Strawberry - Bergamot - Vanilla

Bergamot citrusfruit may be less known to us, it looks most similar to a lime. Its origin is said to be a crossover between a lime and an orange. The scent is very recognizable, you also recognise this scent from Earl Grey tea. Bergamot liqueur used to be the favourite drink at the Italian Royal Court. 

Italicus bergamot liqueur is made with bergamot citrus from Calabria, Sicilian lemons, lavender, chamomile, and gentian. You can drink this liqueur mixed with Prosecco, Gin, or even with a refreshing beer. Of course, I went a step further and created an original cocktail. 

The combination with strawberries and vanilla can also be found in certain desserts. I also thought this was a beautiful trio to translate into the glass. I chose typical Italian flavours and wanted to bring summer into the glass.

Strawberry - Bergamot - Vanilla

Ingredients
30ml Campari, infused with strawberry for two days. 
20ml Italicus (Bergamot liqueur)
7 ml Vanilla syrup
Prosecco

Method
Add cut-up straberries in a jar and cover with Campari. Give it a good shake and let it rest for two days. Filter the fruit out of the liquid. 

Add the Campari, Italicus liqueur and syrup to a mixinh glas with lots of ice. Stir ten seconds to cool and mix. Strain in a large wineglass and add fresh ice. Top with a good quality Prosecco. Give it just one more gentle stir (You don't want to loose the bubbles). Garnish with strawberry. 

Disclaimer: All pictures and texts are copyrighted by Geert Conard and Esito Consulting unless stated otherwise in the article. This recipe was created for Paal 26 Grrand Café. 

Southern aperitivo

Spring has finally arrived and admit it, you automatically start dreaming of summer holidays and southern aperitivo moments. That thought was enough to start exploring flavours. 

I mixed up a fantastic Negroni-style drink and together with my wife I've put together a great aperitivo plate with pickled vegetables by Camps, sardines in olive oil and a delicious homemade mayonnaise. 

"Bourbon forward" Boulevardier

Ingredients
50 ml Bourbon
30 ml Red Italian vermouth
30 ml Red Italian bitter

Method
Add the ingredients to a tumbler with ice. Stir for 15 seconds. Garnish with blood orange. 

Balsamic-Parmesan Mayonnaise

Ingredients
2 egg yolks
300 ml Olive oil
1 table spoon lime juice
1 teaspoon mustard
2 table spoons grated parmesan cheese
1 rasped clove of Garlick
5 anchovies 
Cayenne pepper
Pepper and salt

Method
Mix a mayonnaise with the egg yolks, lime juice, mustard and olive oil. We used the emersion blender. We use a small high container, add everything and mix it from bottom to top until the mayonnaise is nice and thick. 

Add the extra ingredients, mix again until completely blended. Season with pepper, salt and a tiny bit of cayenne pepper. 

You can find the recipe in Dutch at Tineke's Cucina. 

Disclaimer: All pictures and texts are copyrighted by Geert Conard and Esito unless stated otherwise in the article. While some items might have been gifted by the producer or distributor, these are in no way paid promotions or recommendations.

Cucielo Vermouth Day

Sometimes I regret not living in a more southern country. I absolutely love the aperitivo culture that’s all around in Italy, Spain and even in the south of France. One of the most used bottles in aperitivo-bars is vermouth. In Spain, they even call some of those bars “vermuterias”. 

A good vermouth is probably the most versatile bottle in your bar. You can drink it neat, on ice, with a mixer or as a spice-adding ingredient in lots of classic (and not-so-classic) cocktails. Original classics like the Manhattan, Martini or Negroni all call for decent quality vermouth. 

This should give you reason enough to taste the vermouth before you pour it into any longdrink or cocktail. A cocktail is only as good as the sum of the quality of its ingredients. Read that again and think about it. You can find low budget vermouth in supermarkets, cheap as chips. But will that low-quality bottle add the desired spicy touch to your Martini? Probably not. 

