Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
TURMERIC BRINGS A SUNNY DISPOSITION
From just plain aesthetics to the notion of adding some health benefits to a cocktail
IF COCKTAILS look golden to you lately it’s probably because turmeric, the bright yellow-orange spice long used in South Asian and Middle Eastern cooking, is the latest ingredient to make the leap from the kitchen to the cocktail glass.
Every upscale bar menu these days seems to have at least one drink containing the spice.
There is no single reason for this. And the two most significant ones sit on opposite ends of the serious-tosuperficial spectrum.
On one hand, turmeric is riding its current reputation as a superfood with anti-inflammatory powers – a big selling point at a time when bars are straining to sell the idea that cocktails can be healthy.
On the other hand, it’s pretty. Turmeric turns every cocktail into a sunshiny glass of Instagram bait.
Combine those two qualities and you have the mixological equivalent of the gorgeous Hollywood actor who turns out to hold a degree in physics.
“Popularity and Instagram,” said John Clark-Ginnetti, an owner of the New Haven, Connecticut, cocktail bar 116 Crown, summing up the buzzworthy spice’s appeal.
“I don’t know how many things can take hold without the benefit of social media these days.”
There are those who mix with turmeric for more mundane reasons, like flavour.
“Just a dash or two can add another layer,” said Jillian Vose, the bar director and managing partner of the Dead Rabbit in Manhattan.
Vose uses turmeric in her drink Watch Tower, which contains Irish whisky, brandy and yoghurt, among other things.
She says it keeps guests going back for another sip “to seek out what that underlying flavour is”.
Restaurateur Nico de Soto works with turmeric because, like Mount Everest, it is there.
“Turmeric was a spice I really wanted to incorporate into the menu because I love the flavour,” he said, “and I hadn’t previously experimented with it.”
Getting the spice into cocktails can be labour-intensive, and not as simple as sprinkling ground turmeric into a drink. Bartenders often use fresh turmeric root, a tincture or a syrup, as in the pisco and ginger liqueur-based Always Sunny cocktail in Kentucky.
Eben Freeman, a veteran New
York bartender who ran Genuine Liquorette, noted that the spice can play havoc with bar equipment. “That yellow stains everything,” he said.
Turmeric found favour with American chefs years ago. But cocktail bar menus tend to be the slowpokes
of the food-anddrink world, seizing upon new ideas last.
“It was in the juice bars and then went into the coffee bars,” Freeman said. Now it’s in bar bars.
Victor Greco, an architect who likes to cook with turmeric, was recently introduced to turmeric cocktails. “In cooking, there is the obvious amazing colour,” he said.
“But what I think sets the ingredient apart in drinks versus food is that the flavour seems to be more to the front.”
Clark-Ginnetti, of 116 Crown, began drinking turmeric tea on the advice of his doctor, and believes it helped ease soreness in his joints. From there, the seasoning found its way into a cocktail on his menu called Bitterroot Flip, made with parsley syrup, lemon juice, shochu and egg white.
Sean Kenyon, owner of the bar Williams & Graham, doesn’t dispute such perceived health benefits.
But he also doesn’t think people should turn to cocktails to improve fitness.
“I don’t look for cocktails to be healthy,” he said. “I look for cocktails to have booze in them, to be tasty, composed and balanced.”
And, if possible, bright yellow.