So I'm trying to recreate this drink I had at a seafood restaurant called a Gin Blossom, and looking for some suggestions/input. The recipe I have so far is a pretty good start, but I'm looking for something to brighten it up a bit, like a spice or something, and also for some additional sweetness; kind of unsure of where to look for things that would compliment this type of vape. The recipe so far is:
Gin Blossom
- FA Gin @ 2%
- FA Bergamot @ 0.5%
- CAP Cucumber @ 1.5%
- FA Aurora @ 0.75%
- FA Zen Garden @ 0.5%
- TFA Honeysuckle @ 2.5%
- FA Almond @ 0.5%
- FA Oba Oba @ 1%
It's a little more complex than I typically like to go, but the drink is a very interesting one. It's like nice and light with the Hendrick's Gin which has Cucumber elements, kind of brightly spicy, somewhat sweet, and with a slight earth/floral tone from the basil. I've never had Velvet Falernum or whatever, so I have no idea what to base that on, and google leaves it even more mysterious. I'm also going way out of my comfort zones with flavorings I don't have a lot of experience with.
Ideas I have so far are:
- Ginger or something to brighten it
- something to add a cooling effect
- I'd like to add effervescence but that proves difficult
- Maybe more gin?
Anyone have any input?
If you are going for Hendrick's specifically it claims to have rose and cucumber in there, so that's an idea. I don't really remember the rose being all that prominent in there but they say it's there. I'm not sure if you would want to add it if it doesn't need it, but it may be a way to bring down the honeysuckle and sort of target your florals more.
Falernum is kind of awesome. I wasn't super familiar with Oba Oba, but apparently it has a flat cream soda vibe? That's an awesome start for an orgeat syrup along with the almond you have in there. Falernum has a definite spice kick in there along with the sweetness and lime. It may be madness, but I would try some INW Exotic Roots with maybe a bit of added clove. That would get you your ginger, more sort of spicy kick from you gin, and general warmth with a touch more clove might get you that kind of allspice flavor in there.
As for the effervesence, i'm guessing you've already went the TPA Champagne route. Did that end up working out?
Unfortunately, I've got everything but the oba oba.. It sounds interesting as all hell.
Thank you very much for the in-depth reply. I had forgotten about the rose in Hendrick's, but it makes sense and I think might be kind of why I went in the direction of Honeysuckle. I was trying to imitate the notes I couldn't quite pinpoint with the honeysuckle and Oba Oba. The Oba is definitely an interesting flavor, and one that is hard to describe. I'm not exactly sure what it's supposed to be but I was mostly getting like a tropical sweetness from it, and I knew I'd need something that was a little bit sweet. I'd like to avoid going the route of sucralose, but I can't think of any other forms of sweetness that might fit the profile as well, and I'm not getting enough sweetness from the Oba Oba or Honeysuckle as I had hoped.
I haven't tried TFA Champagne in this mix, but I have a good amount of experience with it and wasn't sure if I would need/want it in this recipe; it would definitely be good to rule out though, so I'll have to give it a shot next go-round.
I was thinking of the INW Exotic roots after tasting and thinking "ginger might be nice," but alas, I don't have it. Clove is a good idea. I've had FA Clove for a looong time now but have been too scared to try it -- maybe now's the time.
One of the big reasons I tried Oba Oba in the mix was because I just got it in along with the Zen Garden and thought it would sort of bring that brightness I wanted, but something like INW Exotic roots and something sweet might be a better fit than that one.
Really appreciate the information and ideas. If you decide to take a spin on it, I'd love to hear what direction it goes.
He suggested TFA Champagne because it apparently adds sparkle, or effervescence at 2.0 and above.
However, I haven't had luck with it in that department.
I would suggest, now that your brainstorming with other mixes is sort of making the flavor profile clearer to you, is to simplify your mix. You have a lot of flavors, with many themselves being complex flavorings.
With really no idea of what it should taste like, and only going off of what I'm reading, here's what I'd try:
FA Gin FA Rose FA Zen Garden FA Oba Oba TFA Cotton Candy/EM (for flavorless wetness and sweetness)
I didn't add ratios, as I think you're more experienced in the concentrates to decide how best to use them. However, I know FA Rose is a very subtle flavor, so you might want to bring that one up.
Very good ideas, try for suggestions. I think the rose will be a good addition, so I'll prob try that next. EM is a good idea too so I'll throw that in there. It needs a bit of the lime essence though so I'll keep the aurora in that iteration. You have experience with oba oba?
Other ideas also include the addition of INW Cactus, and removing Bergamot. I like the combination of Gin & Bergamot but I'm not sure if it's right for this mix.
Hendricks is super heavy on the cucumber side of things and I think the rose is there basically to make it sound more alluring, not a subtle gin by any means. Quite a few gins use bergamot but don't believe hendricks do. Things like elderflower, small amount of blood orange might do well (and are in hendricks I believe) and if it exists maybe some juniper to up the gin-ness. For the lime aspect maybe try INW shisha lime as that'd bring heaps of sweetness and that almost cocktail syrup vibe. Best of luck!
Yeah, it's been a while on the hendrick's. I was trying to remember what tasted so unique about it. All of my recollections of liquor flavor profiles are a bit dated by this point. I was screwing around with INW Lime in trying to nail down the Falernum and that kind of seems like the play, although the aurora probably approximates the actual lime in the cocktail better and plays really nicely with gin.
The bergamot is interesting, because I honestly get a good deal of clove off that flavor by itself. Or at least it has the same kind of effect in a mix for me.
It's a complex mix for sure. Each ingredient in that cocktail has multiple component parts. But, for my own sake I'm going to order the Oba Oba and try to get the falernum part of it down. It'd be awesome to use with rum for something like a Corn and Oil.
Just out of curiousity, I ended up throwing way too many concentrates together for a recipe. It didn't really work, but it gave me an idea of relative strength. I'd be interested in seeing if you can actually get the gin to stick around because it feels like it's getting swamped at 2%. I'm going to work on it a bit.
This sounds like something that could use a bit of FLV Yakima Hops. Maybe not, as I've never had a gin blossom, but it does kind of give a bright spice note that might mimic a ginger.
Edit: Yup, just tried my sample mix. If someone said this was ginger, I would go along with it.
So, because it's an interesting idea and I've been hitting a creative dead end, I picked up the oba oba and tried a couple variations on a falernum. here is what I came up for a falernum approximation. Still not sure how to make a honey, gin, and basil work with that, but I feel like it's a pretty good jumping off point for the cocktail mixer itself.
Oh it's private so I can't take a look at it =( but I'm super excited to see what you came up with!
Sorry about that. Should be public now. https://alltheflavors.com/recipes/14228
So I did an iteration with clove, brought down bergamot, threw in some TFA sweetener. The recipe tastes like it's in a good spot, but needs to be a little sweeter. I think with the clove in there (although a nice touch), it's taking on too much savory to really share the spotlight with sweet, so I'd need to bring sweetener to a higher level, or bring the clove down (was @ 1 drop in 15ml, might need a dilution).
Next go-round I will try one with stevia & em instead of TFA sweetener, same without clove, and an iteration with FA Pear, based on what I think will be a great suggestion from Marcus the Juice Fairy.
I will admit, the clove was a bit much at first, but after a steep it mellowed quite a bit and brings a real nice element to it. I think though that with it being diluted in to Velvet Falernum and then again diluted in to the drink, making a dilution of it to use in a proper amount is a good idea. It was literally my first time using FA Clove but I think it gave me a pretty good idea of it lol.