PORTFOLIO

PORTFOLIO

I’m Aaron, a drink designer, bartender, and cook who helps restaurants, cafés, and local communities tell their story through creative flavors and thoughtful hospitality. Based in Southwest Michigan, I collaborate with teams and homes to create meaningful, memorable experiences through bespoke drinks, food, and connection.

Screen Shot 2025-12-23 at 8.38.24 PM.png

Screen Shot 2025-12-23 at 8.51.13 PM.png

Screen Shot 2026-01-04 at 11.24.53 PM.png

Screen Shot 2026-01-04 at 11.42.29 PM.png

Screen Shot 2026-01-04 at 11.43.17 PM.png

Screen Shot 2025-12-22 at 5.01.09 PM.png

PROJECTS

Infusco Coffee — Custom Syrup Development

Developed during a coffee cupping, this syrup pairs fresh blueberries with Rare Tea Cellars’ Crema Earl Grey. The goal was to take the subtle flavor of blueberries and transform it into a concentrated expression while staying true to the fruit’s natural profile. The tea’s bergamot and cereal-like notes—reminiscent of Froot Loops—add dimension and nostalgia, resulting in a syrup that enhances fruit-forward drinks while complementing coffee, matcha, and tonic.

Daisy Buchanan — Bees Knees Senior PGA Championship cocktail

Developed as a summer-forward reinterpretation of the classic Bee’s Knees, this cocktail is built on a gin-forward framework with bright, savory, and floral intent. A jasmine and sage infusion enhances the gin’s botanical profile, jasmine contributing soft aromatics and sage adding earthy structure. Yuzu provides citrus lift, balanced by honey syrup.

The cocktail was presented and demonstrated at the 2025 Senior PGA Championship.

Cointreau 2025 Margarita Submission

Super Fly Kid

Tequila, Cointreau, Kosho, OJ, Italicus

Developed for Cointreau’s 2025 Margarita Competition, this cocktail was guided by the theme of sustainability, from fruit to leaf, with an emphasis on minimizing waste and utilizing every element of the ingredient. Citrus and salt being essential to a margarita, citrus kosho became the foundation. This Japanese condiment, made from citrus zest, juice, peppers, and salt, was blended with agave and lime juice and made into a syrup.

Campari, orange juice, mezcal, and Italicus were then incorporated, resulting in a layered balance of sweetness, acidity, fruit driven aromatics, bitterness, and savory depth from the salt.

Clarified Spicy Margarita

This cocktail marked my first use of milk clarification, a technique popular in the 18th century and commonly associated with clarified milk punches. The process adds body and texture without the weight of milk, while also extending shelf life.

Through the interaction of milk and acid, impurities bind and are removed during straining, resulting in a clear, stable liquid that retains its original color and flavor expression.

While staying relatively true to the ratios of a spicy margarita, this clarified punch presents a concentrated and balanced profile of sweet acid, heat from Ancho Reyes liqueur, and floral acidity from hibiscus and lemongrass, treated like a tea for the tequila, and finished with a softened texture from clarification.

Leave Me Alone - Hibiscus, Tequila, Lemongrass, Pineapple, Ancho Reyes Verde, Ramazotti Rosato

Skywalker

Bourbon, Cappelletti, Meletti, Clarified Calamansi, Montenegro

This cocktail marked my first experimental use of juice clarification. I worked with calamansi, a citrus native to the Philippines that’s a hybrid of mandarin orange and kumquat, known for its bright acidity and aromatic complexity.

I clarified the calamansi juice using agar-agar, which binds to impurities in the juice. Once strained, the result is a crystal-clear liquid that retains the flavor intensity and natural color of the citrus while removing the harshness typically associated with fresh juice.

The drink itself is a fall-inspired, spirit-forward reinterpretation of a Paper Plane—a cocktail that tends to surge in popularity during the fall and winter months. My goal was to take a traditionally shaken, citrus-driven cocktail and translate it into a stirred format. Normally, shaken drinks containing juice can’t be stirred because the acidity and pulp require aeration to soften their edges. By clarifying the juice, I was able to eliminate that harshness, allowing the cocktail to be stirred while maintaining balance, texture, and structure.