Straw Man – Satoshi Erdbeergeist

I am a great fan of the distillates from Satoshi Spirits. Their blood orange flavoured gin and eau de vie are superb. So, of course I was curious when they launched a new strawberry eau de vie. However, berry eau de vies always are a double-edged sword. Yet, I came up with a delicious sour cocktail without using citrus juice.

The Sathoshi strawberry eau de vie uses Lambada strawberries. The Lambada variety is very aromatic, but at the same time hard to cultivate and transport. Obviously, it takes a lot of them to make an eau de vie from them. Satoshi macerate them in neutral alcohol and distil the macerate on a copper pot-still. The Erdbeergeist is bottled at an ABV of 40 %.

Fruity, yet fragile

While the eau de vie is well-made, it is a bit hard to recognize the strawberries. After a while you will find strawberry jam and dried strawberries. Furthermore, you can taste some grassy and sweet wine flavours. Apart from a slight menthol note, the eau de vie is smooth, but not very intense in taste. Yet, as mentioned above, it is hard to distil a flavourful berry eau de vie. It starts with the quality of the fruit, then you need a shipload of them and even if you get both things right, the eau de vie still can taste a bit light.

Sweet and sour grapes

For a drink using the Satoshi Erdbeergeist, I knew that the eau de vie pairs well with acidity. However, instead of citrus juice I went for verjus. As a base “spirit”, I used the Tement B.AT sweet wine. Add some aqua faba to the mix and you have a sour without the usual ingredients.

The drink starts with sweet wine notes and additional berry flavours. This is where the Satoshi and its wine notes shine through. It is quite surprising how similar the “Straw Man” tastes compared to a regular sour based on lemon juice. All in all, the drink is perfect for autumn and the colder days.