TRENDING Craft Tea Cocktails Story and photos by Anna Mariani
SAN FRANCISCO—Tea as an ingredient in craft cocktails has seen a surge in popularity, with many bartenders creating innovative, unique drinks. Whether camellia sinensis, herbal, or flavored, tea is a great way to add layers of complexity to cocktails, while its variety makes it easy to pair with just about any spirit. Making cocktails with tea, however, is not completely new—tea was actually used in very early punches, the ancestors of modern cocktails. For example, the milk punch, one of the oldest teabased cocktails, was a concoction of black tea, port, lemon, and Batavia Arrack, a liquor popular during the 18th century. Unsurprisingly, this tea trend extends even beyond the cocktail bar. Home bartenders can choose from a wide selection of tea-based mixology products, from bitters like DRAM Apothecary Black Cocktail Bitters to tea-infused cocktail syrups like those by Oregon-based company RAFT. For DIYers, there are even craft cocktail infusion kits like 1pt Infusion Kit, which includes pre-measured infusion blends for spirits, a glass bottle, instructions, and recipes. The infusion blends are designed to pair with different base spirits, and all of them include tea and/or botanicals. There are different ways to incorporate tea in cocktails. You can infuse tea leaves directly into base spirits, create tea-infused syrups and tinctures, or use the steeped tea as a dilution agent.
INFUSING CREATIVITY At Onsen, a Japanese-inspired bath house and restaurant located in the Tenderloin neighborhood, tea plays a key role on the menu. Betsy Mcleod, Onsen bar manager and gin enthusiast, uses tea to overcome a challenge. “We are limited to work with soju and its limited flavor profile,” she says. “I wanted to make soju taste like gin and create a beautiful, floral, herbal base for every cocktail. Tea and herbal teas helped me achieve that because they have a lot of complexity, which will shine later on in the cocktails.” For the cocktails, Mcleod infuses soju and sherry with teas and herbal blends by San Francisco-based tea company Tap Twice Tea, also featured on their extensive tea menu. Onsen tea cocktails are refreshing, balanced, and have a nice complexity of flavor. According to Mcleod, another advantage is that if cocktails have to be batched in advance and shelf-stable like at Onsen, tea can sit and will make the cocktail even more flavorful.
12 | NOVEMBER 2018 » freshcup.com
