Tasting notes

I managed to make a few mocktails on Friday. They are not time consuming to make. What is time consuming is the shopping to get to make them.

Green herb shrub - is really good, like an herby lemonade. There is no lemon in it, just vinegar and fresh herbs. Cardamom gives a perfume note. Green peppercorn a little bite. Coriander gives the lemony note.

Umami bomb - made us discover black garlic, which is interestingly sweet, like a date, but still garlicky. So weird. Well it turns out that black garlic, beet juice and concord grape, are pretty earthy and kind of hard to drink. There is also a bit of soy sauce in there…

Breakfast stout - I had to settle for some substitutions because I could not find black barley, but I have regular barley. For the hops, I used the ones I already owned, not the Golding. The rest I found on Amazon. The result is pretty close to a beer, with bitterness and some sweetness that makes it taste creamy.

Olive oil - is a re-do, very good. It does contains a little olive oil, not a lot. Go past the name and the taste is just fresh herb, mint, lemongrass. There is tarragon and lemon peel, giving both liquorice and lemon notes. I wonder what the drink would be like without the olive oil. I really like the flavors.

Chicha morada - is delicious, balanced, refreshing. I could not find purple corn, so I just used fresh corn. It gets simmered with cinnamon, cloves and toasted coconut, which I all taste. The corn flavor is not very strong. However, I did not get the beautiful purple color that is shown in the book’s picture. But the drink is very good.

$5 shake - so very good, I discovered that I love Tonka bean. The saffron gave a nice yellow color and flavor. The tonka bean flavor is close to vanilla. The other strong flavor is sassafras, so close to root beer. We loved it.

Tzatziki - is a redo. Delicious and refreshing. Mint is a dominant note, so is cucumber. The yogurt adds to the mouthfeel. Honey, cardamom and lime zest are present as well.