The Wash is a former carwash in Nashville that has been turned into an incubator for restaurants and bars, including Bay 6, where beverage director and managing partner Beau Gaultier offers this drink, named for a quote from writer Wendell Berry about managing land carefully, so it stands to reason that it’s low on waste.
He starts by infusing a liter of cachaça with the 30 grams of spent grounds of Café du Monde coffee, which is dark roast coffee blended with chicory. He lets that sit for two hours and strains it through a fine mesh sieve.
Separately he combines the husk of one pineapple with 350 grams of sugar and 35 grams of citric acid and lets that sit for at least two hours, but up to a day. Then he adds 250 grams of day-old pineapple juice, stirs it and strains it.
He combines 2 ounces of the coffee cachaça with 1.5 ounces of the acidified pineapple syrup, shakes them with ice and strains that through a fine mesh sieve into a coupe that he garnishes with a dehydrated lime wheel.
“The result is a Cuban Daiquiri-esque cocktail that starts juicy but ends bitter,” Gaultier said. “Every ingredient is a complimentary flavor of every other one: Chicory plays nice with coffee, coffee goes great with funky cachaça, and cachaça and pineapple are a match made in heaven.”
He added that, although it’s a relatively labor-intensive drink on the back end, at service it just requires two touches, saving a lot of time. Also, the use of citric acid and leftover parts of the pineapple make it much less expensive than using fresh lemon or lime juice.
Price: $15