Cocktail Confidential Vol 6: Cardamom Syrup + January Media Roundup
The most underrated warming spice gets its time to shine
“Cardamom times, find what you like
In this world I am not, what I seem to be
I dare you
To get to know me”
-Natalie Laura Mering aka Weyes Blood in her song ‘Cardamom’
I’m so excited right now, I don’t even know where to begin. Maybe I like it because no one is talking about it, but cardamom belongs in the same conversation as cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and all the other famous warming spices. It’s just not as commonly known for some reason, but it beats me!
There are two main varieties, both of which we will use in this recipe.
Green cardamom pods, or Eletarria, are aromatic and vibrant with a freshness similar to eucalyptus. They are commonly noted to be pleasantly sweet and can counteract bitterness in savory dishes or add flavor to dessert, which is a common practice in Nordic countries such as Sweden and Norway.
Alternatively, black cardamom pods, or Amomum, have a smoky and gentle minty flavor. They are earthy and bold with flavors that compliment slow cooked meals like lentils and curry as well as hot beverages like coffee and tea.
But all that aside, we’re here to make it drinkable.
Let’s get it
Just a note before we get started here - I know cardamom pods aren’t necessarily easy to find, but if you go to a big chain grocery store with a big spice section, you should be able to. Otherwise, Amazon sells them, both green and black. If you can only find one color or the other, feel free to use just those, but the flavor of the syrup will lean heavily into the profiles given above.
What you’ll need:
Ingredients:
1/4 cup whole green cardamom pods
1/4 cup whole black cardamom pods
2 cups water
2 cups Demerera sugar (you can also use Turbinado sugar or “Sugar In The Raw”)
Tools:
Measuring cups
Chef’s knife with sturdy handle or a mallet
Kitchen or hand towel
Pot or pan that is 1 quart or larger
Strainer
Whisk or something else to mix up the syrup
A couple of quart containers or some Tupperware
Making the syrup:
Active time: 30 minutes // Start to finish: 12 hours+
Measure out the cardamom pods, and place them on the kitchen towel, which can be laid out on the counter. Fold the towel in half to cover the pods. Using the chef’s knife handle or mallet, bash up the cardamom pods until the husks are broken and the seeds are exposed. Watch out for runaways.
Get your pot on the stove and add in the pods on a low-medium heat. Give them a quick stir every 5 minutes or so, and after 15 minutes, maybe 20, they should start to smell especially fragrant and fill the room with a delightful aroma. Add the water and increase the heat to bring it to a boil.
Once the water is boiling, reduce the heat so it is lightly simmering, and slowly add in the sugar. As you pour in the sugar, get a little whirlpool going with your whisk or fork or whatever you’re using so the sugar dissolves faster. Once the sugar is integrated completely, turn the heat off and let the syrup cool. You can either put it in a quart container or some Tupperware, or just leave it in pot. Either way, we’re gonna let this sit overnight.
The last step, which can be done the next day, is to strain out the cardamom pods and seeds. Keep the syrup in the fridge for a couple weeks.
You did it! You made green and black cardamom syrup.
Now, let’s drink.
The Drinks
This is cool and all, but I’ve only ever made drinks a couple times: Daiquiri
Daiquiris, or a rum gimlet, absolutely rock. Aged rum, similarly to whiskey, has notes of warming spices imparted from the barrels they are aged in, but as rum is distilled from sugar cane, it naturally has a sweet flavor that pairs better with ginger, cinnamon and cardamom. Think tropical, spiced and refreshing.
1.5 oz aged rum (Rum flavors are over the place - if you’re looking for elegant and accessible, I’d recommend Santa Teresa 1796 from Venezuela. Or if you’d like something funky and different, try Plantation Xaymaca from Jamaica)
.75 oz green + black cardamom syrup
.75 oz lime juice, freshly squeezed
Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice, shake hard for 15 seconds and strain into a chilled coupe glass. Garnish with a grated black cardamom to impress your friends.
Sipping Soundtrack: Daniel Ögren - Fastingen -92
I have a setup at home. Give me something I can impress with: Espresso Martini
Espresso martinis are a guilty pleasure of mine, and as cardamom is a complimentary flavor to coffee, this cocktail is an absolute layup.
1.5 oz vodka (or rum or bourbon!)
.5 oz Averna
1 shot espresso
.5 oz green + black cardamom syrup
1 dash Angostura cocoa bitters
Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice, shake hard for 15 seconds and strain into a chilled coupe glass. Garnish with a couple espresso beans so you can put it on Instagram.
