Twine and Mingle: The beginning

Chamomile, honey, rye, and lemon, this was the first combination of ingredients that opened the world of mixology to me. While in my Spirits and principles of mixology class at CIA, the final project was to develop a mock cocktail list. The list needed to be at least 20 drinks, that were costed to determine the beverage cost, and written as a menu. Out of the 20 cocktails, at least five had to be original drinks utilizing the skills that we learned through the semester. I always enjoyed tea, mostly those fruity teas that had dried strawberry halves, dried pineapple chunks, and other fruity elements. I knew that I wanted to use herbal tea in a cocktail with bourbon and decided to go with floral chamomile. As much as I love floral flavors, I was never a fan of the daisy-like chamomile flower. Chamomile is said to have a slight apple undernotes in it, but I struggle to find this and only ever get the white flower notes. I thought to pair the floral characteristic with the darker and richer flavor of bourbon. Not to hide and overpower the floral elements but to contrast with each other.

The other reason I wanted to utilize bourbon within this drink was to utilize the oaky vanilla flavors layered throughout most bourbons. To accompany those flavors, I decided to use ingredients that were just as floral as chamomile flowers and ingredients that complement as well, such as local wildflower honey and fresh lemon juice ingredients that most people use with chamomile tea. Every honey is slightly different based on the flowers the honey bees collect the pollen from, but I enjoy wildflower honey the most. The flavor profile for wildflower honey varies each year drastically but usually has complex floral undertones. With the lemon juice, it has to be fresh-squeezed. Sure, you can buy high-quality pre squeezed citrus juice, but nothing compares to the flavor of fresh-squeezed lemon, lime, orange, and grapefruit juice. Freshly squeezed citrus juice will keep at its prime for about three days. Any longer, the juice will oxidize and be slightly off in taste.

For my project, I decided that I would utilize iced chamomile tea, honey simple syrup, freshly squeezed lemon juice, and Hudson Baby Bourbon, a bourbon from a local distillery up by school, Tuthilltown. What I love about the products from Tuthilltown is how flavorful, and complex they are while being sustainably sourced, I'll be mentioning them again soon throughout other posts. Tuthilltown was one of the first distilleries to open after prohibition in New York and has been one of the leading distilleries in the craft movement and is building a legacy in using sustainable growth. The baby bourbon is their signature bourbon utilizing 100% corn and first-use charred American oak barrels for aging, which helps give the bourbon a little sweetness, and dark amber color with notes of marzipan and roasted corn throughout the finished product.

The chamomile and bourbon cocktail was my favorite one that I developed for my project and was the first one that I pitched at Castle Hill Inn once I started working there. Now, this drink was nowhere near perfect at this point, and when talking with Elle, my beverage manager, we decided to change the cocktail a little bit to help elevate and improve the beverage. All of the primary flavors were still there, chamomile, honey, lemon, but we did change the spirit from bourbon to a rye whiskey. Rye has similar characteristics as bourbon but has the addition of spicy undertones, which created more of a contrast to the floral notes in the drink. Instead of making an iced chamomile tea, we infused the rye with the dried chamomile flowers. The rye chosen was Rittenhouse Rye, which is excellent for infusing flavors into because of the rye high proof the spirit has.

When infusing spirits with flavors, it's crucial to remember a few things: proof, time, and amount. The proof of the spirit is essential because the higher the proof is, the easier it is for the spirit to pick up the flavors. You can utilize any proof spirit for infusing, but for lower proofs, you will have to adjust the time and amount of product for similar results. Time is critical, especially with chilies. Chilies only take about a half an hour to develop attractive spice characteristics in the spirit any more could lead to an unusable product that is too spicy. The amount of product is essential as well. Take making a cup of loose leaf tea, for example. For an eight-ounce cup of tea, the average amount of tea leaves needed for an ideal cup is about 1 1.2 teaspoons. If the correct amount of leaves is not used for a cup, the tea is weak and doesn't have the right flavor profile. You can apply the same principle to infusing spirits. The best way to determine how much of an ingredient is necessary for infusing is by testing. That is precisely what Elle and myself began to do, starting with a similar ratio of tea leaves used for eight ounces of tea.

We did a few small batches in mason jars to see how much tea we would need and how much time was needed to infuse the rye. After about three tries, we found the ratio that we would utilize for our chamomile infused rye. We ended up using 100 grams of chamomile to 3,000 ml (4 750mL bottles) of Rittenhouse Rye. We allowed this to infuse for seven days at room temperature inside a large glass growler. Now we could have increased the amount of chamomile to speed up the infusion process, but we found that allowing the infusion to take longer the floral notes didn't overpower the spice notes found in the rye.

After the rye infused, we decided to do our first test of the cocktail. We took 2 ounces of the chamomile infused rye, 1 ounce of honey simple syrup, and a ¼ ounce of fresh-squeezed lemon juice and stirred with ice. The principle of stirring a cocktail allows you to control the amount of dilution occurring in the cocktail better than shaking while thoroughly combining and chilling all of the ingredients. You should stir the cocktail for about 30 seconds, and you will be able to feel the spirits becoming cold and condensation forming around the mixing glass. Once chilled, we used a hawthorn strainer to pour the cocktail over large fresh rocks.

