Cocktail Funk

[Peter Green]

In my mind, funk is different things for different things.

For wines, my nephew and I were trying to describe the "funk" of New Zealand Pinot Noirs. Pip from Hawkes Bay's Sileni was dead on with this, and put it down to an earthiness, or barnyard backdrop in the wines. "Barnyard" is a term I can work with.

Tim Butler, in describing Thai food, put it to the ferment that's allowed to go on with much of the food, giving it that additional "cook" that brings up a certain aroma (and which the health inspection folks won't let us do in North America). I walked in the door at the ferment room at the Kimchi Museum in Seoul...that was funky.

(Funk is a completely different thing to Peter Griffin on Family Guy. But that's another matter.)

For the purpose of spirits, I'd agree with the earlier posting that "funk" is a lot about what's left in the heads and tails of the distill. I believe that more of it is in the low end (the stuff we generally put a skull and crossbones over). There is also, as Kinsey said, a relationship to the element of fuesel oils that have collected in the pipes during the condensation. Those things are "nasty" (but easily cleared with salt and vinegar).

I put funk in spirits down more to issues in the distillation process. I'd have to say the low end distillates are going to carry those whack-o bits.

But strange can be good.

Has anyone made a cocktail with kimchi?

[KatieLoeb]

Please do!  I have a friend with a ton of rose geranium plants that keeps offering me cuttings I have trouble keeping alive. (My notorious Black Thumb has been discussed over the ages in other forums....)  I adore the scent of the rose geraniums, but am not confident of what to do with it.

The way infused vodka happens at my house is usually random- I don't buy or drink much vodka personally, but sometimes a stray bottle will end up at my house after a party, and what to do with it besides making it into something more interesting!

So at one point, I had a fresh branch of rose geranium, around 12" long. I stripped the flowers from it, and stuffed them into a 3/4-full bottle of vodka, along with a tablespoon of turbinado sugar and a handful of lightly bruised cardamom pods. I shook it pretty viciously and let it sit.

Every other day or so, I turned the bottle upside down to mix things around a bit. After a couple of weeks, I had a rather unpalatable liquid that tasted like a florist's shop. I strained the liquid through a series of coffee filters into a fresh bottle and hoped for the best. It took about another 3 weeks for the aromatics to settle down. Since then, the stuff is super, unreservedly yummy. I only wish it didn't take so long to make!

An interesting mixture I made with it last night:

Bouquet:

1 1/2 oz dry gin

1/4 oz rose geranium vodka (or another floral liqueur)

1 oz strong hibiscus tea, chilled

2 dashes orange bitters (Angostura OB worked really well)

Combine all in ice-filled mixing glass, stir briskly, and strain. Top with flamed lemon or grapefruit twist.

Yum!

←

Aha! The rose geranium that I have has no flowers, just the lovely smelling leaves. I was afraid it would be too vegetal to muddle with. Maybe I'll try infusing a small batch of vodka instead and see what happens.

[db_campbell]

Has anyone made a cocktail with kimchi? 

←

I've been trying to decide what to infuse a bottle of Soju with for a couple weeks now; had been leaning persimmon, but this may be the answer -

[slkinsey]

Quady's "Deviation" is aromatized with Damiana and Scented Geranium.

[eje]

I tried the arrack/genevieve drink several days ago.  I found it an interesting quaff, but not one for the ages.

←

Along those lines a friend over at the mixoloseum made this drink the other night.

The Amber Spyglass

        * 1oz Genever

        * 1oz Swedish Punsch

        * .5oz Coruba

        * .25oz orgeat

        * 6-8 drops Pernod or anisette

        * Rinse: 1/4t Angostura bitters and 1/4t pimento dram

    Rinse glass with Angostura bitters and pimento dram until you see “Dust”. Shake and strain other ingredients into the spyglass.

I did this and found it quite pleasantly funky and delicious:

1 oz Genevieve

1 oz Homemade Swedish Punch

1 oz Coruba Rum

barspoon homemade orgeat

dash absinthe

Angostura Bitters

Stir and strain into chilled angostura rinsed glass.

[Yojimbo]

Please do!  I have a friend with a ton of rose geranium plants that keeps offering me cuttings I have trouble keeping alive. (My notorious Black Thumb has been discussed over the ages in other forums....)  I adore the scent of the rose geraniums, but am not confident of what to do with it.

The way infused vodka happens at my house is usually random- I don't buy or drink much vodka personally, but sometimes a stray bottle will end up at my house after a party, and what to do with it besides making it into something more interesting!

So at one point, I had a fresh branch of rose geranium, around 12" long. I stripped the flowers from it, and stuffed them into a 3/4-full bottle of vodka, along with a tablespoon of turbinado sugar and a handful of lightly bruised cardamom pods. I shook it pretty viciously and let it sit.

Every other day or so, I turned the bottle upside down to mix things around a bit. After a couple of weeks, I had a rather unpalatable liquid that tasted like a florist's shop. I strained the liquid through a series of coffee filters into a fresh bottle and hoped for the best. It took about another 3 weeks for the aromatics to settle down. Since then, the stuff is super, unreservedly yummy. I only wish it didn't take so long to make!

An interesting mixture I made with it last night:

Bouquet:

1 1/2 oz dry gin

1/4 oz rose geranium vodka (or another floral liqueur)

1 oz strong hibiscus tea, chilled

2 dashes orange bitters (Angostura OB worked really well)

Combine all in ice-filled mixing glass, stir briskly, and strain. Top with flamed lemon or grapefruit twist.

Yum!

←

Aha! The rose geranium that I have has no flowers, just the lovely smelling leaves. I was afraid it would be too vegetal to muddle with. Maybe I'll try infusing a small batch of vodka instead and see what happens.

←

Katie,

A traditional use for rose geranium leaves is to bury 'em in sugar, which soaks up the oils in the leaves. You could try that and make simple syrup with some neutral spirits added -- I have a feeling the leaves infused directly would have too much of a resinous note that would be definitely un-funky, though I could be wrong.

They do flower if they get good sun in summer!

[Chris Amirault]

I had a crappy, long day, and I came home determined to find something funky and fresh. Since Marky Mark doesn't live here, I decided to make a drink instead. I think it's damned good if you like things a bit weird. I hope you'll appreciate that I chose not to name it the Pass the Dutchie but instead chose...

Funky Punsch Sour

1 1/2 oz Swedish punsch (eje's Underhill punsch)

2 oz rhum agricole (Neisson)

1/2 oz maraschino (Luxardo)

1 lime

dash Angostura bitters

dash orange bitters (Angostura as well)

It's clean, crisp, and funky -- a very enjoyable combination this evening, though not for everyone.

[Chris Amirault]

Thanks to this post by bostonapothecary, I'm enjoying this terrific funky double Holland sour thing:

1 1/2 oz Batavia Arrack van Oosten

1 1/2 oz Genevieve

1 oz lemon juice

1/2 oz simple

A year later, and I'm just learning that this drink carries a claret float very nicely indeed, a la the New York Sour.