|| A gin old-fashioned | Juniper | Cardamom | Lemongrass | Almond ||
This is it. This is the one. The reason I really started this cocktail blog. As I write this, I have recorded about 50 cocktail recipes of my own devising on my home menu. That is something I do when I’m happy to serve a cocktail to my friends. But if there was ever a drink that deserves to go on a menu in an actual bar, it would be this one.
What can I say besides that I’m extraordinarily pleased with this one? That part of its beauty is that it is a simple recipe? That it’s one of the very few gin old-fashioned I know of? That after designing it on paper, I only had to make 1 small adjustment? That cardamom is my current favourite spice to experiment with?
This was not my first cardamom-focussed cocktail, I confess, and it won’t be the last one. I had already done my homework regarding cardamom flavour pairings, and I’d made my first cardamom-lemongrass bitters. But now it was time to create something with these bitters!
As I mention in this accompanying post about those cardamom-lemongrass bitters, I’d made 2 lists of flavour pairings based on the book Foodpairing. After that it actually came together rather quickly, as my eye fell immediately on the “juniper” entry from the lemongrass list. A gin-based old-fashioned template, and although I couldn’t resist orgeat for the sweet component (which ties to the cardamom), I reckoned it needed something a little fruity as well. No place for juice in this template, but I did have a strong plum liqueur around (tying to the lemongrass).
Immediately I was amazed. I might have muttered a “wow!” to myself. I had started with a small splash of the plum, but found it could be increased because it missed a bit of sweetness while there was already plenty of almond. Almost belatedly I realised what the finishing touch ought to be. I was so focussed on not adding grapefruit this time (I’d already overused the grapefruit-cardamom combination), that this slipped my mind. Express the oils from a grapefruit peel over the drink and discard. Damn. So smooth.
So here is the recipe of The Intergalactic, I won’t keep you waiting any longer:
- 45 ml Gin
- 15 ml Plum Liqueur (40% ABV)
- 1 barspoon Orgeat
- 1 dash Cardamom-Lemongrass bitters
- Grapefruit peel for the oil
Stir well and strain into a double rocks glass. Colder is better.
Besides checking out the post regarding the bitters, here are some more notes.
The plum liqueur doesn’t really have a brand, I got it from a lovely local shop that sells liqueurs from big glass amphorae with a little tap. It means you can pick the size bottle you want to fill and even taste everything before you buy! I believe they get their stock from Germany, and I’ve seen these kinds of shop both there and here in the Netherlands. This liqueur is very nice on its own, it’s called Old Mirabelle (mirabelle are a type of plum), has an ABV of 40% and is a little sweet. So it’s drier than your typical fruit liqueur (say apricot ‘brandy’), but it’s definitely not an eau de vie. I am planning to do some experimental research and tell you how it compares to other ingredients like maybe eau de vie de mirabelle, palinka, or Japanese Umeshu?
What I can tell you already is what the plum does in this drink. It mellows it. You don’t taste the plums themselves. At least I can’t. Even after doubling the amount from my very first try, the primary function is to smoothen and to expand the taste. And by smooth I don’t mean that it loses its bite, after all it’s still 40% ABV! It forms a bridge that connects the sweetness (almond and cardamom) and the herbaceous (botanicals and lemongrass), giving more breathing room for both.
As for the Gin, I used trusty Tanqueray and am plenty happy with that, delighted even. I’m also planning more experimentation here. I reckon juniper-heavy gins ought to work best, probably ‘woody’ ones too. Tanq No. 10 would be worth trying too, since rosemary and grapefruit pair perfectly with cardamom. You will taste the gin very clearly in this drink, so pick one you like and that has character. Gins that are citrus- and coriander forward should work according to the theory, but my feeling is they will be less interesting. I don’t have high hopes for something like Hendrick’s because I don’t see its cucumber working here.
The grapefruit oil from the peel does really help to smoothen it even more. I really recommend this. Although without it it’s still a good cocktail, you do need it for that weak-in-the-knees effect. You can use it as a garnish on the rim, but don’t put it in the glass, that will be too much.
One later experiment involved upgrading to a Sazerac template. I say upgrading, because the Sazerac is one of my all-time favourites, and an absinthe rinse seemed like a sure-fire thing. Star anise, fennel, and peppermint are in the list of flavour pairings for lemongrass and cardamom, and gin and absinthe tend to be inseparable, so there was only one way this experiment was going. I thought. You can imagine my surprise, when it turned out that this made the cocktail more bland. What?! Somehow, the absinthe neutralises, cancels out, the majority of the interesting interactions between the botanicals and the spices. Like a particle and anti-particle annihilating, except much more disappointing. An interesting finding for future reference nonetheless.
The Intergalactic took less time to create than to name, as per tradition. With its milky appearance (due entirely to the orgeat), some connection to clouds or the Milky Way (for my usual astrophysical theme) would be apt. But I also felt it deserved a really memorable name. The Milky Way? Too trivial. Morning Haze? Meh. Fog of War? Pretentious. White Hole? Requires a much more in-your-face cocktail.
I even went looking for various myths around the milky way. There were some really good candidates involving Zeus’ typical shenanigans or dragons. However, this just seemed a bit too obscure for a drink that I hope could travel more widely than my living room. And what is the best kind of travel? Intergalactic travel. Behold, The Intergalactic!