One of the better brands for good quality vermouth is Cucielo, which we’ve already spotlighted before on this blog. 

March 21 is #NationalVermouthDay, a perfect opportunity to taste and sample some of their bottles. I would recommend tasting vermouths with a few ice cubes because neat vermouths are often slightly syrupy. Next, try the vermouths with a mixer. A neutral tonic is perfect, but if you like it slightly sweeter, why not use a lemonade. My friends at the official distributor of Cucielo have sent me a bottle of both the Rosso and Bianco, but I also made a mix of both. Why? Because in some cocktails you need a mix of dry and sweet vermouth or a mix of white and sweet vermouth. Once you have tasted the vermouths this way, you can go on to using them for a deliciously crafted cocktail. 

Cucielo Bianco is mostly influenced by artemisia, pink pepper, cardamom, green apple, elderflower and pomegranate. Cucielo Rosso is mostly influenced by artemisia, yarrow, Chinese gentian, Sicilian bitter oranges, vanilla pods and cloves.

I hope I could inspire you to have a go yourself. I finished my tasting with a Golden Martini, stirred to perfection.

Golden Martini

Ingredients
50 ml London Dry Gin
25 ml Cucielo Bianco vermouth
1 barspoon Maraschino liqueur
3 dashes Angostura Orange bitters

Method
Add all ingredients to a mixing glass with lots of ice. Stir and strain in a chilled Martini or Nick & Nora glass. I think it also looks stunning in a nice antique port glass. Pinch an Orange zest on top to express the oils. No garnish, keep it clean. 

Disclaimer: All pictures and texts are copyrighted by Geert Conard and Esito Management & Communications unless stated otherwise in the article. While some items might have been gifted by the producer or distributor, these are in no way paid promotions or recommendations.

The Unexpected Rosé Negroni

The #Negroniweek is the perfect moment to experiment with some variations on the iconic Negroni-recipe. You always need a tasty spirit, a wine-based aperitif and bitters. You need to balance the flavors to get the right result. In most cases, like the recipe below, even parts will be fine. In some cases you need a bit extra spirit, or a spirit with a slightly higher ABV to get things right. 

Today I’m mixing up a rum-based Negroni-style drink that’s light and very fruity.

The Unexpected Rosé Negroni

Ingredients
30 ml Matusalem Rum Insolito (aged rosé rum)
30 ml Leonce Vermouth
30 ml Aperol

Method
Do it like the Italians, add everything to a tumbler with icecubes and stir for 15 seconds. Garnish with orange peel or dehydrated orange.

Disclaimer : All pictures and texts are copyrighted by Geert Conard and Esito Management & Communications unless stated otherwise in the article. While some items might have been gifted by the producer or distributor, these are in no way paid promotions or recommendations. 

Negroniweek 2021 - Conte Negroni

Each year I try to include a bottled/premixed Negroni in my #Negroniweek posts. Last year I featured the Verhofstede Negroni, a complex mix of four (instead of three) of their existing products. At the start of this year I received a bottle of Conte Negroni, a brand new Belgian pre-mixed Negroni, which also has a great story. They created their own Gin,Vermouth and Bitters with the sole purpose of blending them together to create the best possible bottled Negroni. 

After a first tasting I decided this would be the bottled Negroni for this years’ edition of #Negroniweek. When I compare this drink to the better Negronis I’ve tasted in Italy… this one comes pretty close. It could use a slightly longer finish, but the flavor profile is excellent. 

The Negroni has a typical nose of bittersweet oranges, calamus root and quassia bark. A four week minimum barrel ageing enhances the flavors and really blends everything together.  

Always serve on ice and add an orange peel of a dehydrated orange slice to complete the drink.

