The Thursday Drink Night theme last week  was Casa Noble tequila. Specifically, their Crystal, or blanco. We were joined in the chat room by Jose “Pepe” Hermosillo, a founding partner of Casa Noble, all the way from Jalisco, Mexico! He graciously answered our many questions and even shared a few photos from where Casa Noble is made.

This week the theme is Gin!

Check out the recipes then vote! (Poll below recipes)

Tequilez: 1 1/2 oz Casa Noble blanco tequila, 1 1/2 oz sweet vermouth, 2 barspoons maraschino liqueur, 2d orange bitters. Stir, strain, up.

Smoggy Sunrise: 2 oz Casa Noble reposado tequila, 1/2 oz lime juice, 1/2 oz mezcal, 1/2 oz strained raspberry puree, orange wheel.  Put raspberry puree in bottom of rocks glass with orange wheel and lightly crush orange. Place large single ice cube on top. Shake tequila, lime juice, mezcal. Pour slowly over cube

Default Password: 2 oz Casa Noble blanco tequila, 1 oz Amontillado sherry, 3/4oz lime juice, 1/4 oz Cointreau,3-4 d orange Angostura bitters.Shake,strain, top w thin layer of red wine

Ominous Green: 2 oz Casa Noble blanco tequila, 3/4 oz Chartreuse, 3/4 oz lime juice, 1/2 oz simple syrup, 2 dashes grapefruit bitters. Float 1t of JWray Overproof rum on top!

Burbujas Platas: 1 1/2 oz Casa Noble blanco tequila, 1/2 oz Cointreau, 1 oz lemon juice, 1 tsp orgeat, 1 tsp cinnamon syrup, 1/2 oz egg white. Dryshake, shake with ice, strain into a frosty tall glass and top with cold cream soda. Garnish with orange zest and a cinnamon stick.

Maharet’s Wrath: Muddle 1/2 of a green jalapeno w/ 1/2 oz lime juice & 1/2 oz simple syrup. Add 2 oz Casa Noble blanco  tequila, 1 oz grapefruit juice, 1/4 oz campari,shake, strain over crushed ice in rocks glass.Add a dash Peychaud’s bitters on the ice.

Witch of the Moor: 1 1/2 oz Casa Noble blanco tequila, 1/2 oz Strega, 1/4 oz pear liqueur, splash of blended scotch. Stir and strain into cocktail glass. Squeeze lemon twist and serve.

Noble Fashioned:  Muddle in rocks glass: 1 large twist of lemon, half barspoon of cinnamon syrup, 1 barspoon agave nectar, 3 fresh sage leaves and 2 dashes of choclate bitters (yeah, it’s a muddled mess). Add 2 oz of añejo tequila, a few large cubes of ice (mix/stir) and add juice from a 1/4 slice of lime on top

Veranda:  1 oz Casa Noble blanco tequila, 1 oz bison grass vodka, 1/2 oz Canton ginger liqueur, 1/2 oz lime juice. Shake/strain/rocks. Basil leaf garnish.

Tlaquepaque:  2 oz Casa Noble blanco tequila, 1 oz Aperol, 1/4 oz Clément Creole Shrubb, 1/4 oz Cynar, 2 cucumber slices. Muddle cucumber w/ booze in mixing glass, add ice and shake. Dbl strain, garnish w/ 2 thin cucumber slices.

Don Sangria: 1 1/2 oz Casa Noble blanco tequila, 2 1/2 oz fino sherry, 3/4 oz cinnamon syrup, 1/2 oz blood orange juice, 1 oz lemon juice, 1/2 oz Aperol, 2d grapefruit bitters.

Spaghetti Western: 2 1/4 oz Casa Noble blanco tequila, 1/4oz Averna, 1 barspoon dark raw agave nectar, 2d Fee’s Whiskey Barrel-aged bitters. Build on rocks, stir.

The nose of the mezcal reaches me, its earhty…and smoky…but not overwelmingly so – in a pleasant way that invites you to take a sip. Mezcal (mes-kal) generally refers to all agave-based distilled liquors that are not tequila. Tequila is made only from the blue agave plant and usually produced in the town Tequila and its surroundings of Jalisco.

Mezcals are made from 100% agave while tequilas must be produced from a minimum of 51% agave and there are several different varietes of agave used each producing a different flavor of mezcal. Espadín agave is used in the making of about 90% of the mezcal.