Sipping Soundtrack: Altin Gün - Gece
Sound the cool guy alarm, because I have a full home bar: Old Fashioned
An Old Fashioned is easily one of the most versatile and flexible cocktails that can morph to match any flavor, booziness or level of sweetness a drinker is looking for. This one uses features ingredients to compliment the robust flavor of the cardamom syrup.
1 oz aged rum, such as Privateer New England Reserve
1 oz rye whiskey, preferrable Rittenhouse
Barspoon banana liqueur, such as Giffard Banane du Bresil
Scant .5 oz green + black cardamom syrup
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Add all ingredients into a double old fashioned glass, add ice and stir for 15 seconds. Top with a few more cubes and garnish with an expressed lemon twist.
Sipping Soundtrack: La Luz - It’s Alive
I don’t feel like drinking today: Cardamom Mule
It’s like a ginger beer, but less spicy.
1.5 oz green and black cardamom syrup
1 oz lime juice, freshly squeezed
3 oz soda water
In a highball, add all ingredients and gently stir to combine. Add ice and garnish with a lime wedge or just drink it. This would also be tasty on crushed ice.
You can make this into a nice pitcher size drink if you multiple everything by 4!
Sipping Soundtrack: The Serfs - Half Eaten By Dogs
January Roundup
My favorite articles, videos and other food related things I liked in January
I thought this might be a fun idea to try - compiling all of my favorite food, drink and hospitality industry media from the month into one place. Obviously as someone in this industry, I keep up with it through a variety of publications I have mentioned here in the past, so I hope there is something that you also find interesting!
“The Menu Trends That Define Dining Right Now” by Priya Krisha, Tanya Sichynsky and Umi Syam in the New York Times breaks down how restaurants are designing their menus to include fine print about kitchen fees, dedicating space to non-alcoholic options and leaning into informality and bright colors. I absolutely loved this article - it is interactive and highlights some really incredible restaurants all while connecting subtleties together that are commonly overlooked.
I’ve been obsessed with the psychology behind a cocktail menu for a really long time, and now that I get to write one every 3 months, it’s really interesting to see how different wording can completely change a guest’s perception of a drink. During the most recent menu change at work, my colleague made this delicious whiskey sour cocktail where we infused mishmish, a spice blend of crystallized honey, lemon, saffron and ginger from La Boite in NYC, into Irish whisky, then combined it with Meletti, a citrusy, Italian bittersweet liqueur with a distinct saffron note, fenugreek, a dehydrated herb that has a distinct maple flavor commonly found in curries, and fresh lemon juice. There is a dash of orange bitters in there, too. Very straightforward and delicious - a whiskey sour riff with maple, honey and deep winter citrus as its complementary flavors.
We listed it as: Irish whisky, meletti, fenugreek, mishmish, lemon, orange bitters.
NO ONE ORDERED IT! A whiskey sour on a cocktail menu will generally sell like there’s no tomorrow, and we couldn’t move these things at all.
So I changed the wording to: whisky, citrusy amaro, fenugreek, crystallized honey, lemon.
Now it sells so well that I had to ask the rep for the Irish whisky we use to drop off a couple bottles because we ran out over the weekend!
This change still lists all of the relative ingredients, but a lot of people who aren’t familiar with the ingredients we use might not know Meletti, fenugreek or mishmish, and everyone has had a bad night drinking Irish whisky, which will actually deter people from ordering it. So, Meletti got switched with “citrusy amaro”, mishmish changed to “crystallized honey” and I removed Irish.
This does a few things. It removes the need for the guests to ask questions about lesser known ingredients, and allows the server to elaborate with people who seem interested in the creative side of our cocktail program. No one is gonna have flashbacks to a night in college the drank too much Jameson out of a handle and swore they’d never go back to Irish whisky. It also familiarizes guests with an ingredient like Meletti - most drinkers who go to cocktail bars know what an amaro is, but they may still be exploring through specific ones.
This change, and I am not exaggerating, quadrupled the sales of that cocktail.
Another goofy, yet highly effective menu trick I use is to list the vodka cocktail last whenever I print a new menu. Everyone loves vodka, so a lot of guests will search the menu for it. After we see how things shake out during the first two weeks, I then reprint and put the two bestsellers at the bottom. This forces guests to read the whole menu before they make a decision and promotes parity between all the drinks.
“The 10 Best Non-Alcoholic Drinks, According to Retailers” by Chris Losh in SevenFifty Daily complies a very good list of Non-Alcoholic drink options that retailers are excited about. I talked in depth about Dry January in Cocktail Confidential Vol. 2, and if you are a participant continuing your sobriety into February, this is a great article to check out.
