Add Tea to Cocktails This Holiday Season
A holiday riff in a classic cocktail is good, but it seems like the “seasonal highlight” always starts and ends with cinnamon. There is nothing inherently wrong with cinnamon – it is available and undeniably sweet, but no sweetness added, and even supposedly good for your blood pressure or the like. So it seems to find your way into any and all weekend specific cocktails, the first and last answer to the question of how to make the drink taste right for now.
This is also a little outdated. In fact, it’s so unobtrusive that the entire state proudly adds it to their chili peppers with little to no side effects. Saffron, it is not.
So instead of party drink recipes that just change syrups, here’s a suggestion: Buy some Coconut Crush Chai and put it in something. Better yet, buy some Coconut Crush Chai and put it in whatever is on the bar trolley .
Pouring tea into spirits, liqueurs, or flavored wines is nothing new, although it certainly has a moment in the world of craft cocktails, and for good reason. Many of the herbs, botanicals, bark and roots present in herbal teas are the same as the ingredients in herbal liqueurs and amaro, so in some cases you are just doubling down on the time-tested flavors. Unlike other, often misused or misused ingredients, tea is literally infused and therefore quick and relatively easy to do so. Fresh herbs used in similar quality are flat at best and bitter at worst, and many spices themselves require roasting, toasting, chopping or otherwise tinkering with, not to mention a frustrating amount of time, and that’s it. this is for the end result. small note. Tea, on the other hand, is the perfect modifier: it already contains a subtle blend of interesting aromas and is specially formulated to be immersed in liquids where it will leave just the right amount of itself.
Recently browsingthe Nomad Cocktail Book , looking for ideas for holiday cocktails that outperform plain old cinnamon, I spotted Leo Robicek’s sweet tea-infused vermouth recipe. Already familiar with Tea Spot from its repeated mentions inDeath & Co (and subsequent frequent use in my own bar ), I bought a packet of Coconut Crush and have tried it in other drinks since then, with almost unanimous positive results.
The basic recipe is extremely simple: add 30 grams of tea to one 750 ml bottle of liquor, let it brew for about five minutes, strain and enjoy. No vacuum bag, no immersion circulation, no heating or any intervention. There are several nuances to achieving the desired level of infusion and concentration of aroma, but it is quite easy to understand:
- The proof is pudding: alcohol is such a perfect backdrop for tea infusions, in part because proof of it speeds up the process. A liquor with a higher alcohol content will extract flavor from the tea at a faster rate; Thus, in the same five minutes, you will get more tea from the whiskey infusion (and into it) than from tea with vermouth.
- Timing is everything: Robicek also notes that lengthening the time to extract more flavor only works to a certain extent. Tea brewing times that are too long will start to produce a bitter taste, so if you want to try more infusion add more tea over the same time, not the same amount of tea over a longer time. You can even do it in stages: add 30 grams over five minutes, strain and taste, then add another 5-10 grams over another five minutes, and so on and so forth.
At the bar, we added Coconut Crush to pretty much everything. The obvious choice is barrel-aged spirits, where a little extra spice adds a lot of festiveness to the atmosphere. Whiskey, rum, and apple brandy work great. However, we are equally fortunate with amaros and herbal liqueurs, where coconut softens some of the bitter edges and the spice works in concert with pre-existing botanical complexity. (Softer amaro, rather than aggressively spicy, work better. Averna and Ramazzotti were perfect, but Jaeger, while delicious, was clearly like a fireball.) Perhaps surprisingly we found a permanent home for Coconut Crush as a Martini-style cocktail modifier in our Old Tom gin menu (the recipe for which you can find below).
However, the most practical move at home is probably Robicek’s original: vermouth. Add tea to the sweet vermouth of your choice (Cocchi Torino works great) and you can make a festive version of a range of classic cocktails – Manhattans, Boulevardiers , even plain vermouth and soda – that smell like a festive mood rather than a red hot (or Cincinnati Chili).
And remember: the vermouth you buy in December, infused with tea or otherwise, will go bad by January. This is your gentle reminder to keep it in the refrigerator for now and then throw it away. You are welcome.
Super Quick Tannenbaum Tea Time
Ingredients:
- 30 grams Coconut Crush Chai
- 750 milliliters of any liqueur, liqueur or vermouth
Combine tea and alcohol in a large jar, giant measuring cup, or any other container that holds 750 milliliters. Let it steep at room temperature for five minutes, then bottle it again, then use in a variety of holiday-themed cocktails. If you need some inspiration, we have some great suggestions below.
Secret Handshake (from Double Dragon )
- 1 3/4 oz Beefeater London Dry gin
- ½ ounce Hayman’s Old Tom Tea Infused Gin
- ¾ oz Cocchi Americano
- ¼ ounces of Kalisaya
- 3 drops of orange bitter
- Lemon twist
Add ingredients to mixing glass, stir with ice, strain in compartment, garnish with lemon wedge.
Boulevard
- 11/2 ounce bourbon
- Ounces of Campari
- Oz Cocchi Torino Tea Flavored
- Orange twist
Pour in a double glass, add a large ice cube and stir, garnish with orange peel.
Martinez
- 2 oz Hayman’s Old Tom Tea Infused Gin
- 1 1/2 oz Carpano Antica
- 1/4 oz Luxardo Maraschino
- 3 drops of orange bitter
- Lemon twist
Add ingredients to mixing glass, stir with ice, strain in compartment, garnish with lemon wedge.
Manhattan employees only
- 1 ¾ oz Cocchi Torino Brewed Tea *
- 1 ½ oz Rittenhouse Rye
- ½ ounce Grand Marnier
- 3 drops of Angostura bitter
- Lemon twist
Add ingredients to mixing glass, stir with ice, strain in compartment, garnish with lemon wedge.
* Since this drink contains a lot of vermouth, even a 30-gram infusion can be too much. Try 15 grams first and build up gradually.