Dessa and mixology maverick Marco Zappia write a cocktail book

Cocktails and songs often run parallel — both can transport you to another place, evoke a mood and inspire.

Those lanes merge in the soon-to-be-released “Bury the Lede: A Cocktail Book,” a collaboration between musician Dessa and cocktail maverick Marco Zappia. Each drink is based on one of the 11 tracks from Dessa’s latest album by the same name, whether it’s the fun and flirty “Blush” or get-on-the-dance-floor “Hurricane Party.”

The two met when Dessa would stop by Eat Street Social with her partners at Doomtree, a Minneapolis hip-hop collective and record label; Zappia was slinging drinks at the Minneapolis spot at the time. Part of the trio behind 3Leche fermentation botanical beverage lab and a nationally recognized bar director, Zappia first joined forces with Dessa in 2017, when she performed with the Minnesota Orchestra.

“Marco’s name rings loud in bartender cocktail culture, and I asked if it would be possible to collaborate on a specialty drink for the show just to provide a welcome that indicated that every part of the evening had been designed,” said the Ted Talk speaker/essayist/guest radio host. “Marco came up with a drink that featured a dehydrated beet heart and came with an artist statement and I was just blown away.”

Sitting at a booth in an Uptown eatery on a recent afternoon, we caught up with the two about the book, a slender, glossy compilation of essays by Dessa, cocktails by Zappia and photography by Bill Phelps set to be released Nov. 19 (Doomtree Press, $19.99). They shared the inspiration behind the songs and cocktails that break down the science to empower the home cocktail connoisseur — whether it’s permission to make a martini stirred, not shaken, how to make milk-washed whiskey or pre-batching drinks for a party. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Why a cocktail book?

D: When we were working on the “Bury the Lede” album, Lazerbeak (Beak), the leader of Doomtree records, and I were figuring out what the launch would be. I thought it would be so cool to do an accompanying cocktail book if Marco was game. Anytime I see someone who’s excellent with what they do, I wonder if there’s any way we can work together. I’m an eager collaborator who’s most graceful when I’m collaborating with people whose skill sets are different from mine because I don’t get a chance to get territorial.

MZ: The first draft was ideas that came from the songs on the album, Dessa’s palate and then the tie-ins, the genealogy of cocktails. There are these classic, pre-Prohibition 1.0 versions and then modern bartending is iterations on those classics. You can plug and play with these, like a [Mr.] Potato Head. Our interpretations of postmodern versions are what we’re focusing on, a 3.0.

The initial drop was very esoteric, Minnesota ingredients and stuff that we could make out of them. Then we started to get attached to the chef component, the techniques, the educational piece. Each of the drinks have a teachable moment for the consumer that’s kind of insider baseball for a bartender in how we produce cocktail menus.

D: Marco mentioned having a diversity of cocktails so if people’s palates lean to lighter spirits, what does that look like? As we were getting closer to the finish line, making sure that we’ve got some interesting approaches that are also doable for the home cocktailer. Are they easily sourceable? Should we toss in another substitution here just in case someone doesn’t have a bottle of X, Y, Z?

It was making sure that after the relationship between the music and the cocktail was established, the relationship with the reader was also solid.

What’s an example of the process and how a song inspired a cocktail?

The teachable moment is you can make grenadine, which is classically pomegranate, from aronia berry, which is native here to the Midwest. Instead of passion fruit for the syrup, you can substitute pawpaw, which is native to North America that can be found here locally but it still has those Polynesian tropical fruity notes.

D: As a writer, I’m a sucker for subtext and layers. Also, the drink, when it’s mixed, re-creates the [seafoam green] color of the album cover. And then you’ve got these Minnesota connections.

What’s your personal go-to cocktail?

D: I tend to stay within the whiskey lane … in the realm of boulevardier, something that’s dark, spirit-forward. But I also like amaro so that was a universe that I stumbled into while traveling and got really excited about. I think the Montenegro brand is really approachable, but I’m learning to like the more alpine ones and I like the ones that are made in New York, too.

MZ: I’m the opposite, I like the light, froufrou. I like gin a lot, but I drink everything. Mezcal … all the cliches of a mixologist.

MZ: The cocktails gravitate toward amaro, digestifs, bitter, more whiskey tannins. The song “Crash,” translated into a cocktail, is a freezer martini that I think was probably more my flavor profile. Originally, it was going to be a pre-batch boulevardier riff and bittersweet, more mirroring Dessa’s palate and the bittersweet heartbreak lyrics in the song.

Then what I took away from the song — that as you strip away some of the frills and the lipstick on a pig — the very simplicity is sometimes the hardest thing to produce. And the litmus test of the quality of music and the quality of drinks is when you have nothing to hide behind. And for me, that’s the martini. It’s two ingredients, there’s nothing else to hide behind and the simplicity of that is really, really beautiful.

D: What was cool was the similarity of process. The song is just bass and vocal which is way simpler than what I usually do, and was a little shy about it and then hearing Marco say, “OK, that’s a musical martini.”

MZ: The bass is the gin; vocals are the vermouth. The cleanliness of it — always good.

That drink comes with tips for martini lovers as well as the party host. Can you talk more about that?

Each cocktail went through six iterations, give or take. After honing the recipes, what was a surprise hit?

D: The “Tell Me Again” sake drink with black salt on the edge of the tumbler, because it was a surprise favorite for me. I haven’t had too many drinks, either sake or soju, that aren’t very sweet if it’s a mixed drink. It’s such a beautiful, balanced drink with a light funk and not necessarily the quadrant of a menu that I would have naturally gravitated toward. And it’s such a beautiful presentation.

MZ: I would marry the martini. My mistress would be the Negroni. But the “Rothko” is so much fun and surprising. That drink is coffee and Campari. You wouldn’t think those two things would be a good combo, but it’s loud and loud, and the dilution of it is super fun.

D: It’s so clever. I’m most excited for people to see the Rothko because it’s so stunning and it’s a flex – here’s two flavors that are really difficult in your imagination to combine well and in a glass are surprisingly alchemic.

Both of you have gotten a share of media ink in your fields of expertise. As you worked on this collaboration, what is something that stands out to you about the other, that people might not know about?

D: Scholarship.That’s 100 percent what I would say about Marco. His ability to riff on the historical and chemical aspects of cocktail ingredients. It felt like I was watching a science program and just writing as fast as I could. So yeah, I would say scholarship in addition to expertise — the knowing, the how, the why, the background and the provenance of the work.

Dessa will hold a book signing with custom cocktails from “Bury the Lede” Nov. 21 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Meteor (2027 N. 2nd St., Mpls.).

Makes 1 cocktail.

In “Bury the Lede,” Dessa shares how a song was inspired by a visit to the Rothko Chapel in Houston and the cocktail that followed. She writes, “ ‘There is only one thing I fear in life, my friend: One day the black will swallow the red.’ That’s a quote often attributed to the painter Mark Rothko ... To design the Rothko cocktail, Marco cued into the colors of the song and developed an ambitious concept of his own: a drink that changes colors as it develops. As the coffee ice melts into the crimson-colored bitter aperitivo (a dynamite flavor pairing), black finally swallows the red.” (Doomtree Press, $19.99 store.doomtree.net)

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