Meet Seaport beverage director Jose Luis Betancur, Tuscan Brands

Cocktail Club

Tuscan Brands’ Jose Luis Betancur shares his path from wine to cocktails, and why “cocktails are right here to keep.”

What does it get for a Boston sommelier to get pulled into the planet of craft cocktails? For Jose Luis Betancur, it was uncomplicated: a bitter, herb-infused Italian liqueur.

“I started tweaking cocktails with fascinating recipes with my other colleagues,” Betancur lately explained to Boston.com. “The motive why is simply because of amaro.”

The Chilean native, who currently serves as Tuscan Manufacturers beverage director, put in many years acquiring his understanding in wine across New York and Boston. While operating as a sommelier at the now-shuttered Babbo Pizzeria e Enoteca, Betancur commenced experimenting with cocktails, altering flavor profiles and swapping elements for distinctive amari. 

“I started coming out with enjoyment cocktails with a minimal much more complexity, far more depth, further flavors,” he stated. Based mostly on his awareness in Italian wines, the flexibility of amaro, and using refreshing ingredients, Betancur immersed himself in cocktails. Right after becoming a member of Tuscan Makes, he now splits his time between wine and cocktails the latter features coming up with the cocktail menu and jogging mixology courses held at the Tuscan Village in New Hampshire. 

Betancur joined the Cocktail Club on Thursday for a virtual course mixing spring gin cocktails. We spoke with Betancur forward of the class about the most preferred consume orders from his foundation at Tuscan Kitchen area Seaport, cocktails for social media, and why Mass. need to commence consuming rum again.  

What’s one thing we might not know about you?

I’m quite precise about issues and I like to take my time. When I build anything I want points to be best. From time to time it’s tricky to get by way of that, but I do my greatest so our drinks and cocktails are just suitable.  

If you were being a cocktail what would you be and why? 

The rusty nail. It’s an outdated-school cocktail — it is two ounces of Scotch, 1 ounce of Drambuie. I like including tiny cloves because they appear like nails, and a cherry. Why? Since I assume two or two and fifty percent is my limit. By three of individuals, I could just inform you every little thing about me. 

How have people’s fascination in cocktails altered throughout the pandemic? 

Undoubtedly the understanding about cocktails has adjusted. The classics are coming back. Or have never left – the previous fashioned, the cosmo, the martini. But also folks want to see more well prepared cocktails, primarily the new generations. They do like to see stunning cocktails. They want to see shade, they like to see exotic fruits, exotic syrups inside of the cocktails. I consider that has changed a little bit much more in a perception. 

Due to the fact the pandemic begun, what we’ve been heading via a great deal of is cocktails. It’s been rising enormously. Wine has long gone down a minor bit. It is coming back, but unquestionably cocktails are below to remain. Men and women genuinely, seriously delight in elaborate cocktails. They want to learn extra about it, and they want to be observed, if you do some thing table side. So that is something that we are doing the job on at Tuscan Kitchen Seaport is doing a lot more desk side cocktails. You know, with social media, I feel we need to have to do much more.

Are you viewing any individual preferred consume orders at Tuscan Kitchen? 

A single of the most well-known cocktails has been the espresso martini. Then the outdated fashioneds are what other individuals are consuming. I feel the Manhattan is guiding the old fashioned now. Margaritas with diverse types of chilies, way too: Thai chili, jalapenos, habanero. 

The a single that demands additional adore, specifically in the metropolis of Boston, I consider is the mojito. The mojito should really be a person of the cocktails that really should introduce Massachusetts to start consuming rum all over again. Rum employed to be 1 of the most drunk spirits through the Prohibition, and immediately after Prohibition was repealed. From there we jumped into a new era of consuming. The other types that I’d like to deliver again would be a caipirinha or a pisco bitter. It’s time. 

What’s a job you have been doing the job on that you’re especially proud of? 

The cocktail courses that we are carrying out in the Tuscan Current market by the [Tuscan] Village side by facet with William Sonoma. We’re training people today how to make limoncello, how to make distinctive styles of syrups.

What’s your most loved detail about gin cocktails? 

What I like about gin is that it is quite adaptable. You have the junipers and the botanicals, so the botanicals also come with all these levels and textures on your palette. Dependent on what style of gin you’re making use of, juniper can also be heightened by all the other [cocktail] components. But those botanicals, because they’re oils, stay there. So they develop a great balance in amongst all your ingredients.

What’s your favored point to do about Boston in the springtime? 

All around the city, I like to go to the Boston [Public] Back garden, specially in the springtime. When I was dwelling in Boston Metro, I employed to go there with my wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, and we’d usually end up walking by the park. 

How can audience help you and your colleagues? 

Strike the bar. Sit down. With regard to your bartenders, talk to them to make anything for you that will inspire them and that will personally place them on on the stage. And then converse to them. I feel each and every bartender has experienced a rough time through the pandemic. Clearly show your assist. 

Would you like to add nearly anything else?

​​There’s always space for mastering … This is a fantastic profession for somebody who desires to make a swap or a modify. For all those that want to arrive back, you’re welcome to occur back again. We are going through a lack of bartenders, unfortunately. So we’re functioning on coaching new bar customers.