The iconic Negroni is Italy’s Nr.1 aperitivo with strong bittersweet flavors. You like it or not. If you feel the bittersweet taste is too strong for you, you can always top your drink with a bit of tonic or Prosecco. The guys from Conte Negroni are suggesting a “Perfect Serve” highball by adding some Gemellii Bergamot Tonic. 

For the highball serve I used a biodegradable disposable cork straw from La Paille en Liege.  

Disclaimer : All pictures and texts are copyrighted by Geert Conard and Esito Management & Communications unless stated otherwise in the article. While some items might have been gifted by the producer or distributor, these are in no way paid promotions or recommendations.

The Belafonte

It’s a big, big world and bartenders all around the globe create fantastic drinks. And of course they have to be creative and think of a catchy name for their drinks. Sometimes it happens that there are multiple drinks around the world that share the same name. This is one of those, The Belafonte.

The Belafonte is bests known as a ‘Spritz’ cocktail. A refreshing mix of 1,5 cl Gin, 1,5 cl Simple syrup, 2 cl fino sherry, 2 cl lemon juice. Just mix everything together in a large wineglass with lots of ice. Top with 7,5 cl cold Prosecco. Garnish with a basil leaf. 

This is NOT the Belafonte I’m mixing up today. I’m sharing a very easy-to-make typical Italian bitter style highball aperitif with the same name. It’s actually a variation on the “White Port & Tonic” that’s popular in Portugal. 

The Belafonte

Ingredients
30 ml Campari
30 ml Graham’s Blend Nr.5 white Port
Tonic

Method
Add the Campari and Port to your longdrink or highball glass with icecubes. Stir to mix and top with tonic. Garnish with a dehydrated orange slice. 

Disclaimer : All pictures and texts are copyrighted by Geert Conard and Esito Management & Communications unless stated otherwise in the article. While some items might have been gifted by the producer or distributor, these are in no way paid promotions or recommendations.

AmericaNA & NAgroni (Mocktails)

No drinks are more Italian than these two iconic aperitivo’s based on Campari : The Americano and the Negroni. Could we mix them without alcohol, while keeping those typical Italian flavours?

I have tried this before in the past, but newer and better non-alcoholic products tempt me to improve these drinks in yet another try …

For your next #mocktailmonday I’ll give you recipes for both drinks. If you’re not able to find a good quality NA Amaro, you could try Monin Bitter. But you might have to adjust the measurements in that case.   

The jury is still out on the AmericaNA, the result depends very much on the measurement of the tonic. (I tried first with soda water but that - really - didn’t work). The NAgroni has the right flavour-mix and is a true winner !!!

P.S. I received this nice pocket flask with Martini Vibrante NA with the "No compromise club" sticker in my mail. With this great new products indeed no compromises have to be made. You can have a nice and flavorful drink, without the need for alcohol. 

AmericaNA

Ingredients
45 ml The Bitter Note (NA Amaro)
45 ml Martini Vibrante Non Alcoholic (NA vermouth style aperitif)
Fever-Tree Mediterranean Tonic 

Method
Add the amaro and Martini directly in the glass. Don’t stir in a mixing glass, because you don’t want extra dilution. Add them to a tumbler with ice and top with tonic. Stir very gently during 5 seconds. Garnish with a dehydrated orange wheel. 

NAgroni

Ingredients
30 ml The Bitter Note (NA Amaro)
30 ml Martini Vibrante Non Alcoholic (NA vermouth style aperitif)
30 ml Nona June (NA replacement for gin)

Method
Add all 3 ingredients directly in the glass. Don’t stir in a mixing glass, because you don’t want extra dilution. Just add them to your tumbler with ice and stir very gently for 5 seconds. Garnish with a dehydrated orange wheel. 

Disclaimer : All pictures and texts are copyrighted by Geert Conard and Esito Management & Communications unless stated otherwise in the article. While some items might have been gifted by the producer or distributor, these are in no way paid promotions or recommendations.