The word mezcal means “cooked maguey” and comes from Nahuatl, one of the ancient languages of Mexico. The word maguey (used to represent the pre-Columbian “tree of wonders”) is synonymous with agave which contrary to many beliefs isn´t a cactus but a relative to the Lily and  Amaryllis. The distillation process was brought to Mexico by the conquistadores.

There are several types of mezcal, and there is a broad range of quality in terms of smoothness, flavor nuances and smokiness. For example there is the tobala mezcal which is made from the heart of tobala maguey that grows wild and is only distilled in earternware pots, (makes about 5% of the mezcal production) the mezcal with a worm, mezcal with no additives except a particular herb or fruit zest or more herbaceous products.

Then there is mezcal de pechuga which is an artisanal product only produced in a few mountain villages in the State of Oaxaca.

Its a very special kind of mezcal -  finished mezcal is distilled a third time with a chicken breast along with certain fruits and other ingreidents, made by hanging a raw chicken breast in the still or over the top of the vat during production, imparting a subtle flavor nuance in the spirit as well as a bit of body created by the vaporized fat.

The still is then  closed and the distilling process proceeds over a few weeks. When complete and the still is opened, there´s nothing left of the chicken breast except the bones. The finished product is said to taste fruity and floral without any chicken taste.

In this video Ron Cooper from Del Maguey explains the myths and the seven factors that affects the quality and flavor of the mezcal. You should really watch this video if you like mezcal, its very interesting.

In short, those seven factors are the following:

Plant Species – there are about a dozen maguey plants that produces good mezcal, so the plant variety is important as each one gives different flavours.

Altitude – its here the airborne microbes plays their role and at every 300 feet up (100m) its different species of microbes. These airborne microbes affects the fermenting. In commercial tequila and mezcal production chemicals are used but in the production of Del Maguey they wait between 4-30 days to let the airborne microbes start the fermenting. That`s a handcrafted spirit!

The soil – Different soils are used, and soil definetily adds a flavour component. Del Maguey uses a soil type that is called tierra amaria. Its a well drained granite-rich soil thus letting the water drain off fast which is very important as water from the soil is not good for the maguey as water through the roots and up in the plant makes it bitter. Instead the plants opens up its poores in the night and absorbs moisture.

Wood – the kind of wood that is used to heat the rocks that roast the hearts on gives off different flavours.

Water – the water of the village also has a flavour effect and the water is used after the hearts are ground and everything is placed in tanks or vats. Different village waters affects the flavours.

The hand of the maker – This is that magic personal touch that every producer of mezcal adds to the product and its possible to by blind tasting tell which village and which specific producer has made a certain mezcal.

Time – is one of the most important factors in a good mezcal – as mezcal is a real slow-food product – this is how flavour is made with love.

I`m very fond of mezcal, and i like how it mixes in cocktails imparting a smoky flavour, like a scotch – and mezcal marries so well with fresh fruit flavours – like tequila do.

So what to drink?

Somehow i got the idea to try the drink (Massive Sausage Attack)  that i made for the “Bad Name” TDN with mezcal and change and re-name it. The result is a fresh, fruity, herbal and smoky cocktail.

EARTH, HERBS AND SMOKE

1.5oz mezcal
0,5oz fresh lime
0.5 oz pink grapefruit juice
0.5 oz agave syrup
1 barspoon green chartreuse
Top with Ting or other grapefruit soda.

For a nice variation top with green cactus juice.

Shake with ice, strain and serve in a sugar coated old fashioned glass with large chunks of ice.

Garnish with lime.

This drink turned out really good, at least to my fruit-loving taste buds. The mezcal and chartreuse has a herbal-earthy and pleasantly smoky love-affair.The fresh pink grapfruit and lime sings their praises. Its definetily a summer drink, the hotter the summer the better is this drink, well chilled with lots of ice.

I’ve been lucky enough to get samples of a few different tequilas recently and I decided it was time to do something about it.

No, not drink them!  Wait…yes, drink them, taste them, mix with them, see what happens with them.

One thing is not like the other…

…yes, one of these is a mini.  Partida only sent a mini of their tequila, while the other three (inocente, Jose Cuervo Silver, and Tequila Ocho) sent fifths.  Unfortunately, that meant I couldn’t experiment as much as I’d like with Partida, but you take what you can.  (And keep that in mind – if you want cocktail bloggers to actually make COCKTAILS with your liquor, you need to provide enough for us to work with, and odds are, you won’t send enough in minis.)

