June 15, 2015

The Beach


Ten minutes from my front door is a lovely beach - high dunes overgrown with rugosa roses and wild rye. The only way to get there is on foot or bicycle so it is never crowded not even at the height of summer.

I love walking there and swimming there and most of all I love the smells and the views. I wish I could bottle both, but have instead mixed a cocktail.

With this month's theme for Mixology Monday being local hooch, there was never any doubt I was going to make an aquavit cocktail.

Our host, Stuart of Putney Farm, made it very clear in his announcement post:
Your quest is simple. Create a new cocktail, or refashion a classic, using your favorite “hometown hooch” (and we can expand the definition of “hooch” to include spirits, liqueurs, aperitifs and beer)… A little local flavor or history on your “hometown hooch” is very welcome.
Only aquavit is hometown hooch in Denmark, not that people are not trying to make decent gin, rum and whiskey, but aquavit is what we have made since the 1600's.

The one used for this cocktail is distilled 32 kilometers as the crow flies - or as the google car drives - from my front door. It's a clean, straight forward dill aquavit of the highest quality.

Dill loves cucumber and I wanted both the roses and a bit of the ocean in the mix too, so here is my contribution:

  • 6 cl dill aquavit - I used D Argentum from Den Ny Spritfabrik
  • a third of a young cucumber - should yield about 3 cl of liquid
  • 0.75 rose tincture
  • Nori dust - cut about a quarter of a nori sheet for a maki roll and turn it into dust in a mortar or between you fingers
Cut all of the cucumber into chunks except for a slice for garnish, put them in a shaker with the rose tincture and crush them with a muddler to get all the juice flowing. Then add the aquavit and the nori dust and plenty of ice.

Shake hard and double strain into the kind of drinking vessel you would take to the beach. Garnish with the cucumber slice by cutting it in half and making a slit for the rim of your drinking vessel.