Rotovap Cocktails: The Future of Mixology

How to Create Intense Flavors and Aromas with a Rotary Evaporator

If you like to do some bar hopping, chances are you have seen a rotary evaporator on a countertop concentrating intense flavors, infusing delicate ingredients and producing modern cocktails from homemade distillations. Mixologists first started using rotary evaporators at the beginning of this century, initially to alter the flavor of vodka. Since then, the instruments have become commonplace at top cocktail bars as essential tools for concentrating flavors and extracting volatile aromas from mixtures without unnecessary damaging heating.

Why use a rotary evaporator in mixology?

Typically, rotary evaporation in cocktail creation is used to add flavor or remove undesirable characteristics of an ingredient. With a rotary evaporator, you can capture and preserve the aroma of spices, herbs and fruits that are often otherwise dried out and lost due to use of excessive heat in traditional distillations.

The rotary evaporator could also be used to remove unpleasant colours, where a crystal-clear liquid could still have distinct pleasant flavors of coffee, tea or others. Alternatively, a rotary evaporator could be used to remove an unpleasant property, such as spicey hot from chilies, while preserving desirable characteristics, such as pepper or smokey tastes. Similarly, rotary evaporation can help extract fat and grease creating more tasty and healthy drinks. The system can also be used to splice texture or extract unique flavors from more exotic ingredients such as minerals, tree barks or rare fruits.

In summary, the rotary evaporation technology is particularly useful for capturing the essence of delicate ingredients that traditional distillation cannot. The instrument can help remove tannins imparted to spirts during the aging process, remove undesirable colour, spice, bitterness and produce innovative final products that are clean, fresh and unaffected by the flavor-killing effects of too much heat.

How does a rotary evaporator work?

A rotary evaporator looks like a complicated scientific instrument, but the process and using the system is straight-forward. The principle is based on basic chemistry, mainly, once liquid is heated to boiling, it turns into vapor or gas and once this gas cools, it converts back to liquid.

In rotary evaporation, you place a sample in a flask, then heat the sample in a system that is under vacuum. The vacuum is needed to decrease the boiling point of the liquid sample by reducing the pressure, so that the sample can boil at a lower temperature (say 40°C instead of 100⁰C). Because you need less heat to boil your sample under pressure, you can treat your liquid more gently. This helps preserve more flavors in your sample.

Back to the process. As the sample is heated, the liquid transforms into vapor, which leaves the flask and enters the condenser. The condenser is cooled by water or by a chiller. As the vapor cools in the condenser, it turns back to liquid form, which collects in a separate receiving flask. The liquid in the receiving flask is called a distillate and ideally contains your alcohol plus intense flavors of whatever else you put in the sample (berries, teas, herbs, spices, etc.).

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Traditional production versus modern techniques

Read more about vacuum-distilled gin with Rotavapor

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Science and technology to drink

The mixology process starts with a mix of creativity, experimentation, curiosity, and innovation. By combining different areas of expertise, you can achieve new flavor profiles on your cocktails. After all,  what can arise from the meeting of the mixology and chemistry sectors? And how can modern technologies influence the professionals in the field?  Dive in to find out! 

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Find a mixologist in your area

The best advice for anyone considering investing in a rotary evaporator is to meet with someone who already owns such a system. You could test the instrument and get additional advice from them on how to best incorporate rotary evaporation in your bar and get started on modern mixology. Use our Instagram channel @buchi.distillationlab to find a mixologist with a rotary evaporator in your area!

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