1 oz Neisson Blanc Rhum Agricole
marc rizzuto spring/summer 2023
0.5 oz Ventura Spirits Opuntia Prickly Pear EDV
0.5 oz St. George Botanivore Gin
1 tsp Italicus Rosolio di Bergamotto
0.5 tsp Chareau Aloe Liqueur
0.5 tsp Cane Syrup
Method: Build in glass
Glassware: Old Fashioned
Ice: Cracked
Garnish: Lime shoulder
Sometimes when looking for inspiration for a cocktail flavor profile you search in the candle aisle at HomeGoods. Well, I was strolling through the aisles looking at the array of stuff that fills the shelves and came to the candle aisle. An untapped market for flavor combinations, or I am not the only one doing this. Either way, most of the multiple ingredient candles I came across were smells that are not easy to replicate in cocktail form without certain equipment like a rotovap. Then I saw this turquoise candle with font akin to Malin + Goetz products. The ingredient list was right on the front in big font: aloe, bergamot, lime, and prickly pear. Interesting let me smell. Not the greatest smelling candle, but the combination stuck with me and I wanted a daiquiri with it. So I made a daiquiri with the ingredients and it was delicious.
Now we were in the beginning of the R&D stages for our spring/summer menu and that HomeGoods trip was not only beneficial for my apartment, but for my drink making as well. I took that four ingredient combo and threw it against the wall and saw what stuck. Daiquiri was the obvious starting point for my process because of the citrus and fruit notes, but why stop there. I was not interested in making the obvious and easy, I wanted to make things that were challenging and sometimes even frustrating. I thought maybe a Martini would be cool with Rhum Agricole and some terroir gin, but the Martini slot was usually our head bartender’s first pick. What about a gin Old Fashioned, LOL, people are either going to hate or love this drink and I was happy about it. The Ti’ Punch slot for our menu was open. This was a shock to me because this is another one of the first drink slots taken up by staff. I snatched the Ti’ Punch spot up for a drink that was definitely created with ill intent: to sneakily make people enjoy a gin Old Fashioned.
So I had my flavor profile, cocktail template, all I had left was to make this thing work. Prickly Pear was an easy one because we had used this Californian Prickly Pear distillate before and I was familiar with its floral fruity taste. Lime in a Ti’ Punch is the shoulder (some call it a coin) of a lime, referring to cutting the lime skin, pith and kernels in one circular piece so the lime has one side all skin and the other side all kernel. The shoulder is used fpor two reasons. You want a touch of acidity from the juice squeezed in before you drop the shoulder in the bottom of the glass, and you want the bitterness of the peel. I wanted to incorporate the bergamot for its floral qualities so I went in two directions: liqueur and distillate. Italicus Rosolio di Bergamotto is a nice way to add bergamot in small amounts that packs a punch. This liqueur is bitter, sweet and floral everything I needed from the bergamot. The split base of Neisson Blanc Rhum Agricole and St. George Botanivore Gin was to really push that floral flavor with every ingredient. The Botanivore Gin uses bergamot and other California citrus to add nice complimentary flavors to the Italicus. The cooling vegetal notes from the Chareau helped balnce out all the floral flavors without the drink tasting like chewing on a meadow in the beginning of spring. The drink has depth and complexity that comes out sip after sip with the cracked ice.
Build this cocktail in your Old Fashioned glass starting with squeezing and dropping in the lime shoulder, then sugar, liqueur and distillates. Add cracked ice until the glass is 75% full and give it a couple of stirs to slightly chill the ingredients, the first sip should still be warm enough to know how much alcohol is present. Add more cracked ice until there is a clear divide between ice and liquid. The wash line should come up to about 90% of the glass with the cracked ice just peeking over the top of the glass. This is important because you need this ice to dilute and chill the ingredients as it is consumed.
*Cracking ice is a technique to access the coldest part of the ice, the center. Take an ice tapper, a red tip bar spoon or whatever you have to smack ice with, and hit the kold draft ice cube in the center to split it in two. Continue to do this for each cube until the glass is full as explained above.
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