As a fun idea i thought i should dig up a few old posts that has been “buried” since the beginning of this blog. So i start with the very first post i made – the start of this blog – that was back in 2008 posted june 29th – and will tell yall that i`m a vanilla freak.
Here is also my take on the cocktail that won the Angostura Global Cocktail Challenge in 2008 and was created by Valentino Bolognese, which gives me a chance to dig up another post from that time.
There is another famous cocktail too – the Trinidad Sour which is a variation on the Trinidad Especial and was created by Giuseppe Gonzalez and that one is a VERY nice cocktail and contains 1.5 oz of Angostura Bitters.
Since then i have learnt so much about cocktails and spirits, it´s fun to dig up old posts like this one.
Here is my post from 2008 :
Vanilla and a Very Special Cocktail
WELCOME TO MY WORLD!
In this blog i`m going to write about my drink (and occasionally some food) experimenting, rums and other spirits and liqueurs. Its going to involve quite a bit of Tikidrinks. But also the making of syrups, bitters and infusions…and whatever else i may come up with.
I do this for fun and i hope you`ll have fun too!
I LOVE VANILLA…
Its something special about Vanilla..maybe its the warm sensual fragrance and flavor of this beautiful exotic tropical climbing orchid…or the beauty of the flowers which only opens for a few hours in the morning. Maybe its the rich fragrant and oily darkness of the cured beans which at first are green. Vanilla flowers once a year in a period of about two months.
I love Vanilla and i always have my favorite beans at home which are the Tahitian beans, from vanilla tahitensis. They are fatter, more “oily” and somewhat shorter than other beans and have a very special floral aroma and flavor.
I`ve made my jar of Vanilla sugar with these beans since many years back. I mix 1 pack each of Tate&Lyles – or Billingtons dark and light Muscovado sugars with 3-4 Tahitian beans which i split on the length and scrape out all those lovely tiny black seeds which i mix with the sugars.
The longer they stay in the sugar the more flavor the sugar takes on from the beans. When the sugar is finished i just add some more and it goes on and on..
I also make my Vanilla syrups using 1:1 ratio sugar and water and add a couple of split beans to the pan, let it simmer and then cool before i discard the beans (rinsing them and moving them to the sugar jar that is) and bottle my syrup.
A friend to me did mention that the Trinidad Especial Cocktail, made by Valentino Bolognese who also won the European Angostura Cocktail Competition 2008 with this unusual cocktail, which indeed is a very special cocktail, using no less than 30 ml of Angostura bitters, is nice poured over Vanilla ice cream…
Such a brilliant idea is one i cannot resist trying out. So i made both the cocktail and then the Vanilla ice cream with some of the cocktail poured over it..and indeed this cocktail tastes good! It wasn`t that bitter as i first expected but rather aromatic and spicy with a heavy dose of clove. On the ice cream it was a real treat!
TRINIDAD ESPECIAL
10 ml. Pisco Mistral
20 ml. fresh lime juice
30 ml. barley syrup
30 ml Angostura Aromatic Bitters.
Shake hard and long, and strain in a Martini glass.
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A cocktail and a dessert in one, i remember this was a real treat. Do you like vanilla and what do you do with it?
