- Julia Thiel
- The makings for four different cocktails
Earlier this week a coworker was nice enough to pass along a bottle of Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur that she’d been sent. Compared with some of the promotional items I’ve gotten, it ranks way up there—better than the box of dirt with six carrot tops I once received, for example. Or the Coors Light samples I recently got in the mail (which I gave to a different coworker, who was actually excited to try them). But the Canadian Mist whiskey blended with peach liqueur I tried last year, which was one of the worst things I’ve ever tasted, didn’t help my already low opinion of liqueurs.
I remembered, though, that a couple of years ago I tried a ginger liqueur made in Kansas City called the Big O that I really enjoyed. I started flipping through the little book of cocktail recipes with Domaine de Canton—and that’s when I got excited about trying the liqueur. I love making cocktails, but I don’t have a lot of specialized ingredients, and many of the recipes I come across are incredibly complex. These were simple. I have Angostura bitters, for example, and almost always keep lemons and limes on hand. I also have bourbon (rye, actually, but close enough) and Campari, and there was a tiny bottle of spiced rum in the Domaine de Canton package, presumably for the purposes of making the first recipe in the book. That meant I was set for four of the cocktails. So, of course, I made all of them.
Bạn đang xem: Making (several) ginger liqueur cocktails with Domaine de Canton
Xem thêm : Blood Test
First, though, I tasted the liqueur on its own. Like most liqueurs, it’s too sweet for me to drink straight, but the flavor is lovely. At 56 proof, it’s got nearly twice as much alcohol as the Big O, and it tastes bigger in every way: sweeter, more alcoholic, and with a much stronger ginger taste. When I interviewed the owners of the Big O they told me that they purposely toned down the gingery bite of their liqueur and lowered the alcohol content to make it more appealing for drinking on its own. My favorite thing about ginger is the spiciness it imparts, though, so I was happy to taste it in the Domaine de Canton. There’s some honey flavor to it and a touch of vanilla (the liqueur is brewed with both), along with some floral notes, but it’s mostly the ginger that comes through. (I should at least mention here that local distillery Koval makes its own ginger liqueur, but since I haven’t tried it I can’t compare it to the others.)
- Julia Thiel
- Left to right: the Bowery, Opening Act, Gold Rush, and Canton Breeze
Then I mixed up the cocktails. All except one called for a half ounce of lemon or lime juice, a couple ounces of Domaine de Canton, and a third ingredient (bitters, amaro, or whiskey). The exception was the Canton Breeze, which combines equal parts ginger liqueur and dark rum with a splash of pineapple juice. That’s three sweet ingredients with nothing to balance them out, and it made for an incredibly cloying drink. Adding lime juice made it drinkable, but it still wasn’t great.
Fortunately, the other drinks were much better. The Bowery tempers Domaine de Canton’s sweetness with lemon juice and a couple dashes of Angostura bitters. It was still a little syrupy for my taste; if I made it again I’d add a splash of tonic water to lighten it up, but this was the cocktail where the flavors of the liqueur came through most clearly. The Gold Rush, with bourbon and lemon juice, tastes like a sweeter whiskey sour with a ginger kick. What surprised me most, though, was how much I liked the Opening Act, which combines the liqueur with Campari and lime juice. I’ve never been much of a fan of Campari, but its bitterness perfectly balanced the sweetness of the Domaine de Canton and lingered in the back of my throat along with the bite of the ginger. It’s a cocktail that would be dangerously easy to drink on a hot day.
Xem thêm : Is Pre-Workout Natty
All the cocktails and many more are available on the Domaine de Canton website, but I’m copying the recipe for my favorite below.
The Opening Act2 oz Domaine de Canton½ oz Campari½ fresh lime juiceShake and strain over ice in a tall glass. Garnish with mint leaves. Optional caramelized orange angostura bitters. Top with tonic. (Ed. note: I skipped the orange angostura bitters and tonic, though I’m sure they’d be good. I did add the mint garnish, but forgot about it until after I’d taken the photo.)
Julia Thiel writes about booze on Thursdays.
Nguồn: https://vuihoctienghan.edu.vn
Danh mục: Info