I went with my usual way of experimenting with new liquors – smell, straight without ice, straight with ice, and in a mixed drink.  Obviously, given Tiare’s post, the liquor, and the fact that tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo, I had to go with the margarita as my drink!

Ahhh, my UVA glasses…wahoowah.

I’d tried the Tequila Ocho once or twice in the past, and Gina down at PS7 had hooked me up with tastes of the inocente.  The Cuervo had yet to be cracked, though I like their Tradicional (but note this was the only one that wasn’t advertised as 100% blue agave), and I couldn’t recall having tried the Partida before.  So it was time to sniff.

First off, look at the colors, if you can see them there.  The Partida is by far the most yellow, the color of straw, and the inocent had a slight hint of yellow as well.  The others were blanco – white.

Sniffing them, the Partida seemed very smooth.  The Ocho I wanted to say was more floral, definitely more complex, but a bit more of an alcohol smell on it.  The Jose Cuervo Silver – uh, do not smell this one at length.  The inocente is complex, not as floral as the Ocho but a bit more earthy maybe.

Then to taste.  I used to always shoot tequila but I had a girlfriend for a while that was from Texas and she managed to switch me to enjoying it on its own. I looked forward to this part most of all.

Partida is smooth, very smooth, just a slight burn on it.  I’d have no problem recommending it.

The Ocho had no real burn at all, slightly floral taste.  It was also quite good and I’d recommend trying it this way.

The Cuervo – no.  In fact, to quote my notes:  “no no no no no no”.

The inocente was more complex than even the Ocho, with a hint of floral and an earthy taste.  To be honest, for me, leaving out the Cuervo, it was a toss-up between which is the best.  Like most straight liquors, it depends on what you like.

Next I added a single ice cube to each of them.  I let it sit for a minute – often times the water/ice combination changes the flavor of the liquor.

The Partida, in fact, seemed to me to show even more complexity with a bit of water in it.  I also noticed a bit more burn on the first taste of it, but not on the second, so that might’ve been just a bit of a fluke.  It’s a throw up which I’d prefer.

The Ocho was lighter than it had been before but still good – you could taste the floral in it but it wasn’t overwhelming.  I’d prefer it without the ice, myself.

Then we were onto the Cuervo again.

[21:10] SeanMike: oh dear god now it’s time for the jose cuervo again
[21:10] my friend: hahaha

Yes, I was a bit biased going into it but let me quote my notes again:

* Jose Cuervo Silver – no – gasoline – yuck

It was advertised a shooting tequila and – yeah.  Don’t linger on this one.

The inocente, with the ice, seemed to retain its complexity with the ice and did have a bit more burn.  Like the Ocho, I’d go without the ice, myself.

Finally, it was time for margaritas.  Unfortunately for the Partida, which I’d be interersted to see how it tastes, I was out of it – so it was just the other three.  I used the recipe from Gary Regan’s The Joy of Mixology.

Margarita
1 1/2 ounces white tequila
1 ounce triple sec
1/2 ounce lime juice

I used Cointreau for the triple sec and squeezed fresh limes.

Made with the Ocho, it made for a good, if not anything inspiring.  It was good, but nothing I’d jump up and down about it.  I dunno.  Maybe I was spoiled by the mezcal margaritas from Marshall’s recipe on Friday night…

The Cuervo – I initially wanted not to like it.  But the more I tried it, the more I’d say “it’s not bad” – it had more personality, perhaps, than the Ocho, but it also had more of a “off” taste to me in addition.  So – yeah – 50-50 – more taste, but also more bad taste to it.  Not bad, but not great.  I’m betting if you added something more to it – maybe some orange bitters, for instance – it wouldn’t be half-bad.  (And if you’re one of those heathens using the HFCS-infused neon-green mixtures, well, it won’t matter so much.)

The inocente won out overall.  It has a bit of complexity that sticks out through the lime juice and Cointreau, while not overwhelmed by the problems of the Cuervo.

Overall results:  The Cuervo was advertised a shooter tequila and was the only one not made from 100% blue agave (according to the bottles).  It, perhaps predictably, also fared the worst in taste, and really didn’t have much to recommend it.  If I can find something to make with it, I’ll suggest it, but it might be something more complex than a margarita.

The Partida wasn’t bad, especially over ice.  For a sipping tequila, I’d recommend it if you wanted it over ice, but I’m still interested how it’d do in a margarita.