The cocktail had the dark golden amber color of the rye with a delicate floral aroma. When tasting the cocktail, you felt the spice and intensity of the rye first, which was followed by little sweetened white flower notes. The cocktail was almost perfect but was missing something. It had floral notes, slight acidity from the lemon juice, spice and warmth from the rye, but was still missing something, bitterness. Bitters act like the salt and pepper of cocktails; over usage can ruin a drink, but the right amount can elevate the finished cocktail. They can be savory, bitter, bittersweet, or sour in flavor profile depending on what purpose the bitters are fulfilling. They consist of a bittering root, spices, seeds, and botanicals infused into a high proof of alcohol and water. Many bitters are available commercially, but I wanted the challenge of making our bitters.

After researching how to make bitters Elle and I decided instead of using commercial bitters, we would try to make our own. We knew that we wanted to create bitters with the similar flavor profile that Peychaud's bitters have, which are floral, clove, cherry, nutmeg, saffron, star anise, and utilizes gentian root for the bittering agent. We decided for the bitters we would use toasted spices infused in Rittenhouse Rye, the same rye used with the chamomile. The spices and aromatics used were cardamom, clove, cinnamon, star anise, saffron, orange peel, and gentian root. With cardamom being a part of the ginger family, it added slightly spicy and sweet citrusy notes. The clove and cinnamon stick added those warming spices to the bitters. Star Anise is dark brown star-shaped pods that are native to China. The star anise has slight anise, sweet licorice, flavor, but slightly more bitter. Saffron is one of the most expensive spices in the world. Small yellow-orange stigmas, from cocus. Saffron is so expensive because there are only three stigmas per flower and which are hand-harvested. Saffron leaves a deep yellow color to anything that utilizes the spice. Saffron has an earthy aroma with under notes of honey and floral.

To make the saffron bitters, we toasted the cardamom, clove, cinnamon, and star anise, in a small saute pan to help release the oils in the spices and to intensify the aromatic characteristics. I took a mason jar and placed the toasted spices, saffron, gentian root, orange peel, and rye together in it. I tightened the lid and gave the bitters a good shake to incorporate and allowed them to infuse for about a week. Once the bitters had floral elements from the saffron and cardamom, warmth from the cinnamon and cloves, and bitterness from the gentian root, I strained the solids from the rye and bottled into dropper bottles and ready to be used in the cocktail.

Now with the bitters complete, it was time to test the cocktail again. We utilized the same proportions as the last time, 2 ounces chamomile rye, 1-ounce honey simple syrup, and ¼ ounce of lemon juice, but added two dashes of saffron bitters to elevate the cocktail. The bitters added a little bit more complexity, more warming spices, floral notes, and a little bit of bitterness to balance the cocktail. To garnish, I took a trip down the hill to our culinary garden on the property and harvested a few fresh chamomile flowers. The flowers were small with a bright yellow center and small white petals around. The fresh chamomile flowers added a freshness to the cocktail. With these new proportions, the cocktail was complete.

It is amazing to see how long the journey for one cocktail took. After months of work, research, and development, the finale version of Twine and Mingle was complete. Never did I imagine that the cocktail that started as just an idea in my dorm room would change so much and end up being my first professional cocktail. Twine and Mingle will always be close to my heart as it is the cocktail that opened my mind to the endless possibilities that are present in the beverage industry. Not only that, but this cocktail allowed me to work my way into the beverage program at my first job after graduation.

Twine & Mingle: yield one cocktail

2 oz. Chamomile infused rye ( see below)

1 oz. Honey Simple syrup

2 dashes bar made Saffron Bitters ( Peychuard's or Angostura Bitters would be lovely as well)

1/2 oz. lemon juice

Method:

1. In a mixing glass, combine the chamomile rye, honey simple syrup, bitters, and lemon juice.

2. Add large ice cubes to the mixing glass to fill

3. Stir quickly till the mixing glass is chilled about 30 seconds

4. Using a Hawthorn strainer strain the cocktail over large rocks (ice)

5. Garnish with fresh Chamomile flowers if you have them if not a few dried flowers

Chamomile Rye: yield 750mL.

750 mL. ( one bottle) of Rittenhouse Rye

25 grams Loose-leaf Chamomile tea (I prefer Harney and Son's tea due to the high quality of the product)

Method:

1. In a large glass container with a lid combine the Chamomile tea and Rittenhouse Rye

2. Tightly seal the container and allow it to infuse for at least four days at room temperature. I prefer infusing for at least a week to allow the full floral characteristics of the chamomile to develop.

3. Once the rye has rounded out in flavor with chamomile strain out the tea

4. Transfer into a clean airtight container, label, and date

5. Store at room temperature for up to two weeks

Saffron Bitters: yields 8 oz.

8 oz. Rittenhouse Rye

2 ea. Strips of orange peel

½ tsp. Cardamon, crushed and seeds removed from the pods

½ tsp. Cloves

1 ea. Cinnamon stick

1 ea. Star anise

¼ tsp. Saffron

½ tsp. Gentian root

Method:

1. Crush the cardamom pods to remove the small black seeds from the pods

2. Transfer the cardamom pods, cloves, cinnamon stick, star anise to a small saute pan and toast till aromatic. I like to use low heat to prevent the spices from burning. If the spices burn they will be very bitter and affect the finished product negatively

3. Transfer the cooled spices into an airtight container

4. Add orange peel, saffron, gentian root, and rye to the container

5. Seal the container and give a good shake to mix all the ingredients

6. Allow infusing at room temperature for 7 to 10 days.

7. The bitters should have a little bit of spice and a delicate floral bouquet to them with a large amount of bitterness on the finish

8. Strain the bitters and store them in an airtight container for up to a month.

9. I like to store my bitters in these bitter bottles.