Friday, July 10, 2009

Fresh fruit, berries, and alchemy


It seems that the strawberry season has blown right by me. I managed one half bottle of a strawberry rhubarb infusion. It was (mas o menos as I didn't measure in the beginning...), one pint of organic strawberries, one large piece of rhubarb, and 375ml of Everclear 151. It infused for a week, then we made this cocktail:
Strawberry Rhubarb Flip
.75 straw/rhubarb infusion
.75 vodka
.5 amaretto
.5 lemon
.5 simple
powdered egg white
Shake and strain into cocktail glass. No need to double strain as the infusion had the seeds and pulp strained off already. Finish with a flamed lemon zest.

As for last night, I was dismayed that strawberries were gone, but consoled by raspberries. After infusing a number of bottles of the aforementioned Everclear with various combinations of raspberries and ginger, I set about making our special for last night, which was made with fresh raspberries that were left over. The first was a combination that I had been thinking about all day: raspberries and ginger. After a few failed attempts, we came up with this:
2 white rum
.5 simple
.5 ginger simple
8-10 raspberries
Zardetto cuvee
The raspberries were shaken with the rum and simple syrups, double strained into a cocktail glass, then floated with Zardetto and finished with a lemon twist.
It is a clean, crisp cocktail that has a beautiful color (I need to get a camera that can take pictures in the bar at night...).

However, when sipping the above concoction, my mind kept wandering to the batch of cold press coffee (made with Valhalla dark espresso roast). From there it was a hop, skip, and a jump to this delightful and as-of-yet unnamed cocktail. When the infusions are done, I recommend everyone stop by for this beauty:
2 white rum
.5 simple
.5 Ramazzoti amaro
.5 cold press coffee
8-10 raspberries
Shake and double strain into a cocktail glass. Finish with an orange zest. Absolutely beautiful.

Well, that's it. I think I'm going to attempt to hunt down more strawberries, but I suspect it's a lost cause. Otherwise, we've got something special in store this evening with basil...
-C
(Tip of the hat to Cynthia for her help in the above recipes.)

No comments:

Post a Comment