Between the Ocho and the inocente, it depends on what you prefer, personally, but I think overall I have to go with the inocente if you wanted to also make margaritas with it.

Green Cactus Margarita – Recipe here.

There is but one word for this lively libation – freshness!

A LITTLE MARGARITA BASICS

The roots of this cocktail can probably be traced all the way to Jalisco, Mezico – right to the blue agave plant. It appeared in the States around late 1940`s. It was published as the drink of the month in the dec 1953 issue of Esquire magazine:

“Drink of the Month”

“She`s from Mexico, Senores, and her name is the Margarita Cocktail – and she is lovely to look at, exciting and provocative”

“1 ounce tequila, dash of triple sec, juice of 1/2 lime or lemon”

“Pour over crushed ice, stir. Rub the rim of a stem glass with rind of lemon or lime., spin in salt, pour and sip”

There are even earlier publications which describes cocktails using these ingredients in various proportions also with other names and there are many stories in circulation as to who invented the Margarita.

A Margarita is really a Sidecar with tequila and lime instead of brandy and lemon. The basics of making a classic Margarita is simplicity and a true classis Margarita is just 3 ingredients – tequila, lime and orange liqueur. I tend to prefer the ratio 2:1:1 (tequila, cointreau, lime)

If you like it sweeter despite the sweetness from the orange liqueur, add some simple or agave syrup. The orange liqueur that i would recommend is Cointreau.The tequila type to use is the silver/blanco or reposado but not anejo. Finally – i strongly recommend that you use fresh lime juice and simple syrup instead of a commercial sweet&sour mix.

The Margarita is one of those cocktails that has been severely bastardised (along with the Daiquiri and the Mai Tai) – often slushy, and made from commercial mixers. Luckily though is that the real Margarita isn`t all gone or forgotten. But i`m not against variations as long as they doesn`t become vulgar. A nice variation is to use the more tart key lime juice and with them Grand Marnier which is sweeter than Cointreau.

When it comes to rimming the glass with kosher salt, its a good idea to rim half the glass if you don`t know if the person who is going to imbibe it likes a salted rim.

I`m going to make a Margarita variation that adds a splash of jamaica – hibiscus tisane which is made with dried hibiscus flowers that are boiled and steeped in water, then sweetened with sugar or syrup. It has a tart/sweet very refreshing and tropical flavor that i think goes very well with tequila and fruits like lime. And finished off with a float of smoke – mezcal.

SMOKY MARGARITA JAMAICA

1.5  oz tequila
1  oz cointreau
1  oz fresh lime juice
¼ oz agave syrup
jamaica to top
0.5 oz mezcal
salt

Shake ingredients (except jamaica and mezcal) over ice, strain and pour into ice filled margarita glass rimmed with salt.
Top with a splash jamaica and float 0.5 oz good mezcal

Garnish a lime wedge.

HIBISCUS DRINK – JAMAICA

5 dl water to 2 handful of dried hibiscus flowers
9 cl agave syrup
Lightly boil for 5 minutes
Cool for 2 hrs

IT GOT TO BE FRESH – WITH INTENSE RICH FLAVORS!

Fresh, organic and locally sourced..

I´m very fond of using fresh ingredients in cocktails and cannot enough praise their superiority. Not only do they impart natural intense rich flavors to the drinks which cannot be compared to commercial mixers, they also add all those little things we need to feel good and stay healthy. When i read around i see a global rising interest in organically grown produce – ingredients giving their best and freshest flavors. Using fresh seasonal ingredients that are just at their peak is both tasty and good for us.

The ingredients of today are so over-refined until the point of loosing almost all its flavours and nutritients and there´s a steady rising resistance to this as people gets more educated – a lot of it thanks to internet. Its no lie that better ingredients makes better cocktails not only when it comes to the spirits and liqueurs, the mixers are just as important. Each cocktail is unique and of course we want them to be fresh from the base spirits and mixers to the garnish that adorns them!

Fresh to me means as unprepared and poison-free as possible as well as seasonal and regional. Now i happen to like plenty of tropical fruits and so these can never really be that fresh here – nothing much to do about that, but seasonality is also key so i try to shop at the farmers market when possible which unfortunately isn´t that very often. It also is more expensive, but fortunately not all ingredients.

Lucky those who live in places where there`s the farmers markets every week, take your chance to get real fresh local produce brimming with vitamins, minerals, enzymes and trace elements.

