Saturday’s mocktails were made “from a mix,” anathema to mixologists everywhere, but it wasn’t bought in a store. It didn’t sit in a bottle on a shelf for days or weeks. I mixed it myself the day before the book launch.
The ingredients included Ghia, a non-alcoholic aperitif with a strong botanical flavor, fresh artisanal lemon juice squeezed in small batches–by that I mean I did it, one at a time with the citrus press from my fancy bar kit–and homemade black cherry syrup.
The backbone of this summery, sparkling non-alcoholic drink is called Ghia. It’s laden with botanicals in a base of chardonnay wine grape juice. The flavor is… woodsy, and no, I don’t mean “woody,” I mean it tastes the way the woods smell in the morning, with a faintly bitter aftertaste. (I like that aftertaste.) It’s refreshing, but in my opinion, it’s too intense to drink straight and is improved by sparkles.
Ghia is also an investment, and when I say “investment” I mean “expensive.” The company makes a Ghia spritzer in cans that might be a better deal for casual entertaining. (I was prepared to spend the money because it was for a special event.) The beverage was challenging to find in Sonoma County. Miracle Plum carried it (I think I cleaned them out, though) and the Altamont Grocery in Occidental usually has it but they were sold out when I contacted them. Oliver’s seems like a supermarket chain that might carry it.
The next ingredient is lemon juice, which I did not include a photo of. Lemon juice is wonderful, but generally its wonders don’t translate to photographs. And besides, there’s half a lemon up there, I know you all will figure it out.
The next ingredient is black cherry syrup, from a recipe posted by Elias Eels on his Booktube channel Barcart Bookshelf. He put the recipe for the syrup on Twitter.
By the way, it’s tasty in a glass with soda or sparkling water (or ginger ale) if you like sweet–and it’s great on vanilla ice cream.
I didn’t have all the ingredients in that first photo after all. The drink begins, and is finished, with fresh thyme, once you’ve added the club soda.
The proportions are: 2 parts Ghia, 1 part lemon juice, 1 part cherry syrup. For mixing it in bulk, that meant 4 cups of Ghia, 2 cups of lemon juice (17 lemons, if you are curious) and 2 cups of cherry syrup. I mixed it all in a large bowl. (I have an 8-cup measuring cup, but it left no room for gentle stirring, which I wanted to do to get the syrup to blend.)
It’s served in a cocktail class. The ideal glass is a coupe, but we used martini glasses because 1) it fit with the book’s cover and theme and 2) it was what the rental place had. First thing, muddle fresh thyme in your shaker. Add 2 &1/2 to 3 oz of the mixture with ice, cap and shake for 15-20 seconds. Put on a hawthorne strainer and pour into cocktail glass. Fill the rest of the glass with club soda. Garnish with 2 sprigs of thyme.
The carbonation makes the drink fun and cuts some of the richness. It also changes the color, and I couldn’t help noticing that the mix, even though there is no particulate matter, looks almost murky. The bubbles sparkle it right up.