Park City has a new King Cocktail.
Jeff Ferguson’s “No Thyme Like the Present” took top honors and was named Park City’s 2011 Summer Cocktail at the Spring Cocktail Contest held at Edgar’s Beers and Spirits Lounge at the Snow Park Lodge in Deer Valley on April 6.
The judges were Park City Magazine editor Kristen Case, Salt Lake Magazine executive and dining editor Mary Brown Malouf, Top Shelf’s Casey Metzger, national food writer Vanessa Chang and 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games gold medalist Billy Demong.
The event, which featured 16 Park City-area restaurant bartenders, was emceed by Sean Smith, formerly of the United States Ski Team.
Ferguson, the beverage director and bartender for Shabu, won $100 in cash, a trophy that will be displayed at Shabu, and a smaller, matching trophy he took home.
This was the first year the Park City Area Restaurant Association has held a spring competition. For the past seven years, the PCARA has held an annual contest in the fall that chose a drink for the whole year, but this year, the association wanted two drinks one for summer and one for winter.
Proceeds from the competition benefited the People’s Health Clinic.
Ferguson said the win came as a surprise.
“I knew I had a good drink, but I thought that all those years before,” Ferguson told The Park Record. “I have participated in every competition from the start and there were times when I took some of my drinks to the final rounds, but to walk away as the winner this year was surprising.”
“No Thyme Like the Present” takes one sprig of thyme and mixes in ¼ ounce of fresh lime juice, ¼ ounce of cucumber simple syrup, 1 ½ ounce of Hendricks gin and approximately 3.5 ounces of white grape juice.
Ferguson muddled the thyme and added the lime juice, syrup and gin into a shaker. After shaking, he strained the mixture into an ice-filled glass and topped the concoction off with the white grape juice, stirred it and put on a lemon, lime and thyme garnish.
“I came up with something that I thought would be light and refreshing,” he said. “I wanted to make something that was summery but not overly sweet.”
The gin and cucumber were two flavors that complement the light and refreshing flavors of the freestyle Asian cuisine of Shabu, he said.
“The mixture cools your palate down,” Ferguson said.
As he was contemplating the drink, he sampled a cocktail that was made with white grape juice.
“I thought (the juice) added nicely to the flavor,” he said. “So those were the ideas that helped me make my drink.”
Then he thought of adding thyme.
“It’s not just a garnish,” Ferguson said. “It adds a lot of earthiness to the drink and gives an herby flavor that you don’t get in a lot of cocktails. It balances the sweetness a little bit.
“When I think of summer drinks, I think of thirst-quenching drinks.,” he said. “I think of something that refreshes you and is not dessert oriented. Margaritas and gin and tonics are great summer drinks because they are refreshing and thirst quenching.”
Ferguson, who has lived in Park City for 16 years and has worked at Shabu for seven, said the drinks for the Park City Cocktail have improved with each contest.
“The first year, there were people offering up just a beer and a shot,” he said. “This year there were lots of complicated drinks.”
The next contest for the winter cocktail will be held Tuesday, Oct. 25, at Red Rock Brewery in the Redstone Towne Center at Kimball Junction.
Ferguson said he’s looking forward to participating, but wants to savor his recent win.
“It’s always nice to be a winner and I would like to do that again, but I haven’t come up with anything for the fall yet,” he said. “I’m still enjoying this drink.”