Getting crafty with mixology
Tea, whey, lavender some offbeat ingredients included in local drinks
If you cast your mind back a decade or more, you might be hard pressed to name bars in the Capital Region with really compelling hand-crafted cocktails that matched the mixology trend flourishing nationwide. If you spent time in any major city from New York City to Washington D.C. and L.A., chances are you sipped drinks at a bar counter crowded with bitters and tinctures or had a bespoke cocktail crafted to the three adjectives describing your current mood. Word-ofmouth speakeasies are no longer the underground backbone of the cocktail scene, but their legacy is visible on cocktail menus powered by foraged ingredients, vegetal spirits and spices more common in a kitchen than a bar. In this new cocktail series, I'll be tracking cocktail trends and showcasing a few beautifully balanced drinks you can find upstate.
1. The ingredient: TEA
Scan the seasonal cocktail list at Mosu and you’ll spot several teainfused spirits like Lapsong Souchang-infused scotch whiskey in The Cure and tea-infused gin in an Earl Grey martini. Brewed tea is already a bar standard in classic cocktails like Planter’s Punch, but by using specific fragrant teas like Earl Grey, rose or matcha layer delicate, herbal notes without sweetness, and the flavor intensity can be controlled depending whether the tea is infused in the chosen spirit, brewed or used as a flavoring for simple syrup.
The drink: Earl Grey Marteani Where to find it: MOSU Asian BBQ & Hot Pot, Wolf Road, Colonie
At Mosu, the Earl Grey Marteani is something like the love child of a French 75 and a Clover Club, cocktails that date back to the 1920s. Served in a coupe, the Earl Grey tea’s prominent