“Street Market Fine Dining…” on YouTube. I love Action Bronson, not for his music but because of how animated he is when he eats. I appreciate when people feel genuine excitement and surprise when eating something new, and Action holds nothing back. He eats a way that I find valuable - sharing a ton of small plates with a group of people. He takes one bite of each dish, and he inspects the ingredients before he eats so he understands what each component adds to the completed dish. He pokes and prods at the plate, tastes sauces by themselves and constructs the perfect bite. He even eats with his hands, without worrying about how it looks to the half million people who watched his video.
The thing I really appreciate about this video and most of his food stuff, is that he has no clue how to describe things in the moment. There’s no elegance in his words. It’s almost cartoon or a comic-like how his excitement precedes and overtakes any sort of intelligent thought. It is a very healthy reminder that a dining experience doesn’t need to be pretentious to be exceptional
“Inside the Luxurious World of Illegal Magic Mushroom Chocolate” by Meghan McCarron in Bon Appetit explores the technocrat-ization and capitalization of psilocybin with brands making high-end chocolates for micro-dosing Silicon Valley big dawgs. It’s kinda lame, but tech companies do have immense power to push shrooms toward legalization, which would help increase the amount of studies done on them to understand the improvements they can contribute toward long-term mental health issues
The Cevallos Brothers released their 2024 calendar and this year’s theme is “NYC Eats”. I can’t get enough of these guys. For those who don’t know, the Cevallos Brothers are Carlos, 82, and Miquel, 80, sign-making Ecuadorians who spent their childhood drawing in Colombia, before immigrating the New York City and continuing to hand draw and color imaginative signs with a child-like nostalgia for local businesses in Queens neighborhoods like Jackson Heights and Corona. They joined social media a few years back and things really took off for them with the help of a friend who handles their commissions. One brother draws, the other colors. They wear suits every day. I just adore them
Unfortunately, the calendar sold out, but they are selling some prints at the moment!
FAQs
You’re talking a lot about cocktail tins and .75 oz and other stuff I’m unfamiliar with. Can you elaborate?
So in order to make these cocktails, you’ll need some basic bar tools. You can usually purchase these in a set with a cocktail shaker, a jigger (measuring tool), a barspoon for mixing, a Hawthorne strainer and a mixing glass. Jiggers typically have a 2 oz side with a 1.5 oz line, and a 1 oz side with a .5 and .75 line.
I don’t have a bunch of these cocktail tools, but this seems interesting. Where can I get all this stuff you’re talking about?
I personally would recommend checking out Cocktail Kingdom’s complete sets. They’re very high quality and beautifully crafted.
You’re talking a lot about glassware. What’s the difference between all of them and what would typically be served in them?
There are three primary cocktail glasses that every home bar should have - highball, double old fashioned and coupe.
Highball - Ever order a vodka soda close it? Jamo ginger? That is a highball glass! Tall and thin, usually 12 - 16 oz in volume.
Double Old Fashioned - The style is in the name! Old Fashioned! Other names include ‘rocks glass’, ‘tumbler’ or ‘low ball’. They’re short and sturdy and usually 10 - 12 oz in volume.
Coupe - This is a stemmed glass that has a broad, shallow bowl to sip your concoctions out of. Think martini glass but you don’t have to be scared of the physics behind drinking out of it. 6 - 8 oz in volume is the typical size.
My cocktail doesn’t seem ‘balanced’. What should I do?
Bartenders love getting into discussions about the ideal build for a classic gin gimlet or whiskey sour. Some prefer a 2:1:1 build which would mean 1.5 oz base spirit, .75 oz citrus juice and .75 oz bar syrup, while others prefer a 2:.5:.5, which would mean 2 oz base spirit, .5 oz citrus juice and .5 bar syrup. Some might even go 2:.75:.5. But the point is, people have different preferences and you can feel free to adjust. If you want more of an acidic pop, add more lemon or lime juice. If you want it a touch sweeter, add more bar syrup.
Why is there a ‘Tip Your Bartender’ button on here? Can’t you just make it a paid subscription?
Yes, technically I could. But unfortunately the minimum charge is $5 a month, and quite frankly I find that too steep. I’d like this to be accessible to everyone who wants to mix drinks at home, so I thought a ‘pay what you’d like’ system makes the most sense for this newsletter. Tips are absolutely not necessary but always appreciated!
What’re you concocting and talking about next week?
I dunno, that’s for next week. Stay tuned!