Fruits are very common in cocktails but what about vegetables? there are are host of vegetables well suited for cocktails, some are very commonly used like cucumber, tomato, chilies and celery. We also have beets, carrots, radishes, sundried tomatoes, pumpkins..

When looking for fresh vegetables and fruits, look for those that are firm, colorful and fragrant and avoid the dried and sad ones. Unfortunatley those that are the most shiny and nice looking are often treated with various things to stay unchanged unaturally long. Natural veggies and fruits often do as you know have a bit irregular shapes and sometimes little blemishes but not in a bad way.

I also see a willingness to experiment and play with all the flavors from the subtle to the bold and that`s something i myself really enjoy, often to the point of making others sometimes quite tired of me (e.g tweeting some of my drinks at the TDN for example) but i cannot avoid doing it, its in my blood, sorry chaps! its a continual process of trials and errors in learning how to balance flavors in a glass..

MIXING WITH FRESH BEET JUICE

Fresh red beet juice is deliscious when mixed with ginger, fresh lime juice, lemongrass, carrot juice and mint etc. Beets contains a lot of natural sugars and when roasted those sugars gets concentrated creating a sweet juice. When cooking fresh beets you cook them in their skins to preserve as much color as possible.

But i prefer the real fresh juice straight from the beet and so i`m going to treat you with a cocktail made from fresh beet juice mixed in a blender with passionfruit juice, fresh mint and lime juice, ginger, 1/2 fig and lemongrass – all sweetened with agavesyrup.

That juice is then strained 3 times to get all solids out and then refridgerated for 15 -20 min (at the same time the cocktail glass is chilled if you want to skip the crushed ice) before being mixed with 1.5 oz Bourbon and 0.5 oz Drambuie. To that i took the oportunity to make some dried beet chips and used one for garnish together with fresh mint and a speared half fig. The beet chips can be used as nice snacks as well, then its tasty to spray them with some olive oil and rub in a little sea salt before roasting them in the oven. But for use as garnish in a drink i omitted the oil and salt.

Beets has edible roots and tops and have the highest sugar content than any vegetable and yet they are low in calories. Fresh beets have twice the folic acid and potatissum than that of canned beets (avoid please..) and the green tops contains beta-carothene, calcium and iron. There is also a golden variety which is sweeter than the red ones.

Beets are also very good for infusions, the most common is probably with vodka.

What to do:

PURPLE ERUPTION

You see that deep red color? that`s what i love about fresh beets apart from their fantastic earthy taste that so naturally pairs with citrus-like flavours.

I first made this with tequila thinking it a natural pairing with the earthy flavours of the beets and the citrusy aromas from the ginger, lemongrass and lime. It tasted good but something wasn`t quite there and then to my surprise it was with bourbon the beet juice really was shining. I want to try this sometimes with dark rum and cachaca just to find out how it tastes. I can also imagine Cherry Heering and Creme de Cassis doing well with this beet juice.

MIX:

1.5 oz Bourbon (Bulleit)
0.5 oz Drambuie
Top with red beet juice mix – about 3-4 oz.
Garnish fresh mint, speared fig and beet chips.

Shake bourbon, drambuie and beet juice and strain into a cocktail glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with fresh mint, a speared half fig and a beet chips.

Red Beet Juice Mix: In blender – one sliced red beet, ½ fig, 3 small slices fresh lemongrass, 5-6 mint leaves, 2 slices fresh ginger, 0.5 oz agave syrup, 10 oz passionfruit juice (not a tart one) blend at high for 15 sek, strain 3 times, bottle and chill in fridge 20 min before use.

Beet chips: With a mandolin or cheesecutter slice a few chips from the beet before using it for the juice.Twist them a bit and spread on baking sheet in the oven on low heat, (100 C)  let dry for about 40 min or until dry but not burnt.Turn them around after half time. Check every 5-10 min or so. They will shrink considerably so try to make them as large as possible, and the thinner the better.

And voila! now you have a tasty and healthy cocktail! that also is very nice sans alcohol sometimes.The ingredients in this drink can be varied a bit i think, for instance maybe some fresh carrot juice would nice as well and a topping of root beer or ginger beer with dark rum.. hm…

BEET AND MEZCAL

I wasn`t able to let away the thought of trying the juice with mezcal, i thought i was done with this post but no, a mezcal drink was in order and had to be made and tested. As i suspected the mezcal paired well with the beet juice. So why didn´t the tequila i tried first do that? Well, not that it wasn´t good but there was a sort of bitter aftertaste that slightly disturbed me. Maybe i should just try another tequila, maybe a reposado rather than a silver?

