Ladies and Gentlemen

It is MxMo time again - and after a long, long [long, long] time, I do my contribution to this event!

Well - Rum Dood is hosting of this precious event and has chosen a great topic: GINGER.

Ginger is just a miraculous root with a lot of flavors. The flavor is so unique - and I actually like it very much in food as well as in drinks.

As I am a little busy - as well as far away of my save harbor thus bar, I am picking a drink, I didn’t talk about [at least I don’t think so].

I’ve created signature drinks for the Noble House restaurant in the Hyatt Regency Yekaterinburg. As the theme was Asian and they had flavored Sake and Umeshus, I chose to pick those - though this was surprising challenging.

Especially a beverage called Fujichiro Ichigo [strawberry sake] was difficult to deal with.

Why?

Well an easy and mixable liqueur has: lots of sugar, lots of flavors, lots of alcohol.

Alcohol and sugar are aroma enhancers. If you have one of both in sufficient amount, you don’t need to be afraid that your drink becomes watery.

The Fujishiro Ichigo has nothing of all: it is very dry - you actually don’t taste any added sugar.

The alcohol has 7% abv. So alcohol is also very low, too low to make a conventional tasty,

mixed drink!

And the flavor?

If you first of all smell at the Ichigo [means strawberry in Japanese], you pick up beautiful aromas of wood strawberries. Very floral, very sophisticated, though also very subtle.

If you then close your eyes, these strawberries disappears from your palate; it transfers to a floral sake - though not in any means a flavored liqueur...

I didn’t wanted to use fresh strawberries or strawberry syrup - as this would have cover all the character of the product.

Well what to do?

Add sugar!

The strawberry taste became more apparent as well as the very subtle sake flavor.

Add bitters!

Bitters are the spice in cocktail making. The flavors became deeper and more complex.

Add ice!

Yeah - crushed ice dilutes - but it is also fun to drink these kinda icy drinks. It makes the drink longer, colder and it looks good.

Add ginger!

Ding ding ding! The ginger made the drink! It gave the distinctive ginger zing, which is a kinda spiciness with a sort of acidity. I didn’t wanted to use a lot of citrus juice - though the ginger brings everything perfectly in balance and even enhances the strawberry taste.

In this drink the ginger rocks, without being overpowering!

The recipe:

Ginger Fujichiro

Fujichiro Ichigo      5      cl

Rich Syrup             1      cl

Angostura Bitters   1      dash

Fresh Ginger          10    g

Muddle peeled ginger in the guest glass with rich syrup & bitters.

Add Fujishiro and stir.

Fill glass with 2/3 with crushed ice.

Stir again shortly and squeeze a snall piece of lime over it.