"The Visitant" cocktail.

 

For the mix:

• Cherry, chocolate, chilli tea infused Vodka (2 ounces). 
• 1/2 ounce of honey syrup.
• Juice of half of a orange.

To prepare the honey syrup, add full teaspoon of good quality honey to the same amount of water to a small pan, heat and stir gently until the water and honey have combined.  Place in heat resistant glass, let it cool at room temperature.   Add one tea bag to two ounces of mid tier quality vodka in a glass and set aside.  If you cannot attain a cherry chocolate cuili tea, their are chocolate chilli teas available.  The longer the seap, the more the chilli will be prominent in the overall taste.  So, less than a minute should be suffice.  Juice of half of an orange.

Alcohol Base:

• Two ounces of a quality Vodka, I used Kavka (Polish).  Which is a traditional Polish vodka distilled using Wheat and Rye and a small amount of plum and apple spirits.  So it does have a slightly sweet taste, but also an overall dry finish from the Rye spirits.

Garnish:

• *Orange twist (not pictured).  *optional

Preparation:

Add ice to a shaker, followed by the two ounces of Vodka, then add only one ounce of the spice mix.  Shake well and double strain and serve into a chilled Martini glass.

Background: 

My favorite cocktails are Martini's, as an apparent simple cocktail, it is taken for granted in its apparent ease of making them.  But, what makes a Martini, is either the Gin or Vodka that is used as the alcohol base, so anything below a mid tier Vodka or Gin will affect the overall Martini taste.  In saying that, the best Vodkas, in my opinion, are Polish.  They have a complex taste and Kavka is up their as one of the most interesting of Vodkas, with its duel sweet and dry taste.   In keeping with the Polish experience with this cocktail, is the use of Loyd fruit teas, also from Poland, which maybe hard to find.  However their selection is vast and I was able to pick up a cherry, chocolate and chilli tea, which is not sweet per se, but certainly tastes like the said ingredients.  However, the chilli can be overwhelming if seeped for too long, so under one minute with the Vodka should be suffice to balance out the flavours of the Kavka Vodka with the tea infusion.  The Honey syrup and fresh orange juice lift the cocktail with a natural sweetness that sugar syrup would make it too sweet.  And this is the point, you want to be able to taste the Kavka, to which I did taste the Rye dryness after sipping the finished cocktail.    The cocktail itself was prepared just before twilight, which is spiritual moment in the evening, before light, is consumed by the dark.  When the light of spirits are released into the stygian.

A ceremonial cocktail:  "The Visitant" 

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(A.Glass 2023)