hello hello. The past month has been incredibly full of cocktail experiments and frantic illustrating (including another cookbook, a CD cover, and blog logos).
Over the last few weeks, my friend Dan and I have been geeking out over cocktails, particularly infusions made with his spiffy ISI charger. The method allows one to rapidly infuse liquor with your spice, fruit, or other flavoring of choice using whippits, uh, I mean nitrous chargers. We’ve made Chinese five spice, szechuan peppercorn, celery/celery seed, and urfa pepper, all with great success. (The five spice in a manhattan is a treat).
But I like old school infusions too — fill a jar with fruit, add booze, wait. My stock of japanese ume plum bourbon is perilously low, so another infusion was imminent. A trip to Palm Springs a few months ago inspired me to finally make date infused bourbon. The bar at TWO on Hawthorne Lane in SF (may it RIP; it’s now fancypants Benu) used to feature a Manhattan variation, made with date bourbon, and subbing in nocino (walnut liqueur) for sweet vermouth. The result was nutty, sweet and warm. Rest assured it will be the first drink I make once this infusion is ready (oh, about 2 weeks from now).
Date Bourbon
- 15 dates
- bourbon to fill (likely a little less than 750ml)
- jar
1. Wash and pit the dates. (I know some folks skip this step, but there are sometimes bug eggs and/or worms in dates. See??
2. Add to jar.
3. Pour in bourbon. ( I used Bulleit, because this is was TWO used)
4. Wait (2-4 weeks, tasting periodically until it tastes right to you)
5. Strain into clean jar.
6. Drink.
