Happy Christmas Eve everyone! I’m sure you’re all excited for tonight and tomorrows festivites. I spent all day Friday baking, wrapping presents, finally finished decorating my cactus, and listened to all my favorite Christmas records. Woo hoo! Christmas Eve was always a big celebration with my family growing up. If you came from an Italian family (my father was Italian) you know The Feast of the Seven Fishes, and thats what we did. That was our day to spend together before the rest of the family came Christmas Day. For my whole life holidays were hosted at our house, up until my parents sold the house and flew south for retirement. So if you host, you know Christmas Day and any major holiday is filled with stress, prep, and lots of clean up (and also joy)….
tempus fugit
Using Matcha in Cocktails and the Magnificent Seven
This week I played around with using Matcha in a cocktail. It is a type of powdered green tea that is produced primarily in Japan from specially grown and ground shaded tea leaves. It can be used to make an antixoidant rich green tea, or in recipes for smoothies, I love to bake with it, and it is an interesting ingredient to use in cocktails.
There are a lot of plus sides to working with Matcha health wise.
- It creates energy, plus is calming thanks to amino acids.
- It is a powerhouse of antioxidants.
- Aids in weight loss.
- Helps increase focus and concentration.
- Supports skin health by reducing inflammation and free radicals that accelerate skin aging.
While this is all great and awesome I have to be honest, I thought it would just be delicious in drink form. From here I thought about all other ingredients that would pair well with it. Cocktail creation for me is kind of like baking, you figure out your flavor profile and what ingredients you would like to be working with and then you adhere to a recipe as your format for building.
One of my favorite drinks of all time is the Pina Colada, because Pina Coladas, am I right? I used this as a template and inspiration for my cocktail. You can get as creative as you want when you are inventing a new drink but referencing classics and understanding proportions and ratios is key. I decided to name my drink The Magnnificent Seven. The title is from a country western movie made in 1960 that is based off a Japanese film called The Seven Samurai. There also happens to be 7 ingredients in this drink. Lucky me!
The Magnificent Seven
1 1/2 oz. Aged Rum (I used El Dorado 5 year)
1 oz. Pineapple Juice
1/2 oz. Lime Juice
3/4 oz. Coconut Cream (2:1 Coconut Milk & Coconut Cream)
3/8 Orgeat (almond milk syrup)
3/8 Cacao (Tempus Fugit makes a lovely dark Creme de Cacao)
1/2 tsp Matcha Green Tea Powder
Add all your ingrdients to a blender pitcher, add ice and blend. Pour into a large glass like a highball, hurricane, or tiki mug. Garnish with a slice of pineapple, pineapple leaves, and always a parasol.
