New Extracts

Chocolate Mint and Peach Tea extract

Back in June I posted about my absolute obsession with tincturing and macerating.  My garden was in full thrust and I was still heady from my recent trip to Mandy Aftel's natural perfume workshop in Berkeley.  My mission, originally, was to take advantage of my garden to create some alcohol bases to make perfumes with.  I ventured a little further afield and ended up tincturing dried jasmine blossoms and, most rewardingly, tea.

My biggest success was with an organic loose leaf peach flavored tea.  It's difficult to find a fruity note in natural oils so originally I was simply looking for that.  What I discovered was that the extracted liqueur was so much richer and more complex than I could have imagined.  I dabbed it on my wrists constantly all summer long and inhaled deeply that sweet, smokey aroma reminiscent of hundreds of comforting afternoons with my hands wrapped around a warm cup.

My other big success in extract making was with the chocolate mint taking over my community garden plot.  I knew from infusing it in vodka that the alcohol seemed to really extend the chocolate flavor, much more so than in a cup of herb tissane.  I finely chopped up about a cup of mint and poured enough 190 proof vodka over it to cover and let it sit for a few days.  After straining it I added another cup of chopped herb to make it double strength.

I quite naturally started to think about how to use the extracts in food.  I think their flavors would lend themselves to some delicious desserts, most notably ice cream and sorbets.  I started to experiment with using them in seltzer and, not surprisingly, they were delicious.  Peach tea seltzer has now become a favorite of mine and I can't keep enough extract in the house.  As the bubbly glass approaches your nose you can't help but be overwhelmed by it's gorgeous bouquet.  About a half teaspoon to a teaspoon works nicely in a ten to twelve ounce glass of sparkling water.  I'm spoiled now, I'll never again buy a lemon, lime or (horror of horrors) artificial black cherry flavored seltzer again.

My New Krrb

I've been fortunate to have been found by the local networking website, Krrb.com.  They were kind enough to set up a nice "store" for me on their website and spotlighted my potions in their blog.  They seem to particularly like my Viper Oil.

In the '20's folks who smoked medicinal herbs (think Louis Armstrong) were called Vipers. There are a slew of songs from that era including a favorite of mine performed nicely by the 4th Street Nite Owls, "If You're a Viper".

The band and I had an idea for a skin formulation, something akin to Snake Oil, for "taking the sting out" that they could sell at shows. Viper Oil was born out of this brainstorm and uses hemp oil as it's main ingredient.

The hemp oil is combined with an olive oil maceration of comfrey, calendula, plantain, yarrow, red clover, thyme and roses (all grown locally in my garden) and fortified with the essential oils of frankincense, lavender, geranium, hemp, carrot seed and rose.

I had a good time doing some research into old time Snake Oil and could only imagine a barker announcing my "miracle cure".  "Takes the sting out of skin afflictions such as insect bites, cuts, minor burns, abrasions & irritations. Reduces inflammation, soothes your wounds, abates your misery. The wound resolution miracle!"

Handlebar Magazine Review

In August I was lucky enough to be reviewed in the online men's magazine Handlebar.   The article discusses the difficulty in finding a men's fragrance that isn't overpriced and "overpopultated" and features a few smaller independent perfumers.  Jeremy Wolf writes a generous review of The Ambergill, and even goes so far as to refer to me as an "alchemical savant"!  I'm blushing…

Herbal Alchemy Gets Some Love

I was recently interviewed for the online magazine Scout Mob, a great resource for local businesses.  They offer daily deals for subscribers so check it out.  The lovely Carly Wray made me look like I really know what I'm talking about.  The post sent me a flurry of interest in my lectures and workshops, quite a few sales off my website and several offers to be my intern!  I'm feeling the love!

Cocktail Lab, Summer 2011

Every season has inspired me to make new vodka flavors.  Summertime has it's bonus of fresh herbs straight from my garden.  As I weed, water and muse over my plot I start to imagine the frothy cocktails being shaken up from these freshly macerated liquors.  Once I have a few flavors to play with I gather up some possible mixers to go along.  Lemons, limes, tonic and club soda are a must as well as a long lingering look at the juice selection at my food coop and local grocery store.

Once I have everything assembled I invite my fellow cocktail lovers over for another round of Cocktail Lab.  On hand were Lori Firpo, Diane Fargo and Rebecca Winzenried.   Food is required lest we lose our senses in drink.  This round had lots of fresh vegetables and dip plus some delicious shrimp dumplings from Chinatown.

After feeling like I'd used all of the best ideas for flavors in last summers extravaganza I stumbled upon some overlooked plants in my community garden.  Red shiso was one such plant.  I'd only ever had it in sushi before but sampled some while weeding one day and was pleasantly surprised.  It's in the mint family but has a dinstinctively anise like flavor.  I used the leaves of an approximately ten inch stem chopped up in once cup of vodka and let it sit for about a day.  The resulting liquid is a gorgeous pink color.

Another overlooked herb I infused was Sweet Annie.  This plant has been popping up all over the garden since I joined eleven years ago.  Up until last summer no one was able to identify it until one member made it her mission.  It's an artemesia, a relative of wormwood, and sometimes referred to as Sweet Wormwood.  It's aroma is described as camphorous and there is definitely that note but there is so much more going on.  It's sweet and lightly floral quality makes it an intoxicating beverage.

