Eric and I aren’t ones to bring back souvenirs from our travels. We eat our way through a city and return home with memories and a few extra (happy) pounds. If we do purchase something, it tends to be booze. From our honeymoon in France, we came back with a couple bottles of wine (oh, yeah, and a container of foie gras) and this is how it usually pans out when we go away. Like food, drinking local vino or beer or spirits tells you a bit about the culture and it's nice to be able to relive that months (or even years) after a trip.
On our second day in Austin, we stopped at a liquor store to pick up some gin to have in the apartment we were staying at for the week. We scoured the shelves for something produced in the area, and that’s when we came across a bottle with a nifty label proudly proclaiming it as a “Texas-style gin.” Ok, we’ll give it a try. Another stop for tonic and citrus and we were on our way home to test it out.
The Treaty Oak Distilling Co. is owned and operated by Daniel Barnes (along with his knowledgable and very friendly staff). Walking in, we weren't quite sure what we'd find, but the guys there beamed when they saw us and were excited to give some out-of-towners a tour of their operations. The day ended with them lining up bottles on a counter and one of them gestured and said "Ok... help yourselves." If we must, we will! And we did.
The highlights are their gins… we had already become quite fond of their Waterloo gin, their take on a traditional London dry gin, which is infused with local juniper, lavender, zest from oranges, lemons and grapefruits, rosemary, anise, coriander, licorice root, ginger root and pecans. The real knockout, however, is their newly released Waterloo Antique barrel-aged gin. This is a whiskey lovers gin, not just because of its color, but the smooth, caramel notes that it embodies. We’ve been drinking it straight or swapping out for the whiskey in a Manhattan. I wanted to get a bit playful and thought it might be fun to include a little pomegranate juice into the mix. Sometimes my experiments are less than stellar. This, however, worked beautifully. Sweet, smooth, boozy. What's not to like?
Pomegranate "Manhattan"
Yield 1 drink
Tools Bar spoon
Ingredients 2 oz barrel aged gin (alternatively, whiskey can be used) 1 oz pomegranate juice 1/2 oz sweet vermouth 1/4 oz fresh lemon juice 1-2 dashes Angostura bitters
1 tablespoon fresh pomegranate seeds
Instructions
1. In a glass with a few ice cubes, add the barrel aged gin, pomegranate juice, sweet vermouth, lemon juice, and bitters.
2. Stir for 10 seconds and strain into another glass.
3. Add the pomegranate seeds and enjoy!
