tea berry-blue

So my pals at Industry City Distillery are making some awesome crazy beet sugar vodka:

It’s now on the shelves in NYC, and as of last night, I got to take home some samples which I am very excited to play with next week.

With stills they’ve built from the ground up, the distillery is like some kind of adult Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory; they’ve taken fractional distillation to a level that I’ve never seen before, where they can isolate each unique flavor note in the final product before blending them together. It’s really fascinating and awesome to watch these guys work– and a little like being on an episode of LOST, with a buzzer that rings and demands someone’s attention every twenty-two minutes on the button. Dave, the chief-mad-scientist of the operation, showed me pieces of the new still they’re building and a bunch of other exciting bubbly mysterious stuff.

I headed over there with a sampling of my flavored marshmallows (the Fernet ones seem to be the favorite) and a mission: to make a cocktail using a chanterelle-infused vodka the ICD guys had put up for an event.

I’d played with chanterelles before, in a sugar syrup, but the night before, I played around with several simple vodka cocktails, not having actually tasted the chanterelle infusion. When I got over to the distillery, I was presented with a bottle of high-proof liquor that had been steeped with mushrooms.

Dave & I diluted the chanterelle-infused vodka in tiny proportions to get the flavor and texture we liked best– the flavor was so mild, but the mushrooms imparted a meaty texture to the vodka that was nice– and once we’d settled on a solution for the vodka-to-water ratio, I got to mix drinks…

WITH PIPETTES.

Getting into the mad scientist spirit of the thing, this is the first time I have mixed a drink with pipettes. In fact, up until the moment I did it, I had NEVER CONSIDERED SUCH A THING.

It makes sense; it’s how people add bitters to alcohol. But this was a first. Using the pipettes created such amazing precision that I was able to add very specific and delicate notes to the drink; which was good because the flavors in the mushroom vodka were so subtle. After various experiments, with Dave and Peter being my tasting guinea pigs, we settled on a drink that involved vodka, the chanterelle-infused vodka, Dolin’s blanco vermouth, Cocchi Americano, black pepper syrup, and champagne vinegar. I was working in such tiny proportions that some ingredients found their way in in amounts that could be recorded in drops.

It was pretty awesome, because normally when I make drinks, I’m working in proportions that are first off, not nearly as precise– I mean, how many cocktail recipes call for a “dash” of something? But also, I usually think in 1/4 oz increments. Breaking things down even more was super fascinating and changed the way I was thinking about what I was mixing…in a way that was utterly appropriate, given the product and the locale.

I got sent home with samples that I got to pick from specific, unique cuts of the vodka– that is, bottles of undiluted individual isolated flavor notes, which means there will definitely be some playing going on.

If you are in New York, you should check out Industry City’s vodka. Here’s a map of locations where you can buy the real thing. These guys are awesome and I can’t wait to have more to tell you all.

Mirrored from Nommable!.

Mirrored from Nommable!.

Or, you know, five. Which is how many new ones that are worth sharing I’ve made since the last time I did a cocktail post apart from the strawberries. Holy heck! How did I go that long? What is wrong with me?!

I am feeling uncreative and beyond naming things right now. Which you may have noticed from my last post where I just started naming things “strawberry” in different languages. I figure the options right now are 1) sit around naming them for the next hundred years or 2) just throw ‘em up without names. If you want to volunteer names, go for it!

1)

Ingredients
2 1/2 oz Small’s Gin
1/2 oz Scarborough Faire Gin (homemade infusion! I make it with Gale Force Gin and 1/2 cup each parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme)
2 sprigs oregano
1 small plum,
1/2 oz lavender syrup
1/4 oz Branca Menta

Instructions
Add cut up plum, 1 sprig oregano and regular gin to shaker.
Muddle, then add Scarborough Faire gin & syrup. Shake.
Coat chilled cocktail glass with Branca Menta, discard excess.
Pour drink into glass, add oregano for garnish.

2)

Ingredients
2 oz Magellan Blue Gin
1 oz Carpano Antica Formula
1/2 oz limoncello
1 rib rhubarb plus a small piece of rhubarb for garnish
1 Tb lemon thyme
3 dashes Fee Bros Rhubarb bitters

Instructions
Add gin, thyme and chopped rhubarb to shaker, muddle well
Add Carpano Antica & limoncello and shake
Pour into chilled cocktail glass and add bitters
Garnish with leftover piece of rhubarb!

