The Mixology Talk Podcast, Episode Forty One
Spring is on the way – or at least it should be soon! Prepare yourself with these tips for making floral cocktails for your menu.
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In today’s Episode…
We’re talking about Spring! This is one of Chris’ favorite seasons for cocktail design, and that’s because fresh fruit is just coming back in season. But before there is fruit, there must be flowers! This week we’re talking about using flowers and floral ingredients in cocktails to capture that “spring” feeling.
- Floral Liqueurs (Scroll down for the list I promised)
- Syrups
- Elderflower Syrup
- Homemade Syrups made with (edible) flowers
- Waters
- Jellies like Rose Jelly
- Floral Bitters like Scrappy’s Lavender Bitters
Flower Garnishes:
- You can suspend flowers in your ice
- Garnishing with edible flowers (using this book to grow your garden!)
- Fun with Bitters: You can make a stencil in a floral shape
Flavors that go well with Floral Tastes:
- Honey
- Teas, especially those made with flowers like Chamomile
- Earthy Spirits such as Gin, Tequila, Pisco and Cognac.
Elderflower Liqueurs:
- St. Germain
- Chase Elderflower Liqueur
- Bols Elderflower Liqueur
- Edinburgh Elderflower Gin Liqueur
- Fiorente Elderflower Liqueur
- The Bitter Truth Elderflower Liqueur
- Elderflower & Lemon Reserve Liqueur
- Edmond Briottet Fleur de Sureau
- Vestal Amber Elderflower Liqueur
Rose Liqueurs:
- Edmond Briottet Liqueur de Rose
- Lillet Rose Liqueur
- Crispin’s Rose Liqueur
- Combier Creme Rose Liqueur
- Christian di Marco My Rose Liqueur
- Giffard Creme de Rose
- Lanique Rose Petal Liqueur
- G. Miclo Rose Liqueur
- Rose Cooking Wine (Mei Kuei Lu Chiew)
Violet:
- Rothman & Winter Creme de Violette
- Bitter Truth Violet Liqueur
- Creme Yvette
- Edmond Briottet Liqueur de Violette
- Benoit Serres Liqueur a la Violette
- Giffard Creme de Violette Violet Liqueur
- Marie Brizard Violette Essence Liqueur
- Duomo Violet
- G. Miclo Violet Liqueur
- Tempus Fugit Spirits Liqueur de Violettes
Other Flowers:
- Edmond Briottet Liqueur au Coquelicot de Nemours (Poppy Liqueur)
- Edmond Briottet Liqueur de Thé Vert Hibiscus (Green Tea & Hibiscus)
- Quaglia Camomilla Liquore (Chamomile Liqueur)
- Esprit de June (Made from vine-flowers of grapes)
- G’vine Nouaison (Not a liqueur – it’s a gin made with flowers of the Ugni Blanc grape)
- Grand Poppy Liqueur (Made with poppy flowers)
- Koval Chrysanthemum & Honey Liqueur
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Hopefully the weather near you is starting to look a bit like springtime. (And a quick apology to everyone in the southern hemisphere – come back in six months!)
Hey, need link for bitters stencil, my friends.
Hey! It’s up there, under “Flower Garnishes” – but you’re right, it’s not very obvious. I’ll perk it up a bit. 🙂 Thanks!
Since, for some time now, edible flowers are a big thing in Brazilian culinary it was kinda easy for me to find the violets (viola odorata) to make my own Crème de Violette, but it was a real pain to get to the final recipe… Cool thing is I got to a really interesting Violet Bitters along the way…
https://www.facebook.com/TheMisterCrimson/photos/a.512871235483291.1073741828.505863186184096/519667508136997
facebook.com/TheMisterCrimson/photos/a.512871235483291.1073741828.505863186184096/519667508136997
Thyti that is a beautiful drink! How did you make your creme de violette? (Did you see our Creme de Hibiscus post too? – https://www.abarabove.com/creme-de-violette-alternative/)
Thank you, It’s a pretty damn simple one too: ½ oz Crimson Crème de Violette and 1 oz Bombay Sapphire London Dry Gin topped with Brut sparkling wine and a dash of violet bitters, simply garnished with a field pansy.
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Ah! the recipe… First of all, i gotta admit I have a thing for complex flavors in syrups and liqueurs, so this is not exactly the simplest of recipes…
I bought 320 sweet violet (viola odorata) and 40 butterfly bush flowers and dried it…
Separated the dried petals to avoid bitterness and color contamination from clorophyl and pollen…
Blended them in a hermetically sealed mason jar for 15 minutes with 7½ oz simple (1:1) syrup, 6 oz (1:1) demerara syrup for a deep principles extraction and left it to coll..
Then, in a ISI 500 ml Cream Whipper, placed 3 g scarlet wild rose dried petals, 2 g lavander dried buds and 1 g hibiscus dried petals with a solution of 2½ oz Neutral 96 ABV grain spirit, ⅓ oz orange flower water and ⅓ oz rose water, poured the blended mix over it. Sealed the Whipper and charged it with 3 N2O cream chargers and placed it for 3 minutes in a 140° F water bath, then left it to cool back to room temperature.
Finally I removed all the pressurized gas, opened the Whipper, poured the infusion through a cheesecloth double lined strainer and then through a coffee filter into a sterilized glass bottle.
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Yes, I did see the Crème de Hibiscus video, but I must admit I wasn’t very moved from the beginningby the idea of trying to substitute the Crème de Violette for it since it’s lemony-tart and berry-rich flavor is much closer to cranberry and pomegranate than to the delicate floral notes of the sweet violet. What you guys could do is to use some lavender (or some other easy to find and extremely concentrated flower) in your liqueur to get it closer, but be careful, a bit to much and it will smell and taste like Early Morning Breeze Lysol. 😉
My favorite original floral cocktail:
‘the Other Woman’
2 oz. hibiscus-infused Maker’s Mark
.05 oz. pomegranate molasses syrup
1 oz. fresh citrus juice
Rose water
For the hibiscus-infused whiskey (hibiskey) I simply pour a 750 ml. bottle of Maker’s into a carafe with about 1.5 cups of dried hibiscus flowers (or tea), give it a toss and let it extract/steep for about 24 hours. Strain it out (I like to simply dump the whole thing into a teapot to strain and pour back into the bottle.
The pomegranate molasses syrup is in a 2:1 ratio
For the ‘fresh citrus’ portion I will simply use an ounce of my bar’s house sours mix. In a storm pourer container, it’s 300 ml 1:1 simple syrup, the juice of four medium lemons and one medium navel orange and then fill with fresh lime juice.
Combine the first three ingredients in a shaker, fill with ice and stir gently until well chilled. Strain (or double-strain if you don’t like the ice crystals) into a chilled coupe or martini glass and garnish with an orange peel or rose hip.
I then pump two sprays of rosewater mist from an atomizer over the top surface of the cocktail.
This is a delicious, balanced, perfume-y cocktail that’s one of my favorite inventions. Great for weaning people (especially the ladies) into whiskey. The hibiscus really takes the edge and the bite off the whiskey while enhancing the flavor and keeping its character intact.
Enjoy!!
-Alec-
Alec this sounds amazing and I LOVE the name! We’ll have to try this one for sure