Drink your greens
BUTTERED onto toast, added to smoothies, turned into a dip for nachos – but in a cocktail? Most people wouldn’t think of adding avocado to a summer drink.
“It works great,” says Dustin Franke, who runs two bars in Berlin, Germany and has pioneered what he calls the “guacamolita”, a quirky variant of the margarita. “The fats and oils of the avocado make it fuller and give it a velvety texture.”
Together with fellow barkeeper Luca Simon, he created this avocado cocktail recipe for a refreshing summer drink for the World Avocado Organisation (WAO), the association of producers and traders of avocados.
“This is a tequila cocktail and a perfect combination of sour, sweet and spicy,” says Franke.
And this is how the guacamolita goes:
1. With a lime wedge, wet the rim of the serving glass with juice.
Roll the rim of the glass in salt.
2. Cut open an avocado and mash a quarter of it with 3 stalks of coriander and 5 cl of tequila in a shaker until no large pieces of avocado are visible.
3. Then add 2 cl sugar syrup, 8 drops Tabasco, 3 cl lime juice and ice cubes and shake vigorously.
4. Fill the glass with fresh ice and strain the cocktail. Garnish with a sprig of coriander, a slice of lime and a slice of avocado.
“The coriander and Tabasco give the cocktail a slight spiciness. The salt acts as a flavour enhancer,” says Franke. Those who think this drink has enough bite without alcohol can simply replace the tequila with water.
If you like it cold, then mix all the ingredients in a blender and enjoy it as frozen guacamolita.
For the cocktail to be perfect, the avocado needs to be ripe and ready. You can tell it’s reached this stage when it gives a little when squeezed gently, according to WAO experts.
And if the fruit just isn’t yet ripe? Then you should store it at room temperature and repeat the squeeze test every day until you can at last make this drink.
If the avocado has already been cut open when you realise it’s not ripe yet, then put it in the fridge. Leave the flesh in the skin and the stone on, then brush the exposed areas with lemon juice and cover with cling film to prevent it from browning before it ripens. – dpa