Pomegranate "Manhattan" + A Tour of Treaty Oak Distilling Co.

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!

Strawberry Rhubarb Shrub

We drank a lot that Monday night.  More than we normally do.  More than we should have on any weekday, but, hell, we were doing it as a part of our mixology education.  The class was with Domingo-martin Barreres, the head bartender at Market by Jean-Georges and he had provided a number of recipes to try that night. Besides the six cocktails we were also given free reign to play with the ingredients purchased for the class. That led to another four or five beverages.  Oh, and we hadn't eaten dinner yet.

Two things I took away from that evening were 1) that cocktails incorporating egg whites are da bomb and 2) that shrubs are going to be used in every one of our cocktails this summer.  Shrubs, for those of you who aren't familiar with them, are vinegar based syrups.  These shrubs are made by mashing fresh fruit with sugar and then soaking the fruit in vinegar for a week.  The result is a slightly acidic, sweet, and fruity liquid that can be added to a cocktail to give it a little zip.  There are basic shrubs (mango, strawberry, apple), but you can also play around with them to create some fun pairings (mango sriracha, strawberry basil, apple ginger).  Here, though, I wanted to go seasonal, so I went straight for the classic strawberry-rhubarb combo.

Strawberry Rhubarb Shrub

(adapted from the recipe from Domingo-martin Barreres, the head bartender at Market by Jean-Georges)

Ingredients

.75 cups cut up fresh strawberries

.75 cups cut up rhubarb

1.5 cups white sugar

.75 cups balsamic vinegar

.75 cups cider vinegar

       Directions

1. In a bowl, combine the cut up strawberries and rhubarb.  Sprinkle the sugar on top and then mix together until all the fruit is coated with sugar.  Let sit for 1 hour at room temperature.
2. Mash the fruit with a wooden spoon or whatever tool you have around to break up the fruit.  Once you have done so, let sit for another hour.  At this point, a lot of the juices should have been released.
3. After it has sat, mash the fruit again until it is completely mushy. Let sit, covered, at room temperature, for 24 hours.
4. Add in the vinegar, stir, and let sit, covered, for one week, making sure to give it a good stir every day.
5. After a week, strain the fruit from the mixture and save the liquid in a mason jar for up to 3 weeks.  Use in a cocktail (I've provided a recipe for a Strawberry Rhubarb Collins below)

Strawberry-Rhubarb Shrub Collins

(created by Domingo-martin Barreres, the head bartender at Market by Jean-Georges)

Yields: 1 drink

Ingredients

1.5 fl. oz. citron vodka

1.5 fl. oz. strawberry-rhubarb shrub

4 fl. oz. soda water

1 strawberry slice, optional

       Directions

1. Add vodka and shrub to a collins glass
2. Fill the glass with ice.
3. Top with soda water and garnish with strawberry slice on the rim.