Like any good home bar enthusiast I have my top-shelf liquors proudly on display, and my regular go-to well spirits tucked under the bar but close at hand, the mixers in a box below that. And then I have the mysterious graveyard which I like to call the realm of the mystery booze. Leftovers of home-made experimental infusions, tiny samples of spirits with labels too faded to read, strange bottles that never had a label in the first place — you know the stuff. The kind of thing you dig out to make your friends drink on a dare at a certain point in a lively evening.
Among this baffling collection is a small bottle with a smudged label declaring it to be karottenbrand, a German carrot-based spirit which tastes like someone waved a carrot over a vat of paint stripper. Is it good? It is certainly not. And yet, it has fascinated me for years, with the beguiling possibility of what it might be like if it were good. The concept of a carrot spirit is so intriguing to me — the sweet-savory flavor, the fit in a Bloody Mary or a Dirty Martini or even as an additive to a savory G&T. I can imagine so many uses for it, if only it were not awful.
That’s why I am so compelled by a new signature cocktail from Harbour Club‘s a’Riva in Miami, which uses a high-end carrot eau de vie (who knew that such a thing existed?) along with tequila, mezcal, lime juice, and vegetable juices and spices to create a playful and savory riff on the classic Orange Julius. Perhaps here is the answer to my carrot cocktail dreams.
Orange Julius Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 oz Reisetbauer Carrot EDV
- 1 oz Don Julio 1942
- 75 oz Lime Juice
- 1 oz Carrot/Pepper Juice mix
- 0.75 oz Cumin Syrup
- 1 tsp Ilegal Mezcal
- 1 Dash Celery bitters
