One Wish
COCKTAIL INGREDIENTS:
- 22,5 ml Pine Vodka
- 22,5 ml Dry Gin
- 22,5 ml Fresh Bergamot Juice
- 22,5 ml Cinnamon Syrup
- 1 Dash Pine Bitters
GARNISH:
- Dehydrated Bergamot Wheel
- Gin Candy
INSTRUCTIONS:
• Combine all of the ingredients in a cocktail shaker.
• Add ice and shake until chilled.
• Double strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
• Garnish with a dehydrated bergamot wheel and a gin candy.
Bergamot is a remarkably delicious citrus, that has been underutilized in cocktails, perhaps due to the difficulty of sourcing it, however the effort is absolutely worth it. After trying some fresh bergamots for the first-time last year, I instantly became a fan and started coming up with the ideas for an original cocktail. The result was this “One Wish”.
I built the cocktail on a split base of pine vodka and dry gin, forming a sort of coniferous foundation comprised of pine and juniper. For the gin I chose “Kadaginė” by Gintro Sino distillery, which is a very dry style gin, that basically strips everything back to the basics. I paired the spirits with some freshly squeezed bergamot juice that brings a lot of tartness and bitterness to cocktail and blend seamlessly with notes of pine and juniper. Balance is brought by some cinnamon syrup that keeps the bergamot tartness in check while at the same time layering additional tones of cinnamon which take the cocktail in a slightly tropical direction. In truth the cocktail could probably work with just plain old simple syrup, but I really liked the complexity of cinnamon and how it plays around with notes of pine and bergamot, that I decided to keep this particular cocktail specs. For the final touch I added a dash of pine bitters/tincture I have made awhile ago to accentuate the pine flavours and the cocktail was ready to be served.
One Wish is certainly one of the more unique cocktails I have made, combining ingredients not often seen together, but the result was a delicious and absolutely worth the trouble. It is a recipe I will definitely come back to later again and again.