Verhofstede Negroni

The Negroni is a very tasty Italian Aperitivo. But there are many reasons why bartenders really love this iconic drink. The ingredients are easily replaceable by other products and each swap creates a new delicious Italian style drink. Each bar can have their own take on this cocktail. 

Gin can be replaced by whisky, rum, mezcal, … whatever spirit you desire. You can even swap it for a good quality Prosecco and have a delicious Sbagliato. There is a whole wide world of vermouths to play with and even the Campari can be swapped for any other bitter or amaro. 

If you want it really easy, you can buy premixed bottled Negroni at your liqueur store. Each year I try to included a good quality bottled Negroni in my posts for the #negroniweek. During the last editions we tested the bottled Negroni from Cockney’s and Belroy’s. This year, due to logistical problems the bottle didn’t arrive on time to be included in the themeweek. But since the iconic Negroni is a tasty cocktail we can easily enjoy all around the year, I decided to publish it anyway. This year we selected a nice bottle of Verhofstede Negroni. 

You could say this is a pretty alternative bottling. For starters it’s a mix of four ingredients instead of three. Each of the ingredients is produced by Verhofstede and also available in their webshop. The spirit is Edelweiss Gin, which we’ve tested before and has a very nice herbal flavour. The bitter components are a bittersweet vermout and Tante Andrée 35 (a dark herbal bitter). The fruitiness comes in by the Solé orange liqueur (made with Spanish oranges) which softens the drink. The result is a very elegant and silky Negroni. 

Serve on ice in an Old Fashioned glass. Garnish with orange. 

You can buy this bottle at your local liqueur store or directly from their webshop. 

Our friends at Foodbelgium also have a few interesting promotions for Verhofstede products. 

Disclaimer : All pictures and texts are copyrighted by Geert Conard and Esito Management & Communications unless stated otherwise in the article. While some items might have been gifted by the producer or distributor, these are in no way paid promotions or recommendations.

Italian Shandy

 

It’s been a while since I did a Michelada or beer-cocktail. Why not go for a Spritz-style shandy? It’s weekend after all. 

I’m not using juices or lemonades to mix with the beer, but bittersweet Italian aperitifs. The result is a very refreshing drink which is not too sweet at all.

Italian Shandy

Ingredients
4 cl Select Aperitivo
1,5 cl Averna
Italian Pilsner

Method
Fill up your beer glass with ice cubes. Add the Select and Averna to the glass. Add a bit of beer and give it a quick stir. Top with some more beer and garnish with a slice of orange. It alsmost looks like a beautiful Sunrise 😉
Disclaimer : All pictures and texts are copyrighted by Geert Conard and Esito Management & Communications unless stated otherwise in the article. While some items might have been gifted by the producer or distributor, these are in no way paid promotions or recommendations.

Negroniweek postponed to september - Can we serve a tikidrink in Italian style ?

 

Normally the Negroniweek 2020 would have started today. Because of the COVID19 pandemic and the big challenges bars all around the world have to face when they reopen, the Negroniweek has been postponed.

Negroniweek 2020 will now take place September 14-20.
But just for fun and to keep spirits up, let’s do a Negroni-style drink with Campari, a nice spirit and a tastemaker 😉

Why not try to do a crossover between a tikidrink and a traditional Italian aperitivo?
Is that even possible? Most tikidrinks are slightly messy, often served by ‘dirty dumping’ the content of the shaker into a large glass or tiki-mug. What if we create a very simple tikidrink, but serve it like a clean Italian aperitivo?

For the base of this drink I selected Bacardi Cuatro. First I had another try with World’s End Tiki rum, but I wasn’t 100% convinced by the result. I do however use some World’s End Falernum and finish with Campari.

By the way: Italians do love their tikidrinks too. The best tikibar I have visited until today, was probably an Italian bar, Nu Lounge Bar in Bologna. The totally crazy pirates of Tortuga Bar in Durbuy are pretty high on my personal list too.