But Mezcal proved to be a winner.

This is what i made with the mezcal, a very simple drink: 1 oz mezcal and top with beet juice, nothing else, well ice and then stirred. It was very tasty even though the smokiness of the mezcal dominated,  it paired very well with the earthy slightly sweet beet flavor, they go well together. I also added a small extra sprinkle of fresh lime after a while and that lifted the drink up to another level of added freshness.

SMOKY BEET

1 oz mezcal

Top with fresh beet juice mix

Stir in the glass with ice.

Add a sprinkle of lime.

Garnish with a few of the fresh young beet leaves, they are edible and tastes crisp and nice. It looks like a salad;-)

So if you haven`t had fresh beet juice in a cocktail yet, please take my advice and at least try it, the worst that can happen to you is that you zink your drink and the best that you may get converted into drinking beet juice for the rest of your life.

But..

Maybe everyone really doesn´t like beets…here is another suggestion for a drink using a sort of fruit-vegetable, a plantain Punch:

PLANTAIN PUNCH

Plantains are cousins to the bananas but they are more like a vegetable than a fruit and are also called cooking bananas as they must be cooked or fried before used. So when used in a drink uncooked its needed to use a ripe one. They are green first and very hard, almost impossible to peel, then they turn yellow before the skin finally starts to blacken.

At that state they are used in dessers rather than in cooking. Plantains are very nice when fried and they also makes nice chips in the same way as the beet chips but plantain chips are deep fried rather than dried in the oven.

2 oz white rum

1 oz fresh lime juice

honey syrup to taste

4-5 slices ripe plantain

3 oz passionfruit juice

Buy a yellow plantain, riper and sweeter than the green which cannot be used here and avoid the blackened ones, they are not bad but too sweet for this drink. The flavor should be that of a unsweet vegetably banana. Use a few slices and add to a blender and blend with 2 oz white rum, 1 oz fresh lime juice,  simple syrup to taste, crushed ice. Blend until smooth.

If too thick, top with some more passionfruit juice.This drink can taste different depending on how tart your passionfruit juice is, the one we get here is sweet. Garnish with a piece of plantain.

USING BELL PEPPER

This is one of my favorite vegetables, the other one is tomato.The bell pepper or paprika as its called here is really useful in cocktails giving a very nice flavor that i think pairs very well with tequila, bourbon and white rum. I used it in my first entry to the MxMo which was in may 2008 one month before i started blogging. Back then i roasted a bell pepper and made a syrup of it and used it in a Bell Pepper Punch.

Then i discovered that i had also used bell pepper in June`s MxMo as well, i got to have been onto a real paprika craze or someting.This now reminds me that its maybe time to make a paprika syrup again or use fresh paprikas and use it in tequila and mezcal drinks this time. Here is the recipe for that old MxMo drink:

SPICED PAPRIKA WHISKEY SOUR

2×2 cm red Paprika
2 oz Bourbon
0.5 oz Fresh Lemon juice
0.5 oz Raspberry pureé
1 oz Honey Spice Mix
Garnish: 3 red Paprika strips.

Muddle the paprika in a mixing glass and add the rest of ingredients and shake with ice, strain in ice filled rocks glass.

Honey Spice Mix (2 drinks) :

0.75 oz Honey, 0.75 oz Water
0.75 oz Fresh Lemon Juice
2 cm piece crushed Cinnamon stick
8 crushed green Cardamom pods

Stir honey with water, lemon Juice, cinnamon and cardamom in a small pan. Bring to a slight boil and simmer for about 15 minutes. Cool.

Raspberry Purée

2 dl Raspberries, 1 tsp fresh Lemon Juice, 1 tsp simple syrup, add a little water, puree. You want a quite thin pureé, so if to thick add some more water. Strain through cheesecloth to discard the seeds.

NOW ITS YOUR TURN

By showing a few of my recipes using fresh vegetables in cocktails i hope i can inspire some of you to try them out and to make your own concoctions that i hopefully will read about on your blogs sometimes! I don`t use vegetables in my drinks all the time of course but it happens now and then and when i do i really enjoy it. I`m definetily into drinking beet juice for the rest of my life along with JWray and Ting and i hope you will too.

Do you use vegetables in cocktails? and if you do, what do you use?