Bohedonist.com – 5.19.11
ROOT – a spirit by Art in the Age
Just when you thought that the market for craft spirits had been fully tapped, doors open for yet another enchanting elixir deserving of special attention. The creators of Hendrick’s Gin and Sailor Jerry Rum have created ROOT for the artist collective and brand, Art in the Age of Mechanical Production. The attractive packaging only hints to the wildly pleasing contents inside the bottle – a concoction distilled from sugar cane and neutral grain spirits with botanical ingredients including birch, spearmint, cardamom, vanilla bean, clove and citrus. The ROOT recipe harks back to an 18th century Pennsylvania folk recipe stemming from Root Tea, which at one point was pretty potent but later came to be known as Root Beer, once the alcohol was removed from it during the Temperance Movement.
My interest in this spirit, which I first tasted the other day at Williamsburg’s Five Leaves restaurant with brand ambassador Nam Lee, stems not only from its intriguing herbaceous flavor profile, but from the range of things you can do with it: from sipping it on ice with an orange peel, to a spicy twist on a Manhattan, to mixing it with stout, or using it in a marinade or bbq sauce for ribs.
Once I get my hands on a bottle, I am plan to mix up the “Coal Cracker Buck”
1 part ROOT
1 part Rye Whiskey
1/3 part fresh lemon juice
1/3 part fresh ginger syrup
2 muddled blackberries
Shake, serve tall, top with seltzer and garnish with mint. Head to the races!
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