Earthen Gold

After the success of making vodka fat-washed with truffle oil, I wanted to keeping venturing down the path of fat-washing, and my attention turned to sesame oil. I had used sesame oil before in cocktails, usually by ever so carefully dripping a few drops of it into my tin shaker, trying not to add too much lest it overtake everything else in the cocktail. However, instead of adding sesame oil to the cocktail as a whole, fat-washing would allow me to use it to affect one component of the whole cocktail, changing the way the sesame taste is brought up within the drink.

This time, my approach involved mixing 2 ounces sesame oil with 8 oz of Toki blended whiskey for a couple hours and, after letting it separate, froze it overnight. While the oil's freezing point is higher than the freezer, the alcohol's is lower, so all the oil will solidify while its proteins and essence remain in the still liquid alcohol. Personally, I like freezing fat-washed mixtures with the jar on its side as opposed to having it upright, as having it on its side lets you remove the alcohol afterwards much easier, and helps avoid getting it caught on the solidified oil. After removing it, I quickly poured the alcohol through an oil filter to get out any remaining oiliness, then bottled it in a different mason jar.

What I'm left with is this cloudy mixture quite similar to my truffle vodka, but this time with a faint sesame oil scent. This sesame whiskey, naturally, needs to pair with other smoky flavors. However, much of my collection features floral, fruity profile liqueurs and I had to really think about what could work. I knew I wanted 1.5 oz of sesame whiskey in my cocktail, so I went for the classic ratio of 1.5/1/0.5/bitters formula that's common in many cocktails - not quite golden ratio, but I feel like a 2/1/1 split for what I had in mind would've been too strong.

As a sweet component and to add a bit more booziness reminiscent of an Old Fashioned, I decided to add an ounce of Earl Grey tea vermouth. This limited edition aperitif is made by Veso, a local company here in San Francisco, and only 1500 bottles are manufactured per batch, making it a rare find. A local company using bergamot peels from Italy, tea leaves from India, and wine from Napa Valley? Globalism has done wonders for the cocktail world and it's so interesting to see unique liqueurs such as these. With cane sugar added to balance out the bitterness from the tea, it's a perfect sweetener for our drink.

To add depth to the nuttiness and smokiness of the sesame whiskey, I added a bit of Mizunara liqueur. Mizunara, or water oak, is best known for its wood, commonly used to barrel age whiskies around the world. This liqueur is made with the essence of that wood, making it herbal, earthy, woody, and the perfect complement to this cocktail. It's hard to describe the taste of it by itself, but their website says it can be a substitute for Fernet Branca, which I guess it somewhat comes close to, though the flavor is still all its own. The Japanese cocktail shop I frequent in Oakland sometimes has this in stock, but alas, as of writing this, it's gone from their inventory. I'm slowly working through the bottle I brought back from my last trip.

Finally, to round out the cocktail, I found a few drops of umami bitters to provide additional complexity to the flavor without forgetting the cocktail's identity. Instead of stirring the cocktail, I opted for a shake to try and aerate that sesame smell throughout the cocktail. The end result is a sweet, boozy, yet not cloying cocktail with super complex flavors that goes down easily.

• 1.5 oz fat-washed sesame whiskey

• 1 oz Earl grey tea vermouth

• 0.5 oz mizunara liqueur

• 7-8 drops umami bitters

Enjoy!