Not Your Childhood Freezies

Maybe Nat King Cole had it right when he sang of “those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer — those days of soda and pretzels and beer.” But well-known Ottawa bartender Jeff Taylor figures Cole had it, at best, half right.

Soda and pretzels and beer get the party going, sure. But there are other staples of summer that Cole forgot.

“Doesn’t everyone remember the freezie that freshened summer days when you were a kid? And what about the cocktails that the grownups enjoyed on the backyard deck?”

You can have both, Taylor says, in a new confection that brings the freezie and the cocktail into delicious collision.

For several weeks now, Taylor, professionally sidelined by the pandemic, has been pouring samples of his well-regarded cocktails into cylinder-shaped plastic bags, freezing them and then passing them out among friends and neighbours to see the reactions.

People just love them, he says. The cocktails themselves — “that would be craft cocktails,” Taylor insists, because he uses only the freshest ingredients — have the rich subtlety that he’s developed over 27 years in the bartender’s trade. Their delivery as a freezie or slurpee, he says, only enhances the delight that people take in their consumption.

“In a lot of ways, this is about nostalgia,” Taylor says.

The bartender has worked at many licensed establishments in Ottawa and, in moments unsqueezed by pandemic, is still working at the Pelican Grill and Tavern on the Hill. His customers have always wanted the best, but then Taylor, as a committed professional, has always wanted to deliver the best.

“You can blame Elizabeth Shue,” he says. “Ever since I saw her in the movie Cocktail, bartending seemed to me a really interesting way to make a living.”

He addresses bartending as a kind of art form. “You need to create depth,” he says. “A good cocktail will have only fresh ingredients, and you choose those ingredients so they create layers of flavour. The encounter with your palate should be complicated and interesting.”

You would no more ask Taylor for the details of his recipes than you would ask Colonel Sanders about the secrets of KFC. But he allows one professional secret to escape: If you’re offering cocktails in any frozen form, you’ll find “the booze comes forward, so you need to balance that with more sugar.”

Right now, he has five flavours — Hibiscus Punch, Watermelon Margarita, Hawaiian Lemonade, Peach Coconut and White Russian Pudding. Others may be added soon.

The alcohol content is 8 per cent by volume. They sell for $6 apiece.

Among the neighbours who got in on the early sampling was local artist Dan Martelock.

“You’ll have an uncanny experience,” Martelock says. “For a moment, you’re still a kid with a freezie, while you’re appreciating as an adult the pleasures of a well-made cocktail.”

Martelock considers Taylor among his brethren in art. “If making a good craft beer is an art — and lots of people say it is — then what Jeff’s doing will fit the bill as well.”

The pandemic had hit Taylor hard. Bars were closed and there was no saying how soon he could get back to his usual professional routine.

“I needed some kind of pandemic side hustle,” he says. “So I asked myself, if I can’t be working steadily as a bartender, then what can I do? And then I decided to apply a kind of manufacturing potential to what I’ve been doing for decades — creating the best cocktails I know how.

“And maybe I could get a business underway that would remain in operation even after bartenders and customers are able to return to their favourite bars.”

Taylor recently found a commercial outlet for his product. Meatings, the Orleans-based restaurant and caterer, has agreed to carry his cocktail freezies. If anyone wishes to buy directly from Taylor, he can be reached on Instagram at Mixshakeandstir.

The trajectory is positive so far, which doesn’t surprise the manager at the Pelican Grill at all.

“Jeff’s cocktails are fabulous,” says Pat Asselin. “Anybody can put spirits in a glass, but Jeff always has an end vision in mind and everything comes together perfectly. In his field, he really is a kind of artist.

“And those freeze pops and their summery flavours — only Jeff would come up with that kind of idea and really make it work.”

Taylor’s feeling optimistic. “I’m ramping up,” he says. “Bought a new freezer, a label maker, and I’m getting a graphic designer to make a company logo. “I’ll take this as far as I can, so I’m distributing not just in Ottawa, but across the region.”

He’s a little abashed when told of the praise others have lavished on his freezies. He laughs when told some call him an artist.

“That’s funny. But I guess I am sharing my creations. And they’re not like paintings, which can last for centuries. They’re more like snowflakes, with no two alike. But if they give you 20 minutes of pleasure, I’m going to keep on making them.”

Boozie Freezies
@mixshakeandstir | jefftaylor45@hotmail.com