I love moments like this... meandering your way through experimentation until a solid cocktail is found. I got a bottle of ROOT liqueur from my good friend Virginia Lee for Christmas last year. I brought the bottle to Tonic with three ROOT cocktail recipes ready to test out. My guinea pigs? Tonic employees who were going to be sitting down to have their shift drink anyway.
I first undertook the Rootini. While the name itself sends shivers down my spine (see Derek Brown’s Goodbye to '80s Bartending Trends entry #1) I decided to give it whirl. Here’s the ingredients:
The Rootini
2 oz ROOT liqueur
½ oz Navan
Splash of heavy cream
Granulated sugar
Glassware: chilled martini glass
Begin chilling down a martini glass. In a shaker, add ice and 2 oz of ROOT liqueur. Add ½ oz of Navan and a splash of heavy cream. Rim the chilled martini glass with the granulated sugar. Shake the ingredients vigorously in the shaker and pour straight up into the martini glass.
So this cocktail received a mixed response. Some people hated it. Some people didn’t mind it. Those two reactions told me it wasn’t quite ready for prime time. OR this cocktail will need time for a little more experimentation to hit the right flavors.
I worked on this particular drink throughout the evening when I could. Then, as things began to wind down, I thought about the ROOT and ginger beer cocktail I’d seen. So I decided to start off simply putting ROOT with Gosling’s Ginger Beer. The result was great and it got a good reception from everybody. My bar manager, Doug, called it "a great summer drink." So keep this in mind when the warm weather comes back to DC. I'll keep experimenting.
Slainte!
ReplyDeleteWhat about something like a "Root Russian"...replacing the coffee liqueur with the root stuff? Gross? I was half in the bag when I tried root stuff so I'm not so sure it'll work. It could be a take on an adult root beer float....
ReplyDeleteI think Art in the Age has that one covered: http://vimeo.com/7399033. I know the ROOT and ginger recipe has been attempted by mixologists as well but I looked to simplification of their recipe AND striking a similar tone to the Dark and Stormy. You can see the finished product of our experimentation in my latest post.
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