Like any respectable person, I was sitting at Wildhawk a few weeks ago because I had a bit of time to kill before meeting a friend elsewhere and it was open and it had been a bit since I’d popped in. They do good stuff there, so it’s always a pleasure to see what’s on the menu, but this was one of those rare, early times where I also got the pleasure of getting to chat with Marguerite behind the bar.
Anyway, I didn’t have a bunch of time, but something behind the bar caught my eye, so I asked “What is Vana Tallinn?” Which turns out to have been a fortuitous question. I had enough time to sip a little something else, but not enough time for one more drink, so this is exactly what was in order. And the best way to know a spirit is to try it (also worked for Xila but that’s not the topic of this post!).
So…what is Vana Tallinn? It’s a citrusy, warming spices kind of liqueur with some other fun notes and it’s made with rum? This, my friends, this is something I had to have. However it turns out one does not simply walk to the liquor store and buy a bottle of Vana Tallinn. After waiting a little bit for the special order to come in, and being stymied by being slightly under the weather and New Year’s Day closures, I had a bottle in my hand.
Which brings us to the point we are at now, which is…what the hell does one do with a bottle of Vana Tallinn. It’s not bad on the rocks to be honest, and you may notice if you have a sip that it is sweet, surprisingly sweet and it helps hide that 40% alcohol pretty damn well. So I knew I was going to want some stuff that was going to dry this out, so to speak.
What do I mean by that? Well, I am not all about chemistry in that sense, but I do have a good intuitive sense about how this sort of stuff works (don’t ever let anyone tell you I don’t put that science and tech education to good use). Besides, they got good rhymes to help you remember basics like “One of sour, two of sweet, three of strong, four of weak”. The reason you use so much ice, and especially well crushed ice in tiki is because you want that dilution to weaken the drink. And in this case but the strong and the sweet are coming from the same source, which is an interesting challenge in its own right.
Of course, any good rule is made to be broken. A lot of this is playing by feel, is tweaking, is just having the damn sense to know what works. You can science your way to a great cocktail, but to some degree, any science is also learned through repeated experimentation. That formula won’t steer you wrong per se (though it’s missing a couple pieces that are the second line), but the idea behind balancing a drink depends on a few things that no rhyme can take into account, like your personal taste. Do you like things a bit dryer? A bit sweeter? You think about all this stuff (even if you don’t think about it) much more clearly with wine, and even if you have capacious taste, you have preferences, that’s just the truth of the matter.
So for my sour? Lemon. I also grabbed an orange because it works well with lemon, but orange is not super sour as citrus goes (usually lemon, lime, grapefruit all handle that well). But such is life, that’s just a matter of know what plays well and again, what I like. Now I didn’t really want more sweetness from a syrup, and this is a great place for orgeat (at least if you are using good stuff like Small Hand Foods orgeat). Normally I tend to balance a little sweet personally, but I wanted to dry this out while still making sure the Vana Tallinn comes through.
How about the other liquors? Something basic, like Plantation 3 Stars of course (this is not to say it doesn’t have complex flavors but I didn’t want something grassy like an agricole or funky like a big Jamaican or rich like a Demerara…well, you get the point). But let’s grab another unusual tiki ingredient, vermouth. Even a sweet vermouth, in this case :) though I would not say Cocchi Torino is not that sweet, and I wanted the slight bitter of a vermouth as well to help dull the sweet a bit, if you will. Not like the bitter of Campari, though, that would be a bridge further than I was looking to go. Amari could have been an interesting direction, but it’s tough to mix with (though, come to think of it, I have not done a single tiki drink with Fernet Branca, for shame). I might have pulled out a dry vermouth if I wanted something less sugary but Cocchi Torino is actually exactly what I wanted, it turns out
Rounding things out just a bit, how about something else to dry this out just a touch more? A few drops of absinthe (this is a St. George household, and like they say, it adds “complexity and depth”) is exactly what this drink needs. Here’s what you’ll be measuring up in your mixing tin:
2 oz orange
1 oz lemon
.5 oz orgeat
1.5 oz Vana Tallinn
1 oz Plantation 3 Stars
.5 oz Cocchi Torino
A few drops of absinthe
Shake it up, strain int something nice and large like a Hurricane glass, and garnish with an umbrella. There you got, you got yourself an Estonian Beach.
As experimental first drafts go, this one is real good. I thought about a few other things, like dry curaçao and different vermouth, but on the whole, that’s just playing on the margins. Of course, your taste may vary. An important thing to know. Come over some time and we can figure out what works for you as I introduce you to the wonders of another fun liqueur.
This is Trader Jane’s, a periodic newsletter about drinks (mostly tiki) and other fun writing. Follow me on Substack for something every week or two (if we are being honest), and follow me on Twitter and Instagram for more timely updates on my beverages (and for lots of other things of course!)
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