Home Bar Awards 09/22 – Picture of Health

September’s Home Bar Awards challenge is about vegetables as cocktail ingredients. Obviously, I had to get some of my vegetable eau de vies out for this! In the end, the result was a umami laced Harvard Cocktail variation.

It did not take me long to decide on using the Hiebl Paprika Eau de Vie. It is an excellent representation of the “fruit”, but I use it way too rarely. Usually, it pairs well with agave spirits, especially mezcal. Yet, I decided to use the eau de vie in combination with some French brandy for this Home Bar Awards entry.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

To incorporate something seasonal in my rink as well, I roasted some pumpkin seeds and infused the Monertu Single Grape Brandy with it. The infusion turned out pretty great with nice roasted flavours and subtle hints of pumpkin seeds. Instead of the red vermouth from the original Harvard Cocktail, I used the semi-dry version from Gölles. Finally, to round the drink off I used some allspice-heavy homemade Aromatic Bitters and the Dashfire Spiced Apple Bitters.

*Roast 20 g pumpkin seeds without oil for each 100 ml of brandy – let cool – add brandy – infuse for 10 hours – strain – bottle in a clean bottle.

The “Picture of Health” starts off with notes of a lighter Brandy Manhattan. However, the paprika eau de vie and the subtle acidity from the jalapeno garnish soon make themselves known. After a while the spiciness of the bitters and the roasted flavours of the pumpkin seeds take over. This certainly is not a crowd-pleaser cocktail, instead it demands your attention with ever changing flavours while walking the line between sweet and savory.