3)

Ingredients
2 oz Dogfish Head Jin
1oz Dolin dry vermouth
1/2oz Domaine de Canton
1Tb purple basil + 1 leaf for garnish
1Tsp Vietnamese coriander (this is different from your more typical coriander/cilantro and has broad, flat, shiny leaves) +1 leaf for garnish
1 hot pickled pepper
1/8 tsp cinnamon
Bottle Green Ginger & Lemongrass Soda to top

Instructions
Soak pepper in gin for five minutes.
Add gin (with pepper), basil, lemongrass, and Domaine de Canton to shaker, muddle.
Add vermouth & cinnamon, shake
Pour into highball glass with ice, add soda until glass is full. Garnish with leaves.

4)

Ingredients
2 1/2 oz Ethereal Gin
1/2 oz Averna amaro,
1/2 oz Heering Cherry Liqueur
10 bruised sage leaves (Bruise the sage leaves by running your index finger and thumb in opposite directions against the leaf)

Instructions
Put all ingredients in a glass. Muddle, then shake.
Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Easy!

5)

Okay, I have to say, this is the best drink of the bunch. And it’s vodka. Vodka! My mother wanted a drink to showcase our new honey, so this is seriously made with honey RIGHT out of the hive. How awesome is that? But you should all try it. I recommend a lighter honey. Clover is probably fine, or acacia or tupelo.

Ingredients
3oz Comb Vodka
1/4 oz Mathilde peche
1/2 oz freshly extracted honey (any honey will do if you are not a nerd like me)
1 tb fresh lavender plus a sprig of lavender blossom for garnish
2 tb fresh mint.

Instructions
Add vodka, lavender and mint to shaker, muddle just until leaves are bruised.
Add honey and shake.
Coat chilled cocktail glass with Mathilde peche
Pour drink into glass, garnish.

Whew, okay, now I am caught up with the drinky-drinks.

Mirrored from Antagonia.net.

In order:

By Monday, the chickens were much fluffier and were developing more adult feathers!

Also, our new hive was really seeing some activity. Hive #1 has so much honey we are going to be harvesting next weekend, hooray! It’s crazy, you can smell the honey in the air from like ten feet away. Our new hive is a hive of blonde bees, and they are very pretty and redder in color than our other bees. It’s neat because you can tell them apart by sight.

Yesterday, my mom made the most awesome nachos and salsa ever. I can take zero credit for any part of this meal except that I dumped some of my pickled hot peppers on the nachos, so good. Oh, and I picked the asparagus, but I’m going to post another post, probably tomorrow, about cultivating asparagus in your garden!

The nachos have steak, cheese, black olives and peppers on them, and the salsa is black beans, grilled corn and grilled onions, tomatoes, avocado, garlic, cilantro, lime juice, and a little cumin. Yum!

Anyway, here is the cocktail I made to go with the nachos and salsa:

Happy Accident

Ingredients
2.5 oz Depaz rum
.5 oz Elisir MP Roux
.25 oz cognac
about 6 sprigs of oregano
about 4 sprigs of chamomile, plus three chamomile blossoms for garnish

Instructions
Put rum, oregano, chamomile,in a shaker with ice and muddle well
Add MP Roux and shake
Coat chilled cocktail glass with cognac
Pour drink into glass, add blossoms

And here is the drink I made today. This is my first drink using Boyd & Blair, which is the vodka I’ve been waxing poetic about to everyone I speak to. And you can consider this my first entry into the “drinks that absolutely require the flavor of vodka” category :-P

Drink Me

Ingredients
2.5 oz Boyd & Blair Potato Vodka
1.5 Tbs chopped wood ear mushrooms, reconstituted if dry
1 tsp whole black peppercorns
.5 oz black pepper-wood ear syrup (basic simple syrup with 2 tbs wood ear mushrooms, 2 tsps black pepper added)
.25 oz Dolin Blanco vermouth
6 drops white truffle oil

Instructions
Crush peppercorns slightly
Leave vodka to sit with mushrooms and peppercorns steeping in it for about 5-10 minutes
Strain vodka into a shaker with ice, add syrup and shake
Coat glass with vermouth, add contents of shaker
Add of few of the vodka-soaked mushroom pieces back to the glass
Add truffle oil in little drizzles

The best thing about this drink is that not only is the drink yummy, but you end up with vodka-soaked mushrooms that are freaking amazing. I’m actually going to save them to use in other stuff.

Mirrored from Antagonia.net.

Last night, I pulled out the ice cream maker for the first time this spring. It’s time!

Now, there’s a little more of this story I might tell you another time…I *will* tell you another time…but I’ve been planning on making toffee bacon ice cream all winter, and then yesterday I came up with an idea that was either inspired genius or gross! So I had to try it!

