Mystery Drink

I think this is awesome.

Singapore beverage company Out of the Box caters to consumers who respond to "What would you like to drink?" with a non-committal "anything" or "whatever". Two weeks ago, the company launched two complementary brands: Anything and Whatever. Anything is fizzy and comes in six flavours (Cola with Lemon, Apple, Fizz Up, Cloudy Lemon and Root Beer) and Whatever is non-carbonated (Ice Lemon Tea, Peach Tea, Jasmine Green Tea, White Grape Tea, Apple Tea, Chrysanthemum Tea).The surprise part? Consumers don't know which flavour they're getting until they take a sip.

Tonic, Part II of XXIVIXDMXIV

In an effort to improve on the tonic water I made, which was barky, I tried a couple of things. First I re-filtered it through another coffee filter. This didn't seem to make a difference on either the flavor of the tonic or the resulting barky coating of my tongue.

Then, since I had a Britta filter that needed changing anyway, I used it to filter some of my tonic syrup. The resultant liquid was thinner (less syrupy), lighter in quinine taste (in a good way), but also losing most of the citrus flavor and sugar (in a bad way). So that was a failure as well.

Should I try again, I think the recipe could use less powdered cinchona bark, and perhaps I should try making a tea bag with it in the first place rather than putting it in raw. I also think it could use a few other flavors to make it more interesting. I've spoken with the Fever Tree people, the Q Tonic Water people, Todd Smith of Bourbon and Branch, and Jeffrey Morgenthaler about their versions so I have some ideas.

For now I have to go finish my story on what the pros are doing before I continue my amateur experimentation.

Tonic, Part I of XXIVIXDMXIV

I'm doing the tonic water research that everyone else is doing right now, and as part of the experiment I decided to make my own. I followed the recipe from Kevin Ludwig from Park Kitchen in Portland as published in Imbibe Magazine.Luckily, my bag of powdered cinchona bark did not break open like it did for "Food Dude", nor did I spill syrup all over my kitchen. Nor did I cut myself while chopping lemongrass nor burn myself on the oven. So all in all, it was a better cooking experience than when I do it with food.
I also followed suggestions in the comments for that article: allowing the mixture to sit overnight before filtering out the cinchona bark, and not adding the sugar until after the filtering.


But how does it taste? Just okay, I'd say. The initial sip is terrific, with a good balance of sweetness and bitter quinine with a little lingering sharpness. However it doesn't linger for as long as I want it to, and after the second sip my tongue feels like it's coated with bark dust. This "barky tongue" then dominates the flavor in subsequent sips with or without added gin.


I think I'm going to try to filter it a second time and see if it improves but that's going to be harder now with the sugar in it.Quest for tonic continues!

Show us the love

Right now all the food bloggers are doing this exhibitionist meme where they display the unedited contents of their refrigerators. I thought it would be fun to join in to show how the other half lives. Anyone viewing this could tell that I'm
a) single
b) male
since my refrigerator contains almost nothing but condiments and mixers. Then you look in the door and it appears I'm a drag queen.

Here's the breakdown:

Main Door:

• Two jars of raspberry preserves
• soda water
• soy milk
• iced tea (behind)
• homemade lemonade in pitcher
• pasta sauce
• sparkling apple cider
• (next level) Parmesan cheese
• gourmet mustard (one of 9 kinds currently in fridge)
• relish
• tofu dogs
• eggs
• (bottom level) homemade tonic water syrup
• chocolate sauce (nearly 10 years old)
• orange flower water
• Xuxu vodka/strawberry (behind)
  
• apple sauce
• more homemade tonic in jar
• salsa (behind)
  
• more iced tea
• salad dressing
• simple syrup

Door of refrigerator:

• nail polish (from dot-com era when it was hip for about 3 weeks for dudes match their shiny shirts with nail polish. I guess I should throw this out since it's all 9 years old and I can't envision an occasion calling for nail polish in the near future)
• condiments
• grenadine, red vermouth, dry vermouth

So basically, your tofu dog omelet can come with anything you want on it, but instead how about a drink?

Open Source Soda

Color me clueless- I didn't know about OpenCola, a copyright-free recipe for Coke or Pepsi-like soda. Here's the recipe.

I'm not a fan of traditional sodas, but maybe you crafty barfolk can add this to your DIY selection of bar ingredients along with grenadine, bitters, tonic water, and limoncello.

Also on WikiHow, they have recipes for cherry soda, ginger ale, and root beer.