with Hugo Togni and Episode 2 with Takuma Watanabe.

Discover Deniseea’s Top 3 Philosophies as a Drink Maker and Educator.

---

Get Campari Academy’s newsletter for more great bartender education and inspiration.