I escaped the City for a weekend and remembered that it is summer other places. You’ll excuse me for not remembering that when it’s gray all the time and we have days where the HIGH is 57 degrees. You know, that’s what happens. But it is summer. I’ve been told at least. Alas! no Ziploc daiquiris occurred while I was enjoying the heat, but I did get to thinking about other fun drinks.
You would think it’s time for tiki to shine, and it is. The main problem is now that we can do things again, time is at a premium. You know, gotta sit down and actually write this, and if I’m trying to make new drinks, well, that’s a tall goal. I did serve up a bunch of drinks on the 4th to friends, but that was largely me playing the hits.
However, looking through my list of drinks that I haven’t been writing up but have made, I found something not entirely new that I’ve been working to perfect a bit over the last several months that I finally have all the ingredients around for once again. And for this one we go entirely off the beaten path to end up…somewhere. Maybe because it feels cold and wintry my brain drifted back to this, but who is to say?
Anyway, I wanted something fun to look at after a few days/weeks/months of endless gray, and I finally had all the bottles around again, so I present a definitely winter. So let’s dive in
How do you feel about aquavit? It can make a fun cheeky (though you gotta bring that cumin down), and is definitely…its own spirit. Thank you once again Scandinavia for whatever it is you do. It’s a distilled grain spirit and if the aforementioned cumin didn’t tip you off, frequently features some sort of additional flavor like that or caraway or dill. I forget exactly why I picked up my bottle, but it never hurts to have around and occasionally comes in handy.
Why not pair it with something else…a bit out there? Like genever! This, this is firmly Dutch, and is a juniper-based liquor, and gin’s forerunner. However…well, it’s hard to describe but if you were sitting here and pour you a nip so we could discuss the differences between it and gin.
It’s fair to ask yourself at this point, Jane, why were you even pulling together bottles like this? Well, okay, that’s fair. So I got it in my brain that it would be fun to do a drink that mimics some of the colors of the aurora that’s made with liquors from northern places. And the two actually pair together alright. The question was how to get the color.
Initially I spent some time clarifying some lime, and it’s nice, but also kind of a pain, so it’s definitely not essential. But if you have some clarified lime sitting around, you know, that’s a good place to start. And of course you need a little simple, so just grab a bottle of 1:1 if you’ve got that (rich works, but it’ll be a little sweeter). How do you get fun colors though? With a few of my favorite bottles. Green and Yellow Chartreuse of course. But also a bottle of comically electric Blue Curaçao.
On the one hand, it kinda feels like a jokey sort of affair. And there are some crappy bottles out there. On the other, we stan a blue drink. And I actually got inspired to revisit this a bit after trying the Viking Negroni at The Golden Tiki, so you know, blame them. However that’s neither here nor there or maybe right for another post another time. Here’s what to do in the here and now:
Northern Lights
.5 oz lime
.5 oz simple (1:1)
1 oz Green Chartreuse
.75 oz genever
.5 oz Aquavit
A barspoon or two of Blue Curaçao
A barspoon or two of Yellow Chartreuse
Mix everything but the Blue Curaçao and the Yellow Chartreuse in your trusty tin. Give ‘em a good shake and pour it into a nice sized vessel that’s clear (the whole point is that you can see this). A 15 oz Hurricane glass is ideal. Top that with fresh crushed ice. Now carefully…carefully spoon a bit of yellow Chartreuse and Blue Curaçao over that ice. You should get some nice swirls and some fun color. You can also top with a bit more fresh crushed ice at this point.
No garnish necessary, the drink is the magic. There you go. It’ll settle into a solid blue color after a couple minutes, so if you want to capture that, get it quick.
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!)
And, as with any good drink, feel free to share (responsibly, of course)