Fassionola is a tropical fruit punch syrup with history going back to some of the earliest American tiki bars. It's the base flavor in a traditional Hurricane cocktail and has roots spanning to at least the 1930s. As with much of early cocktail history, the true origins of fassionola are uncertain. We do know that Don The Beachcomber referenced this mix going back to the newborn tiki scene in New Orleans in the 1930s, but whether it was his invention or something he picked up in his travels is impossible to say. Donn Beach himself was fiercely secretive and protective of his recipes, so his exact recipe for fassionola has been lost to history.
The Water Witch fassionola is a deep purple syrup made from acid-modified pineapple juice, passion fruit puree, strawberries, blueberries, mango, guava, and hibiscus tea (modified from a recipe published by Leandro DiMonriva "The Educated Barfly"). These ingredients are slow cooked for several hours to extract as much of the fruits' flavor as possible and then finely strained. The leftover fruit solids are used as the base of our signature salsa.
Falernum is a sweetener that has roots going back to 1700s era Bajans. The most famous falernums, such as John D. Taylor's Velvet Falernum, are liqueurs made by infusing flavors into rum. Non-alcoholic falernums are also relatively common, though less often as something made by the commercial producers. A quality falernum instantly adds a bit of Caribbean pizazz to a cocktail. They're naturally frequent fliers in the world of tiki, though more often as a supporting flavor rather than the star ingredient. Falernum liqueurs can be quite nice on their own as a dessert sipper, consumed similar to a limoncello.
Nearly all falernum recipes have the same core ingredients: lime, ginger, and spices such as allspice or cloves, and (in modern recipes) almond. Water Witch primarily uses the aforementioned Velvet Falernum, but we will sometimes experiment with other liqueurs or house-made variants as well.
Orgeat is a traditional sweetener beloved in most of the world of cocktails, but especially so in the world of tiki. There are a family of similar drinks and syrups in cultures from all around the Mediterranean (such as its distant cousin, Horchata). Historically, it was made from bitter almonds and barley. The modern tradition of orgeat is a sweetened, sometimes spiced concoction made from almond, though any kind of nut/alternative milk or similar creamy liquid can serve as the base. They are essential for making a traditional Mai Tai and many other tiki classics.
Water Witch's recipe starts with almond milk with an addition of allspice and rose water to heighten its lovely floral character. When used in cocktails, it adds a silky texture and a slightly creamy quality compared to most other options for sweetening.
And to address the elephant in the room: most likely, this is pronounced with the soft "g" based on its relation to the french word for barley (orge). Meaning it is probably "oar-jaht" (IPA: /ˈɔːr.ʒɑːt/) rather than "ore-geet" with the hard "g". But don't worry too much about saying it right. We'll know what you're talking about.
The history of these kinds of tinctures dates back to actual antiquity and beyond. There's no general rule about what base and what ingredients are included in any given cocktail bitters, though they are typically made from herbs, spices, plant roots, barks, and spirits. Many include fruit additions as well, and there's nearly nothing off-limits. Most historic origins for these bitter mixes justify themselves with claims of healing, digestive-aiding, and other medicinal effects, and people to this day still drink various kinds of bitters with a goal of improving their personal wellness. There's far more to these spirits than any traditional medicine, though; the reality is, their popularity would not have lasted if people from cultures all around the world hadn't always enjoyed these complex, sometimes-challenging drinks.
Cocktail bitters are usually used in tiny amounts -- typically measured in dashes from a tiny bottle which amount to just a couple drops of liquid each. Usually, they're used like seasoning on food; a tiny amount imparts only a subtle flavor, but can help blend, meld, and balance together other flavors and help them add up to way more than the sum of their parts. While the spirit itself is, true to its name, quite bitter, it would be very rare for a cocktail to be bitter just because of the inclusion of cocktail bitters in its recipe. The amount used is simply too small to have that kind of effect.
The same cannot be said about digestifs or an amaro. These dark spirits are loaded with rich, complex, sometimes challenging flavor combinations and can range from moderately to quite aggressively bitter. And unlike a cocktail bitters, they are usually used in much larger volume than just a few drops. While they make lovely additions to many cocktails, most of the time an amaro is to be drunk neat -- hang around in enough bars and you'll certainly see folks asking for pours of Montenegro or Fernet, especially at the end of a session to cleanse the palate.
The final category of the "bitters" family is the aperatifs. Aperatifs made from oranges are particularly popular (such as Campari, Aperol, or Select). These, like their digestif cousins, are most also strongly bitter, but they will tend to be much lighter and brighter flavors than the amaros substituting their bright floral and citrus instead of earthy and dark spice. They are traditionally enjoyed before a meal as a way to whet an appetite. The bright, bitter flavors are in part to make you crave something else to follow. In modern cocktail culture, they're usually paired against other flavors while retaining their sharp bitter edge, such as in an Aperol Spritz, Negroni, or a tiki classic the Jungle Bird.
The important difference between a cocktail bitters and a bitter liqueur, at least on our menu, is how you can expect them to affect the final taste balance of a cocktail.Milk clarification is a historic process for mixing and preserving cocktails. One of the oldest recipes we know of at the Water Witch showed is from the letters of Benjamin Franklin's (a nutmeg-infused brandy sour) from 1763, which predates most of what is considered modern cocktail culture by most of two centuries! The process of making these punches has some similarities to cheese making. When milk (whether cow milk or alternatives) is combined with certain other ingredients it splits into solids and whey. For cocktail-making, the reacting ingredient will typically be some kind of acidic fruit juice, often citrus.
As the solids separate from the milk, they encapsulate and trap certain compounds. They also will form a filter media that can be used to capture other components floating in suspension and causing the mixture to be opaque. So as the cocktail is strained through these solids, it "clarifies", typically turning a crystal clear with only a hint of color. This process will also transform the overall drink through removal of many volatile compounds while new typically funky, tangy flavors to the mix.
side-effect of this process is that it "stabilizes" the cocktail. After going through clarification, the ingredients that would otherwise risk having the cocktail "going bad" have been removed, so the final mixture can sit safely for future use even at room temperature. There's even a practice of bottling and cellar aging these punches to see how the flavors will continue to evolve over time. This is likely part of why it was used historically: to keep a delicious drink ready to go without spoiling for long periods of time.
Compared to the cocktails they were before going through this process, clarified milk punches are usually more mellow. They will pick up some funky and tangy notes and develop a silky texture, but will otherwise be softer, gentler, and easier-drinking.
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