It’s Tuesday morning. The high temperature will top out above 60 degrees for the first time this season. You’re the first to arrive at one of your employer’s locations for a meeting with your coworkers. As you key into and enter the building, you rush to crack the front door transom to let out the steamy air that has gathered in the unexpectedly warm room.
You’re unfazed because it’s a special day. The anticipation of today’s activities outweighs any discomfort. The meeting you’re about to attend comes only four times each year, and it’s loaded with mystery, surprises, learning, and delight.
Where are you? You’re at Manatawny Still Works Ardmore, about to attend the next meeting of Manatawny tasting room managers in which they share their cocktail research and development for the upcoming seasonal menu. Or as you know it at Manatawny: R&D.
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Each season, our Director of Business Operation Jennifer Sabatino assembles her team of tasting room managers for R&D to collectively review the past season’s cocktail menu, consider its strengths and weaknesses, revisit seasonal ingredient drivers, and entertain ideas for new cocktails.
Throughout the meeting, attendees take turns presenting cocktails to each other to taste, explaining the thought processes behind their bespoke creations. Previously unshared experiments with seasonal fruits, herbs, and botanicals step into the light. Bright citrus notes, delicate florals, and touches of spice take their first dances together.
This meeting is where pineapple meets sage. It’s where a spicy rim on a glass might outclass a sugary one. It’s where you can’t understand how so much blueberry flavor simply disappears, or how muddled grapes manage to outmuscle sweet vermouth.
Over several hours, brainstorming leads to on-the-spot adjustments and retasting. Instincts are followed; instincts are abandoned. Sometimes sure things wither and lose while throwaways evolve and win.
Feedback ranges from outright rejection to wholehearted congratulations. The proceedings show mutual respect within the team, and every manager’s willingness to balance advocacy with acceptance in the pursuit of objective improvement.
R&D is often frenetic and unpredictable. However, it yields innovative cocktails that serve up entire seasons in a glass. It’s a big reason cocktails at Manatawny consistently offer flavors that are at once nuanced and comforting without breaking the budget.
If you’d like to hear more about the process, stop into one of our tasting rooms and ask a bartender! They might even be willing to share what they’re working on for our next R&D session…
