Hello! Welcome back to my newsletter where until the end of the year I’ll actually be featuring content that is relevant to my professional background—drinks!
Earlier in the year I developed four large format holiday drinks for a client and we didn’t end up using them, so I am repurposing that work here because I think the drinks are really good and you should make them for your friends and tell me what you think.
But first! A few little tidbits:
Saved by the Bellini was featured in some year-end round-ups, namely Forbes’s Holiday Gift Guide and Epicurious’s Best Cookbooks of 2023. And two recipes from SBTB were also featured in Epicurious’s 64 Recipes from the Best Cookbooks of 2023.
I try to avoid amaz*n whenever possible but, Saved by the Bellini is like, 60% off right now.
I hope you’re enjoying Giving Up. Episode 8 dropped this week and we’re going to put out two more episodes before we take a mid-season break and come back in 2024 with maybe the exact same shtick as the first half of the season or maybe we’ll make some changes! What do you think?? I can guarantee the volume levels will be normal from now on. (also i fixed the earlier episodes if you want to go back and listen again without having to adjust your volume every 39 seconds lol) Subscribe on Apple or Spotify and leave us a review!
Speaking of podcasts, the Recipe Club Season 3 Finale came out now and you definitely want to listen!!!
OK drink time!
Solstice Sling
I recently had the chance to visit a perfume development lab and explore with the chemists there the similarities between developing iconic fragrances and creating delicious drinks. During my time there, one of the chemists explained to me the concept of “accords,” clusters of two or more individual scents that are then combined to form the overall fragrance—similar to how musical chords work to create songs. Naturally, I find this an extremely useful framework for thinking about drinks. Many cocktails are based around tried-and-true combinations of flavors: such as rum and lime, rye and sweet vermouth, gin and cucumber, to name a few.
One of my favorite cocktails is the Singapore Sling, which contains a host of ingredients including gin, lime, Bénédictine liqueur, and notably for the purposes of this drink here, one of my favorite flavor pairings: the combination of rich Cherry Heering and fresh pineapple juice. When coming up with an autumnal large format drinks I started with this combination, and then linked it to Scotch whisky by way of the Blood and Sand, another cocktail that features Cherry Heering. The keystone ingredient here is the sorrel, an aromatically complex infusion of hibiscus, clove, ginger, and cinnamon that is a staple of Caribbean holiday beverages. Most sorrel recipes call for some kind of sweetening agent, but in this case, I leave it out so that the pineapple and Cherry Heering can provide the sweetness. Any leftover sorrel I like to splash with a little honey and soda water for a nice harvest-inflected pick-me-up.
A final note on the salt here: it won’t make your drink noticeably salty, but it acts as a counterbalance to some of the bitterness from the spices in the sorrel.
Serves 6-8 people
12 ounces sparkling water, chilled
12 ounces sorrel, see recipe below
9 ounces mildly smoky blended Scotch whisky, I used Compass Box Glasgow Blend
9 ounces fresh pineapple juice
4 1/2 ounces Cherry Heering liqueur
Large pinch of salt
Combine all ingredients in a festive punch bowl with 3-4 large ice cubes and stir to combine and chill. To serve, ladle into individual glasses of your choosing.
For Sorrel
Yields about two cups
3 cups filtered water
2 cups dried hibiscus (sorrel) flowers
1/2 lb. ginger, washed and roughly chopped
1 tbsp whole cloves
1 long stick cinnamon, broken into small pieces
Combine all ingredients in a small pot and bring to just steaming over medium heat. Cover and reduce heat, and let steep for 30 minutes. Remove heat and leave covered until completely cool. Transfer entire mixture to an airtight container and let steep in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours. Strain and use immediately or transfer to a clean container where it will keep in the refrigerator for two weeks or in the freezer for three months.