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Ginger Smash, Spring Season

这个版本的姜粉碎是最后一个onal version added to our menu. When it was being created, we had become enamored with tequila and wanted to showcase it in the springtime. Pairing ginger with kumquats—small citrus fruits that come to market at the end of winter—we found the perfect canvas for 100-percent blue agave tequila. Its texture, slight velvety sweetness, and spiciness from fresh gingerroot make this drink one of our new favorites.

Ingredients

makes 1 drink

2 thin slices fresh gingerroot
2 fresh whole kumquats
1 teaspoon superfine sugar
1 1/2 ounces Partida Blanco tequila
1 ounce Rhum Clémente Créole Shrubb
3/4 ounce freshly squeezed lime juice
  1. Step 1

    Muddle the ginger, kumquats, and sugar in the bottom of a mixing glass. Add the tequila, Shrubb, and juice and enough large cold ice cubes to fill a rocks glass. Cover and shake hard but briefly. Pour unstrained into a rocks glass and serve.

  2. ginger smash

    Step 2

    When we were composing the menu for employees Only back in fall of 2004, we were building the restaurant mostly by ourselves and couldn’t really afford any time away from the construction site. So we had just one afternoon to test our recipes before opening. although we had discussed ideas beforehand and were clear on the direction of the opening menu, and had even created infusions and ingredients on our own time, we’d not had the chance to create the cocktails we had envisioned. But it all worked seamlessly in one afternoon in our “laboratory” in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

  3. Step 3

    The one cocktail that came out unexpectedly was the Ginger Smash. The term “smash” refers to an old family of drinks, similar to juleps, in which mint would be muddled into spirits of any kind. Ginger has always been a favorite “hot” ingredient of ours, but when we combined fresh cranberries and gingerroot, muddled with sugar, the result was unlike anything we had tasted or made before. Short, snappy, tart, fresh cranberries; the heat from the ginger and gin; sweet apple cordial from Germany; and a little lemon juice produced the most complex ginger cocktail we had ever witnessed. After our December opening, it ranked as our number two selling cocktail. In February, with fresh cranberries out of season, we tried frozen, but they had no snap. This forced us to create a Ginger Smash for each season, using the spirit and fruit accompaniment dictated by the current harvest. all showcase ginger and are smashed or muddled.

  4. tasting notes

    Step 4

    Dominant Flavors: ginger and bitter oranges

    Step 5

    Body: full, velvety

    Step 6

    Dryness: medium

    Step 7

    Complexity: high, due to bitters

    Step 8

    Accentuating or Contrasting Flavors: floral overtones of agave and tartness of kumquat oils

    Step 9

    Finish: long, spicy with citrus overtones

  5. Step 10

    Glass: rocks

Reprinted with permission fromSpeakeasy: The Employees Only Guide to Classic Cocktails Reimaginedby Jason Kosmas and Dushan Zaric, (C) © 2010 Ten Speed Press Jason Kosmas and Dushan Zaric first became a team at Soho's Pravda, where they were at the forefront of the Martini Craze that swept the late 1990s. They opened Employees Only along with three other owners in 2004. Together the two have also formed Cocktail Conceptions, a beverage consulting company, and have created branch launches and marketing strategies for major labels such as Absolut, Pernod, Ricard, and Perrier-Jouët Champagne. Their latest bar-restaurant venture is Macao Trading Co. in Tribeca.
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