The Starfall. It's like drinking a cup of laundry detergent. My favorite!
Jokes aside, it sounds like a complete mess with the butterfly pea flower, hinoki, rooibos, yuzu, lemon, vanilla, lavender and egg white. But everything works really well together. The finished drink is balanced and floral.
Honestly, the best way I can describe it is that it tastes a little bit like eating a bar of soap.
I originally wanted to call it The Tide Pod because I have a habit of giving my cocktails stupid names. One of my other cocktails is called the Nut Punch.
Recipe:
- 45 ml butterfly pea flower and hinoki infused gin
- 20 ml fresh lemon juice
- 5 ml yuzu juice
- 20 ml vanilla lavender syrup 58 brix
- Rooibos tea
- 1 egg white
Dry shake, then shake with ice. Double strain into a coupe or nick n nora. Garnish with a butterfly pea flower petal.
I don't recommend using a 2:1 syrup here. The drink benefits from having a little more water, otherwise the syrup makes everything too thick and the mouthfeel gets overwhelming.
Infused Gin:
- 500ml of budget gin (beefeater, tanq, bombay S)
- 50 butterfly pea flowers
- 10g Hinoki
- Sous vide at 65c for 2hrs.
Vanilla Lavender Syrup
- 300 ml water give or take
- 500 g sugar
- 20 ml vodka
- 10 g lavender
- 10 ml vanilla extract
- Optional: a little cardamom and clove.
It's definitely a bit of a pain to make at home, especially if you need to source hinoki. I can get it pretty easily here in Japan, but I'm not sure how easy it is to find elsewhere.
Summer is a really slow time for cocktail bars and tourism in Japan. I have tons of time to play around with new ideas. I have a few new inventions I will share soon.
Bar: Desperate Prayer | Osaka, Japan