An Almost-NA Cocktail That Tastes Like Spring
April's Cocktail of the Month features both this newsletter's first non-alcoholic bottle and tincture
The Cocktail - Blossom
Outside of syrups and sparkling mixers, I don’t think I’ve really written about non-alcoholic cocktail ingredients before. But more and more cocktail bars are focusing on N/A drinks and ingredients, and more and more folks are gravitating to them for a variety of reasons. It’s a category I’ve paid attention to for years, but the recent explosion has brought a ton of great new products to market and I want to give them their due here at Mixing Ingredients.
I’m buying more NA ingredients on just about every run to the liquor store I’m making these days, but the one that’s included in the Blossom is my favorite by a mile of my recent purchases. It’s marketed as an NA vermouth, but it drinks a bit more like Aperol or other lighter Amari. The resulting cocktail here is extremely low-proof (I haven’t fully run the math, but it should be under 5% alcohol) and drinks like a short spritz. I love it, and I’d be shocked if you miss the booze.
What You Have - Amontillado Sherry, Citrus Syrup
Similar to last month, you should still have a unique fortified wine and a flavored syrup on-hand. But while these were part of a very dry cocktail in March, in April they’ll be used for something a bit lighter. I think that’s fitting for the arrival of spring, where (at least here in Phoenix) everything has started to blossom like crazy.
What to Buy - Martini Vibrante
This stuff is so good that I tend to drink it on its own over ice - it’s a great way to start the wind-down from the workday without actual alcohol. But I’m having trouble describing it effectively. It starts with the orange and oregano nose you expect from a Martini sweet vermouth, but then it drinks more bitter than sweet and the sweetness you do get is very fruity (strawberry, specifically). I love it for the complexity.
Martini makes this like they make all their vermouths, except they remove the alcohol from the wine they use. But it’s much better than any NA wine I’ve had, as it seems that the aromification with the fruit and herbs really rounds out the flavors. I would use this in place of a sweet vermouth or Aperol in any recipe and feel good about doing so. The lack of any alcohol content is just a bonus that you’re adding the right kind of complexity without adding booze.
What to Make - Rosemary Tincture
I’m going to be honest - I don’t fully understand where the line is between an infusion and a tincture. I've written about many infusions, regular-proof spirits that have aromatics added to change the flavor. A tincture is pretty much the same thing, except the spirit is always high-proof and neutral and the aromatic is added in a greater quantity. All of that to say, this ain’t a rosemary vodka like you can buy in the store. It’s more like a bottle of bitters - very potent and high-proof but used in very low quantities in any given application.
Tinctures are truly simple: buy super-high-proof grain spirit, put it in a sealed jar with aromatics, and shake it up occasionally. In all of my research on tinctures, the biggest difference among sources is how long they recommend you steep the aromatics. For rosemary, Everclear’s own site recommends a 2-day steep, but others that I found recommended multiple weeks or even months. So, I’m testing it.
The first time I made this cocktail, it was with a 1-day steep. And I don’t think it lacked for rosemary flavor - the cocktail was noticeably different than one without the tincture at all. I’ll keep an updated log in the Chat for this post (which Substack has recently added to the web client as well!) and track how the drink and tincture change with time.
The Recipe
The biggest piece of advice I have here is to add your tincture to a dropper bottle like what I recommended for saline solution back in November. Anything you pour out of a bottle into a jigger is likely to be too much.
But, once you have the dropper ready to go, this is a simple build. Just add everything to a mixing glass with ice and stir.
2.5 oz Amontillado Sherry
1.25 oz Martini Vibrante
.5 oz citrus syrup
4 drops rosemary tincture
If you really like the rosemary, it can be nice to do a fresh drop or two in the finished cocktail too - it impacts the nose more than the palate, but I do like that change on the nose. I recommend serving this cocktail neat in a chilled glass, like the port glass in my main photo at the top of this post. It’s quite delicate, so I don’t recommend building in any extra dilution in the glass.