Tiki in Italia

Ingredients
50 ml Bacardi Cuatro
20 ml World’s End Falernum
20 ml Campari
10 ml Simple syrup
Tonic

Method
Add rum, falernum, sugar and Campari to a shaker with lots of ice. Shake for 20 seconds and strain into your favourite tumbler with a clean block of ice.
Top off with a few dashes of tonic to take the edge off. Add a single amareno cherry.

Disclaimer : All pictures and texts are copyrighted by Geert Conard and Esito Management & Communications unless stated otherwise in the article. While some items might have been gifted by the producer or distributor, these are in no way paid promotions or recommendations.

Midi-Siësta met het Classic Red aperitief van Jules Delaere

 

Dit artikel is bijzonder. Niet alleen omdat het gaat over een nieuw Belgisch product, maar de aankondiging van dit artikel op Instagram zal tevens mijn 1000ste Instagram-post zijn voor Double Strainger. Met dank aan alle volgers die mij blijven stimuleren om dit leuke verhaal verder te zetten.

Jules Delaere is pas 23, maar zeker niet aan zijn proefstuk toe. Een drietal jaar geleden kwam ik hem voor het eerst tegen op een drankenbeurs, toen hij met redelijk succes zijn eigen Mister Y. Gin op de markt bracht. De reden waarom ik hem nu opnieuw ontmoet is een gloednieuw product, wat je niet zo dadelijk met iets anders kan vergelijken. Het duurde ongeveer een jaar om dit aperitiefdrankje helemaal op punt te stellen.

Midi Apéritifs Classic Red is zoals de naam al aangeeft een aperitiefdrankje. Een tegelijk bitter en fruitig drankje wat je kan drinken met ijs, met een mixdrankje of als ingrediënt in een cocktail.

Als ik kijk naar andere drankjes in deze stijl dan houdt deze fles zowat het midden tussen een vermouth en een amaro. De gebruikte botanicals leunen eerder in de richting van een amaro, maar de basis is een versterkte Syrah Rosé wijn uit de Languedoc in het zuiden van Frankrijk, wat dan weer eerder doet denken aan een vermouth.

Bijzonder is dat de botanicals zijn toegevoegd als aparte distillaten, niet uit de traditionele stookketel maar als vacuüm-distillaten uit een high-tech rotavap-toestel. Het grote verschil is dat bij een rotavap alle dampen in het toestel blijven waardoor er geen enkele smaak of aroma verloren gaat. Jules ging met de rotavap of rotatiefilmverdamper aan de slag in het foodlaboratorium Proef van Maxime Willems. Deze “Professor Barabas van Schellebelle” kennen we o.a. van toen hij Ran Van Ongevalle assisteerde met zijn winnende Bacardi-cocktail.

Er werden maar liefst tien botanical-distillaten gebruikt, waarvan er slechts zes bekend worden gemaakt : verse cassis (wat ook invloed heeft op de kleur), bergamot, rozemarijn, venkelzaad, artisjok en alsem. De laatste twee zijn bittere elementen. Jules verklapte dat er in totaal vijf bittere elementen gebruikt worden.

Het leuke aan dit licht-bittere aperitiefdrankje is dat het niet echt trendgevoelig is. Dit is een puur en authentiek product wat je eerder verwacht in een artisanale beperkte oplage bij een gepassioneerde kleine producent in het zuiden van Spanje of Italië. Je verwacht absoluut niet dat een jonge Kortrijkse kerel dit product op de Belgische markt zet, in een hippe versie die geproduceerd wordt met de nieuwste high-tech toestellen. Het is de bedoeling dat er nog meer aperitieven komen in deze reeks, maar met dit eerste product is Jules er toch al in geslaagd om een stukje van het zonnige zuiden voor ons te bottelen 😉

Wil je mixen met tonic of bruiswater, gebruik dan één deel van dit drankje met twee delen mixdrank. Het leent zich ook uitstekend voor een Spritz, in dat geval één deel bruiswater, twee delen Midi en drie delen prosecco. Om de smaak echt te leren kennen mixen we eerst en vooral met een neutrale tonic. Wat ons het meest opvalt is het aroma van alsem en citrus. Dat inspireert alvast de richting waarin ik wil gaan voor een lekkere cocktail.