Cracked Pepper and Sea Salt Ice Cream

Ingredients
3/4 cup whole milk
3/4 cup half & half
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup piloncillo sugar
4 egg yolks
2 Tbs honey
1 Tb vanilla bean paste
1 tsp cracked black pepper
1/2 tsp fine sea salt

Instructions
Whisk the egg yolks and the sugar together until frothy and pasty.
Mix the milk and half & half together in a saucepan, cook just until boiling, remove from heat, wait until it stops bubbling.
Add 1 Tb of the hot milk to the sugar and egg mixture, whisk quickly to keep the eggs from cooking.
Keep adding the hot milk to the sugar and eggs in small increments, whisking and pausing between additions, until 3/4 of the hot milk has been added.
Pour the milk/egg/sugar mixture back into the saucepan, and add honey and vanilla, heat over medium heat, stirring frequently until mixture thickens.
Remove from heat and chill for at least four hours.
Once chilled, add heavy cream and stir until well mixed. Stir in salt and pepper.
Put entire mixture in ice cream mixer and follow instructions for your ice cream mixer until frozen. Put finished ice cream in freezer.
Chill for at least two hours in freezer.
Serve with cracked pepper and additional shavings of piloncillo on top.

I can’t even tell you how awesome this was. It is so lovely. I really wasn’t sure if it would even be edible, but holy wow, I want to eat it all the time. I am making another batch of it up here at the barn for my parents.

Story number 2: In which Tea actually makes a drink with vodka that isn’t something for her dad.

You know how sometimes things all come together in funny ways so that weeks have themes? Well, here’s how my week went as far as my libation imbibement for the week.

trouserminnow posted something about vodka earlier this week, and pretty much the question of what cocktail there might be that is actually better with vodka than with any other spirit, where the vodka is actually tasteable as the centerpiece of the drink (many vodka cocktails are all about covering up the flavor of the vodka). Which I’ve been thinking about now on and off, because I can’t *not* take that as a challenge. And I have a theory which I will be trying out later this week at home.

Then, I was over at Astor, and apart from getting an excellent little daiquiri-style drink, I discovered Boyd and Blair, which is very possibly the greatest vodka I have ever tasted. Seriously, this thing has a depth to it that I’ve been starting to see in some newer vodkas, but it just goes beyond anything else I’ve ever had.

Then, tonight, my mom bought a bottle of Comb, which is distilled from honey. I love their gin, Comb 9, and the Comb was ostensibly a “We need a good vodka for guests who hate gin” purchase. Because pretty much anytime my parents have friends up to the house, they want vodka, and we have barely any (at least compared to anything else in our cabinets).

Also, today, I sent karnythia a drink recipe, and I know she’s a vodka drinker, so I was messing around with vodka in my headspace to begin with, and then I wanted to try a variation on what I gave her. So, karnythia, this drink is also for you!

Split Hive

Ingredients
2.5 oz Comb vodka
.5 oz rhubarb-honey-white balsamic syrup (recipe below)
10 blueberries
1 4 inch narrow piece of rhubarb stalk.

Instructions
Add everything but the piece of rhubarb to a glass or pitcher, muddle until blueberries are well-crushed.
Strain into a chilled cocktail glass, add stalk for garnish.

Ingredients for syrup
4 small rhubarb stalks
2 Tbs honey
2 tsps white balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup water

Instructions
Chop rhubarb into very small pieces.
Add to small saucepan, add water to cover.
Add honey and vinegar, heat until boiling.
Once boiling, stir intermittently to keep rhubarb from sticking to pan
When liquid becomes syrupy and rhubarb has cooked down completely, remove from heat. Strain into a bottle.

And finally, for the most exciting news of the day!

I went out to Long Island after work, and met my mom to drive up to Connecticut, with a stop at Suburban Wines on the way (which was incredibly disappointing; this place used to have an amazing selection. I don’t know if it’s a reflection of the clientele or staff turnover or what, but while their bourbon selection is still pretty okay, that’s pretty much the ONLY selection that wasn’t completely decimated. It was sad! But I digress. Anyway, I get into the car, and when we stop at a light, my mom tells me to be quiet and listen.

I hear this sound. It goes, peep peep peep.

PEEP PEEP PEEP.

It takes me a second.

“Holy shit, is that in the car?!” I ask.

“It’s in the car,” my mom answers.

So then when we stop the car at Suburban, the first thing I do is open the back door to see the new babies.

PEEP PEEP. They peeped all the way home! It is the most joyous noise in the universe, all the little peepings! So cute! So exciting! Chickens! I do not even know where to begin with how awesome this acquisition is!

I HAVE CHICKENS, PEOPLE. CHICKENS.

Mirrored from Antagonia.net.