Challenged with fermented black beans, Barrelhouse Flat bartender Dan Smith initially confused them with natto, Japanese fermented soybeans, a past challenge ingredient. Fermented black beans turned out to be far more familiar to him—at least in the form of black-bean sauce, a staple of many Chinese dishes. In their more basic form, the beans are “extremely salty,” he said, which posed a bit of a problem, as “an aggressively salty cocktail just isn’t going to be pleasant to get down.”
The Old Bean