Het zou een vrij eenvoudige keuze zijn om voor een Negroni-achtige drink te gaan met Midi Aperitif, rode vermouth en een stevige spirit naar keuze. Maar vermits die kruidigheid zo duidelijk aanwezig is gooi ik het over een andere boeg. De citrus gaan we versterken met een sour en als basis kiezen we voor Tequila.

Midi-Siësta

Ingrediënten
4 cl Tequila Silver
3 cl Midi Apéritif
3 cl vers limoensap
2 cl honingsiroop
2 dashes Angostura Orange bitters

Bereiding
Alle ingrediënten samenvoegen in een shaker met ijs. Krachtig shaken gedurende 15 seconden. Dubbel zeven in een mooi coupeglas. Versiering niet strikt noodzakelijk, maar als je toch iets wil ga dan voor citrus.

Disclaimer : All pictures and texts are copyrighted by Geert Conard and Esito Management & Communications unless stated otherwise in the article. While some items might have been gifted by the producer or distributor, these are in no way paid promotions or recommendations.

Cavalieri Gin 2.0 - The Summer Edition

Enkele maanden geleden mochten we de eerste Cavalieri Gin testen, samengesteld door de enthousiaste hobbykoks van de kookclub voor ondernemers Cavalieri in Cucina. Die gin staat inmiddels op de kaart van heel wat klasserestaurants, maar de makers bleven zeker niet op hun lauweren rusten. Deze week kregen we een gloednieuwe versie in handen, die nog beter geschikt is voor lekkere lente- en zomeraperitiefjes.

De twee Cavalieri gins met elkaar vergelijken is bijna onmogelijk, ze liggen echt zeer ver uit elkaar van smaak. In deze nieuwe zoetere variant zit heel veel framboos, aardbei en zeste van Italiaanse appelsien en zoete Italiaanse sinaasappel. Toen ik hoorde welk fruit erin was gegaan verwachte ik eigenlijk een gin die zou aanleunen bij (de eveneens zeer lekkere) Mom Gin, maar dat bleek toch niet te kloppen. De sinaasappels hebben hun werk gedaan om hier een zeer Italiaans getinte gin van te maken. Hij is wat zoeter dan hun vorige versie en ook deze keer is het alcoholgehalte beperkt tot 38% waardoor hij ook zeer toegankelijk blijft.

Deze keer kregen we niet alleen een ‘perfect serve’ gelijkaardig aan die van de eerste gin, maar we kregen er ineens ook de recepten bij voor twee ‘signature cocktails’. Die gingen we natuurlijk testen onder onze eigen lentebloesems. Deze cocktails hoef je niet te shaken of te roeren, gewoon heel eenvoudig de ingrediënten samenvoegen in een groot gin/tonic glas met veel ijs.

Op een zomers en/of zuiders terrasje laat ik me nogal eens gemakkelijk verleiden door een verfrissende Aperol Spritz, maar deze cocktails zijn daar absoluut concurrenten voor !

Cavalieri Gin/Tonic Perfect Serve

5 cl. Cavalieri Gin 2.0
20 cl. Erasmus Bond Tonic
Granaatappelpitjes

Cavalieri Cocktail
4 cl. Cavalieri Gin 2.0
5 cl. Crodino
15 cl. Erasmus Bond Tonic
Granaatappelpitjes

Cavalieri Cocktail Royal
4 cl. Cavalieri Gin 2.0
4 cl. Prosecco Rosé
16 cl. Erasmus Bond Tonic
Granaatappelpitjes