Experiments with flash-infusion and flavor thesauri
Today we're hosting friends, and I'm planning a rhubarb/apple crumble. So I checked out my Flavor Thesaurus (by Niki Segnit) to see what rhubarb might pair well with.
Came up with, among other things, juniper, saffron and almonds. So from this I'm getting some cocktail plans: build something for both martini-variations and highballs, using gin flash-infused with rhubarb, and with Strega and Amaretto as sweeteners. (and then use the gin-infused rhubarb pieces in the crumble too)
Flash-infusion
To my ISI cream whipper, I add:
88g rhubarb in pieces
just under 1 cup (161g) of Barr&Hill honey gin (it's what I had left in the bottle!)
just over 1/2 cup (112g) of Illusionist purple gin (emptied out that bottle as well)
about 1/2 cup (98g) of Hernö Old Tom gin (because I was aiming for 2 cups of liquor for this)
Release one charge of NO2, swirl for a little while (15-20s, while puzzling over the noises and wondering where the leak is) and slowly release the pressure.
Release two charges of NO2, swirl for about 30s and then slowly release the pressure.
Strain out the rhubarb pieces (and reserve for the rhubarb crumble).
The Cocktail
With this, I then proceeded to mix a roughly martini-inspired cocktail batch:
2 cups flash-infused gin (see above)
1 cup (or so - I emptied the bottle) Lillet Blanc
2 oz Strega
2 oz Disaronno Amaretto
5 dashes Black Walnut bitters
5 dashes Molasses bitters
Stir on ice, strain and serve up, or with an ice stick and Topo Chico as a highball.
The Outcome
The resulting cocktails (served up, or as a highball) were delicious. Definitely helped along the way by pouring the batch on a bottle and stashing in the freezer after stirring the entire batch on ice.
The rhubarb flavor came on a short visit in each sip, but vanished quickly again. The cocktail was very gin-forward - not one to hide the gin flavor at all - but in the end a very nicely harmonious blend of flavors that tasted almost syrupy sweet without being syrupy sweet.