Parts: Pandan Cocktails – Imbibe Journal

Initially hailing from the Moluccas archipelago (aka “The Spice Islands”) in japanese Indonesia, pandan has been a staple ingredient of Southeast Asian cuisines for hundreds of years. Extra just lately, pandan has contributed its taste and deep verdant shade to pastries and dishes throughout Instagram. Herbaceous, nutty, and underscored with a perfume of vanilla, pandan naturally lends itself to a bunch of cocktail functions, and its slender, blade-like leaves add dramatic aptitude as a cocktail garnish.

Pandan’s complicated taste permits it to successfully attain throughout the sweet-savory spectrum. This superpower provides it unbelievable versatility—whether or not in an indulgent dessert drink or a light-weight, unfussy highball. “Pandan is powerful and can stand out in cocktails, but in addition adequately subtle that it may nonetheless let the spirit shine,” says Alex Legislation, lead bartender for Bar Podmore in Honolulu. “It really works properly with every part from gin or agave to whiskey or rum.” Legislation faucets into the ingredient’s flexibility to create Shoots and Leaves, a low-proof Bamboo riff that additionally references the Aperitiki type of melding tropical flavors with Italian motifs in the identical drink.

As malleable as pandan could be, it’s not the “bartender’s ketchup” sort of ingredient that may immediately carry steadiness to cocktail chaos. Pandan’s flavors can overpower a drink if not correctly accompanied by the suitable elements. This was a problem confronted by Vay Su, accomplice in cocktail pop-up Double Dragon Bar in Los Angeles, when designing his 93 ’til Infinity cocktail. “I needed to make use of elements that may spotlight all [pandan’s] traits,” he says. “The issue I bumped into is that each one these flavors have a perceived sweetness on the palate.” His work-around concerned utilizing rye whiskey infused with oolong tea, a one-two punch of spice and tannins that transforms pandan right into a nuanced supporting participant.

Pandan’s nutty sweetness additionally performs good with tropical flavors, making it a pure match for traditional Caribbean drinks and fashionable tropical cocktails. At Seattle’s Zig Zag Café, bartender Eli Hetrick makes use of pandan syrup to make his Ardour Fruit Colada, pairing pandan with ardour fruit and coconut. “The pandan serves primarily as a delicate fragrant and earthy observe inside a shiny, juicy, and tropical construct,” Hetrick says. “It additionally provides a delicate and lingering end to the drink—a pleasant distinction to the remainder of the flavors, and an attractive purpose to take one other sip.