Dolin – FoodWatcher

Strawberry Spritz

Recently I started reaching for my bottle of Vermouth Blanc more and more. I had opened it to make an El Presidente cocktail, but during an interview on my IG Live channel with Pierre-Olivier Rousseaux, owner of Dolin distillery in France, he remarked that their Chambéryzette apéritif, made in the French alps, could be made at home, anywhere, with fresh strawberries and white vermouth. So…

It’s very easy to make. Just slice or quarter a few fresh strawberries and within 24 hours, you can be enjoying your very own batch of strawberry apéritif!

White vermouth (vermouth blanc) is different than dry vermouth. For one thing, the botanicals used are different. Dry vermouth leans into its bitterness with wormwood, quinine, or other flavorings that keep it decidedly dry. White vermouth celebrates its sparkling-clear color with floral aromas, which can include elderflowers and citrus. While you could make this with dry vermouth, I do prefer it with the white vermouth, which in Italy is referred to as vermouth bianco.

When I took a sip of the strawberry-infused vermouth the next day, it seemed like it’d be a perfect candidate for a summery Spritz. So I mixed it with a splash of tonic water, and found it was just perfect as-is, with a handful of ice and some berries and maybe a slice of citrus in it. If you want to go full-on summer, you could replace the citrus with a slice of peach or nectarine, or maybe a few other types of berries.

Tonic water has become more of a topic of conversation lately. Brands like Schweppes are popular and readily available (and you can make your own tonic water, too), but some like to fine-tune their cocktails and apéritifs with a premium brand of tonic water. Fever-Tree, Q, and Fentimen’s are popular, but I kept mine French using Archibald, which uses gentian in place of quinine, to keep it resolutely Made in France. (Quinine doesn’t grow in France, but gentian does.) As far as I know, it’s not available outside of the country but feel free to find your own favorite where you live, and use that.

Strawberry Spritz

For this spritz, I use white vermouth to infuse the strawberries which is more aromatic, and more floral than dry vermouth. In French, it's called vermouth blanc and in Italy, it's referred to as bianc. If you buy a bottle, you can also use it to make yourself an El Presidente cocktail.

You can toggle the flavors of this lively spritz in a different direction by using a flavored tonic water, such as one aromatized with pink grapefruit, pink peppercorn, or elderflowers.

Course Drinks

Keyword cocktail, spritz,

Servings drink

Ingredients

For the strawberry-infused vermouth

1 1/2 cups (375ml) vermouth blanc or dry vermouth
8 medium-sized strawberries sliced or quartered

For the strawberry spritz

2 ounces strawberry-infused vermouth
2 ounces tonic water
quartered or sliced strawberries for garnish
slice of orange, lemon, lime wheel, or slices of nectarines or peaches for garnish

Instructions

To make the strawberry-infused vermouth, pour the vermouth in a clean jar. Add the strawberries, cover, and shake gently to encourage the strawberries to lend their flavor to the vermouth. Let stand 24 hours at room temperature out of direct sunlight, giving it a shake every so often.
To make the spritz, measure the infused-vermouth and tonic water into a footed goblet. Add a handful of ice and stir gently. Garnish with berries and citrus.

Notes

Storage: The strawberry-infused vermouth will keep for a few days at room temperature. After you can store it in the refrigerator where it'll keep for a few weeks. I left the strawberries in since I used mine within a few days, but if planning on storing it longer, you can remove them. (They're delicious to eat!)

Far From the Tree: Apple-Pear Cocktail

The other day I was thinking of cocktails that were fall and winter-friendly. Calvados (apple brandy) of course is always in season, but I also had a bottle of spiced pear liqueur from St. George Spirits in California on hand that has a lovely pear flavor mingled with a bouquet of spices, that I’ve been meaning to incorporate into a cocktail. I had a hunch…

I had a hunch that it would be well-paired with French apple brandy, and that hunch proved correct in this Far From the Tree cocktail, a nod to the expression that “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” as the apple brandy – and the sparkling apple cider – fell into my kitchen, which are quite far from any trees. But happily, they all made it into my glass.

(And I’m hoping that all made sense. I’ve been trying to translate some American expressions for my French partner, especially “They drank the Kool-Aid,” which I’ve decided just isn’t translatable.)

The Spiced Pear Liqueur is made by St. George spirits, a distiller in my old stomping grounds of Alameda, California. I knew the founder, Jörg Rupf, who started distilling European-style spirits in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1982. At the time, few knew what eau-de vie was.

Jörg was a wealth of knowledge and I always learned something when I spent time with him, and was surprised when he told me one day that it took around 50 pounds (23kg) of Bartlett pears to make just one bottle of pear eau-de-vie, and he laughed that his biggest restaurant account sold only a half bottle of eau-de-vie every two months. He reveled in the bounty of excellent produce in California, making eau-de-vie from everything, including kiwifruit, apples, raspberries, pears, and even holly berries.

One day while at the distillery he gave me a sip of apple brandy which he’d made but promptly forgot about, which was similar to Calvados, but without the terroir. (To be called “Calvados” the apple brandy has to be made in Normandy with only certain varieties of local apples, with a few pears added for their aroma, and must be aged in wooden barrels for at least two years.) His apple brandy had been sitting in a barrel for ten years and when he discovered it, it was delicious.

Jörg eventually retired from distilling and sold the company, which is still going strong, and St. George Spirits under master distiller Lance Winters, continues to make excellent liqueurs that include gin and other distillations (they now call their eau-de vie “brandy”), absinthe, vodka (including a green chile one), shochu and Bruto Americano, a botanically-rich alternative to Campari that I particularly enjoy, with no artificial colorant, made with an expressive blend of local botanicals and other ingredients.

But even if you’re not in Normandy, or Northern California, and far from an apple (or pear) tree, you can still enjoy these fall and winter flavors in a cocktail.

Far From the Tree

If you can't get the spiced pear liqueur, you could use a good-quality triple sec, orange liqueur (such as Grand Marnier) or another good fruit-based liqueur. Allspice Dram (homemade or store-bought) is another possible liqueur to use, which has spicy notes.

Be sure to use a slightly larger coupe glass if you have it, since depending on the size of your ice cube, you want there to be enough room for the sparkling cider on top.

Course Drinks

Ingredients

2 ounces Calvados
1/2 ounce sweet vermouth
1/2 ounce St. George spiced pear liqueur
sparkling hard cider or sparkling wine

Instructions

Add the Calvados, sweet vermouth, and pear liqueur to a cocktail mixing glass.
Fill the glass two-thirds full of ice and stir briskly until well-chilled, about 15 seconds. Strain into a chilled coupe glass. Add an ice cube and a splash of sparking cider.