Français

A ‘ fat wash’ is a technique used to infuse alcohol with fat. This method involves combining your alcohol and fat together at a low temperature, then freezing to separate the ingredients – the oil will solidify and the alcohol will not. This leaves our ‘fat-washed’ alcohol with flavour from the fat, and a silky mouthfeel that adds texture to our cocktails.

Smoke is a method we use to introduce new flavours. In the Menace to Sobriety, we use cigar tobacco and cacao nibs to give the end of the cocktail a chocolate cigar scent. We use smoke to add another dimension to the nose of the cocktail and to bring together the internal flavours.

Foams sit on top of cocktails and are designed to be sipped through to meld two textures. This means the two flavours combine as you drink them. The La Vie En Rose has a sweet wine-based cocktail body, with a floral tart cocktail foam that gives a balanced cocktail experience.

A spherification process that utilises activated alginate to create a flavoured jelly. We drop this jelly into our cocktail and as it hits the acid in the wine, it solidifies the outside of the solution and forms a sphere. This then acts as a palate cleanser at the end of the cocktail.

A batched cocktail or ‘punch’ is introduced to milk which is prompted to curdle, binding certain particles in the punch, which are strained away, leaving a translucent liquid that is smooth and free of tannins.

A tincture is a single flavour, high proof, alcohol infusion used to add different flavours into cocktails. They are made by steeping a flavouring agent – anything from barks and roots to vegetables and fruit – in 85% flavourless grain alcohol, for up to four weeks.

A ‘bitter’ is a collection of tinctures or single flavour, high-proof alcohol infusions, combined together to make a bitter alcohol solution that is used to enhance existing flavours in cocktails. They are often described as the ‘salt and pepper’ of cocktails. Our house bitters use a mix of botanicals grown in Galicia for Nordes gin, hops from Estrella Galicia, and two bittering agents; gentian and angelica root.

A shrub is an old method used to preserve fruit. Shrubs are made by macerating fruit in sugar, and then adding a chosen vinegar, like Mencia red wine vinegar from the Ribeira Sacra, which we use in our Galicia Calidade. We use blackberry and fennel for our shrub, which grows wild across Galicia.

A Queimada is a traditional Galician alcoholic beverage. It’s a punch made from orujo–a spirit distilled from the results of winemaking–flavoured with coffee beans, citrus rinds, and sugar. This mix is set on fire, while medieval spells are chanted to ward away the Meigas (evil witches).