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All About Orris: Harvest in Tuscany

In Tuscany on a botanical trip with Bombay Sapphire, we learned how the orris root is grown and processed to use in the gin. 

Orris root is the rhizome of the Iris flower. Here in Tuscany they are grown on sloping hills between rows of olive trees. Nice space.

These iris flowers are not grown for their beauty, unlike other iris varieties, but for the quality of their rhizomes.

The rhizomes are bulbs on the base of the plants. Skinny roots shoot off the rhizomes. These are cut off. 

The plant tops, with a tiny portion of the rhizome attached, are replanted. 

The orris is then hand peeled. 

Then it is left out to dry in the sun.

Later it is aged. The floral aspect comes out only after this, when it is extracted into gin or perfume. 

Picking Juniper Berries in Tuscany: A Photo Album

In May I visited Italy to learn more about the botanicals used in Bombay Sapphire. From Tuscany they get both the juniper berries and orris used in the gin. 

In the rolling hills of Tuscany at high elevations where there are few trees and many wildflowers are found the juniper bushes. 

They're kind of ugly, sprawling little bushes.

They're full of clusters of berries- more than I'd expect. We were there during the off season, so not many are the blue color of ripe berries. 

Juniper is harvested by hand, using wide round baskets and short sticks. 

They stick the baskets beneath a branch and whack it with the stick so that the blue, ripe berries fall off but the green, unripe ones do not. 

Some of the needles stick to the berries. Any green ones that get in are sorted out later. 

I tried it, but wasn't very good at it. 

But then again, there weren't actually any ripe berries to harvest at this time of year. 

Bushwhacking in Tuscany: Juniper Berry Harvest Video

Last week I went to Tuscany with Bombay Sapphire to see a demonstration of juniper berry harvesting. I'll try to post more information in a little bit, but for now here's how they do it:

Using a flat, round basket and a short hard stick, they whack the juniper bush branches so that the berries fall off. They want only the blue, ripe berries and not the green, unripe ones that will be ready the following year. Thus they must hit the bush with a certain force that removes one ripeness of berry and not the other.

Sloe and So It Goes

With The Bitter Truth Sloeberry Gin joining Plymouth Sloe Gin in the category of sloe gins that have sloes and gin in them, your Sloe Gin Fizz doesn't need to be full of false advertising. 

That's basically what I talk about in my most recent post for Fine Cooking. 

Germany, Ensslin, Aviation, and Blue Cocktails

My latest post on FineCooking.com is up. It's typical of my thought process: I was going to write about my time in Germany and ended up talking about a German bartender who wrote an American cocktail book in which the Aviation cocktail was first mentioned and later forgotten. 

Read it here. 

(I took this picture- not bad for me!)

The Historically Inaccurate Gimlet

My second piece on the FineCooking.com cocktail blog is up.  It is a rather simple fresh lime Gimlet recipe. I know that the Rose's lime cordial Gimlet is historically accurate, but I mean seriously, yuck. 

 
 

The Pinky Nutscadero: A Cocktail with Gin and Peanut Liqueur

 

Here's a cocktail I came up with for Thursday Drink Night at the Mixoloseum. The sponsor was Beefeater Summer Edition Gin, and I never know what to mix with Castries peanut liqueur. It turns out that just the two of them are kind of fun together. The Peychaud's bitters adds a bit of flavor and does wonders for the color.  

Pinky Nutscadero
by Camper English

2 ounces Beefeater Summer Gin
1 ounce Castries peanut liqueur
4 dashes Peychaud's bitters

Shake all ingredients with ice and serve up.

Wayfare Tavern Cocktail Menu Preview

After nearly a year of no notable cocktail programs launching in San Francisco, they're coming fast and furious these days, with the Comstock Saloon, Burritt Room, Scott Beattie's program at Spoonbar in Healdsburg, Brooke Arthur's menu at Prospect, and The Bon Vivants at Wayfare Tavern.

What's that, you say? Didn't you just read in the Eater interview with  Tyler Florence about his restaurant Wayfare Tavern that he won't have fancy cocktails? Yes you did:

Can we talk about the bar program?

You know, there are some amazing consultants in the city, but I don't know if we're necessarily going to go there. We've got talented people here in house and it's really all about Martinis and Sazeracs. I think the craze of muddled, precious cocktails is kinda over. I don't think people want to pay for that or wait. So we're still putting the finishing touches on, but I promise it's going to be amazing.

How quaint! I had a little chuckle at that one.  

Luckily he changed his mind, because now Wayfare will have a cocktail menu created by The Bon Vivants, also known as Scott Baird and Josh Harris.

(The Bon Vivants. Photo by Liza Gershman.)

As usual with these two, the drinks are creative, chock full of hard-to-identify ingredients, and difficult to imagine by reading the menu how they'll taste. No doubt they'll taste delicious, as they always do. I am, of course, excited to try the black tea shrub. 

The days of precious cocktails is not quite over, I'm glad to say. Look no further than the  Granite Lady: That's an Old Tom Gin Martini with three kinds of vermouth. Hallelujah!

Wayfare Tavern Drink Menu - Subject to Change

The Leidesdorff
Buffalo Trace Bourbon, Benedictine, Royal Combier, Orange Muscat, lemon, egg white, cinnamon tincture.

Darkness at Noon
Bourbon Rooibos Wild Turkey Rye, Galliano l'Autentico, Floris Apple Lambic, honey, lime, angostura

Fort Vigilance
High West Silver Whiskey, Leopold Brothers Michigan Tart Cherry Liqueur, Hidalgo “Faraon” Olorosso Sherry, Aperol, Peychaud's

Occidental Sour
Macchu Pisco, St. Germain Elderflower liqueur, Mondavi Moscato d'Oro, caramelized pineapple syrup, lemon, lime, egg white, Peychaud's

Gravel & Gold
Cap Rock Gin, 42 Below Munukah Honey Vodka, R&W Orchard Apricot Liqueur, lemon, seltzer, egg white.

The Granite Lady
Hayman's Old Tom Gin, Cocchi Americano, Dolin Blanc, Sutton Cellars Brown Label, Grapefruit Bitters 

Dutch Plum Shrub
Bols Genever, Plum & Black Tea Shrub

(Image courtesy of Wayfare Tavern.)