Two Trios Cocktail.

Lots of cocktails at the farm these days (well, sort of, more reading and shopping than actual drinking, but such is life).  We may just need to change the name to Putney Tavern (hmmm…I like the sound of that). In any event, we are the hosts of Mixology Monday and the drinks are rolling in, so we figured we would do one more cocktail. The theme is “Intercontinental” and the challenge is to use ingredients from multiple continents (full details here). We used five continents in the Horn of Good Hope cocktail, so now we are looking to use six.

Seeing as our bar is already full of ridiculous esoteric bottles, we decided to look to the orchard, garden and pantry for ingredients from the “tough” continents like Africa and Australia. And pretty soon we learned that our Cayenne pepper is from Africa (who knew?) and that our candied and crystalized ginger is from Australia. From there, things started rolling.

One concept we are familiar with is the “holy trinity” of Creole cooking, the mirepoix of onion, green pepper and celery. But there is also a lesser-known “trio” of using black, white and red pepper in spicier recipes. The idea is to give heat, bite and burn to a dish so you get layers of spice. This concept works really well in cooking, so we figured we could apply it to the cocktail. The ginger has heat and the Cayenne burn, so all we needed was some “bite”.

Well, with booze, that is easy enough. The spirits themselves have kick, and citrus (without too much sugar) has that sour bite. So now that we had a few ingredients, we just looked to the map and started to play. One of our favorite spirits, El Dorado Demerara rum comes from South America, we chose to go in the direction of a daiquiri. And since we were thinking of trios, we decided to use three types of citrus that would add complexity and help finish our “map”.

The Two Trios combines Demerara rum (Guiana, South America), Persian lime juice (North America, oddly enough), Meyer lemon juice (originally from Asia), Curaçao (Europe, France in this case), ginger liqueur (Europe, although the ginger is Asia or Australia), a pinch of Cayenne pepper (Africa) and a crystalized ginger garnish (Australia). Antarctica will have to wait.

So how does it taste? Very, very good. One of our better Mixology Monday cocktails, and one we will make again. The Two Trios lands somewhere between a daiquiri and a tiki drink with a clear rum and citrus base augmented by a wave of extra spice. You get sour lime and rum up front and then the orange, lemon and ginger in the middle. And at the end you get just a hint of burn from the Cayenne. It builds, but just enough that you know it’s there. And if you take a bite of the crystalized ginger you get a nice blast of sweet heat. A good sip from beginning to end.

So that is our second Mixology Monday cocktail. Every time we do this it gets the creative juices flowing and we learn something along the way. And usually we end up with a tasty cocktail. Not a bad deal…not bad at all. Roundup post coming soon!

Two Trios Cocktail:

Ingredients:

• 2 oz. Demerara rum (El Dorado gold)
• 1/2 oz. Curacao (Pierre Ferrand)
• 1/2 oz. ginger liqueur (Massenez)
• 1/2 oz. lime juice
• 1/2 oz. Meyer lemon juice
• 1 pinch Cayenne pepper
• Crystalized ginger, for garnish

Assemble:

1. Spear the crystalized ginger on a long toothpick or cocktail spear.
2. Combine all the liquid ingredients and the Cayenne in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake until well-chilled and strain into a chilled cocktail glass or coupe. Garnish with the crystalized ginger. Serve.

Related articles

• Mixology Monday LXXVIII Announcement: Intercontinental (putneyfarm.com)
• Mixology Monday “Intercontinental” Cocktail #1: The Horn Of Good Hope (putneyfarm.com)
• …and Antartica (drinkstraightup.com)
• Life is Beautiful (swizzzlestick.wordpress.com)
• Smoke Signal (drinkstraightup.com)
• Apple and Snake (drinkstraightup.com)
• Smoke: Playing with Laphroaig (tartinestotikis.wordpress.com)