My recent foray into tincturing and creating extracts has me sampling the many types of tea available.  I'd heard about tea infused vodka before but it never appealed to me until I inhaled the sweet aroma of some organic peach flavored black tea extract that I recently made.  Now I'm busy reading up on tea and collecting a few varieties.  I steeped some organic Assam for our little soire.

The last vodka I conjured up is made of basmati rice.  I love the sweet perfumed fragrance of basmati rice and after the success of the honey oat vodka from last winter I had a feeling it would be a hit.

Thus assembled and fed we began to conjure up some ideas.  I'd been thinking about shiso vodka and that fresh garden cucumber in the fridge all day.  It took several rounds for us to hit on a recipe for something we're calling The Shihito, a delightfully refreshing libation with muddled cucumber and yuzu.

We started a recipe for a tea and lemonade cocktail with a muddled mint leaf and honey absolute.  I want to work on the tea vodka to perfect that one.  Ideas are brewing for the basmati rice vodka (saffron?) and a few other things, one inspired by spumoni.  Stay tuned.

The Shihito

I jigger shiso vodka

4 thin cucumber slices

1 mint leaf

1/2 teaspoon sugar

pinch of salt

2 drops of yuzu essence

splash of club soda

In the bottom of a glass muddle the cucumber and mint with the sugar and salt.  Add the shiso vodka and yuzu essence.  Fill the glass with ice and top with a splash of seltzer.  Relax and enjoy the flavors of summer.

Shiso

A few years ago someone in my community garden planted shiso, both the green and red variety.  It happily naturalized itself and now self sows and comes up everywhere.  I never paid it much attention and generally weeded it out of my vegetable plot.  At the end of the season last year a few of us ordered sushi one evening and someone had the brilliant idea to wrap each piece in shiso before we ate it.  I was surprised by it's anise-like flavor, somewhere between mint and fennel.  Since then I've been waiting to experiment with this new addition to my palette.

 Shiso, otherwise known as perilla (Perilla frutescens) is originally from Japan but has naturalized widely in the US and Canada.  I'm so far only familiar with the red shiso, which is used to dye umeboshi plums and paste.  It's rich in vitamins and minerals and has strong anti-inflammatory properties.

Use shiso like basil, adding it to cooking just at the end.  It pairs beautifully with tuna and is used in Japanese, Vietnamese and Korean cooking.  It's also a wonderful addition to a fruit salad.  For more ideas on how to cook with shiso check out this great article in the L.A.Times.

Of course I had to wonder what shiso vodka would be like so over the holiday weekend I whipped up a batch.  The red leaves lend a lovely pink color to the fragrant and refreshing liquid making it perfect for summer drinking.  I see it with muddled fresh cucumber.  Cocktail forthcoming!

Tinctures, Extracts and Infusions

Linden tincture filtering.

This season has me wanting to capture as much of it's flavors and fragrances as I possibly can.  After my recent trip to California to learn more about natural perfumery I've been hungry to gather new fragrant ingredients.  I thought I might tincture a few things to add to my perfume organ.

Linden blossoms drying.

I started with trying to capture the incredible, brief and elusive fragrance of linden.  Where I live in Brooklyn there are many linden trees and there is a two week period at the end of June that is phenominaly fragrant.  I recently bought a bottle of linden CO2 from Aftelier and have been playing around with it.  It's a beautiful note, very honeyed and sweet but a bit difficult to work with since it's so easy to lose the quintessential quality of it.  I wondered how a tincture would be so I picked some blossoms and left them to dry for a day or two before I submerged them in 190 proof vodka.  After a few days I strained it out and replaced the blossoms.  It's now on it's third infusion.  I shake it daily and dab a bit on my wrist.  At first it's grassy and more like hay but dries down more like the scented June air.

Chocolate mint extract filtering.

In my community garden plot I have a patch of chocolate mint that's out of this world.  I've used it in the past to make tea and was pleased but not as fanatical about it is as I've been since last summer when I made some chocolate mint vodka out of it.  The chocolate really comes through when it's macerated.  I've been conjuring cocktails (along with the rest of the civilized world) the past couple of years but I don't even mix this with anything else.  It's so good just on it's own.  I wondered if I could make an extract of it to flavor other things, like seltzer or ice cream.  I chopped up a bunch very fine and put it in a jar and covered it with 190 proof alcohol.  It very quickly turned bright green.  I shook it daily and yesterday strained off the emerald green liquid and used it to make chocolate mint seltzer.  It's delicious but I'm not satisfied so I picked more mint last night and have added it to the extract - a double maceration.

Jasmine blossoms macerating.

Now my interest is piqued and I've been exploring some other materials to tincture.  Dried jasmine blossoms have yielded a surprising result, more like cigarette burning than the indolic and intoxicating fragrance I expected.  I've also been playing around with tea.  I had some peach flavored black tea in the house and started with that.  It's made the most exquisite elixir, I want to slather myself in it.  A recent trip to the tea store and I now have Lapsang Souchong, Jasmine and Russian Caravan soaking.

              Basically all you do is make sure you have clean jars and good strong vodka (190 proof is best).  Fresh plant material is best dried a day or two so that there is less water involved in your creation.  Chop herbs finely and put in the jar and pour in just enough alcohol to cover.  Make sure that everything is submerged in alcohol or you run the risk of spoilage and ruining your experiment.  Shake the jars daily.  You can double the maceration if you're so inclined.  As always keep good notes so if you create something heavenly you can create it again. Good luck!