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Born & Raised offers a less decadent Holiday Punch
Cognac serves to lighten the mood
Holiday punch
The news of late has been full of stories about the price of eggs; some pundits have gone so far as to suggest that it tipped the recent Presidential election. It’s not just a lot of clucking and crowing; the Bureau of Labor Statistics website features reports on eggflation. Eager to toast the end of same and the promise of better times to come, I went looking for the most elevated egg nog I could find, and soon found myself ensconced beneath the walnut blooms of the baronial bar at Born & Raised, there to sample their Holiday Punch.
“They say you can live on one egg a day; I can feel that in this drink,” marveled The Wife. “That substantial yolk secures the center, and yet it’s not cloying or heavy. You want a tray of them to send down the hatch, like Anthony Blanche with the Brandy Alexanders in Brideshead Revisited.” I had to agree, at least about the relative lightness of the foamy-custardy cocktail.
It turns out that much was intentional. “Not every egg cocktail needs to have a whiskey base,” says Anthony Schmidt, partner and Beverage Director at CH Projects. “We wanted a lighter version, something not crazy decadent — especially in a situation like Born & Raised, where so much of the experience is decadent. Cognac tends to be more velvety and luxurious than whiskey, but while there’s a richness and an opulence to it, there’s also some lightness. We didn’t want a dessert drink to just hammer you.”
There are similar reasons behind the use of amaro CioCiaro. “We have what we call ‘burnt orange;’ it’s a super-reduced orange juice — we cook it down, down, down to 70% water reduction. It’s this intense orange — super thick and syrupy, and slightly bitter and roasted. Then we stabilize that with the CioCiaro bitters, which has its own hint of orange. We knew the orange aspect would freshen up the drink, lighten it. But the burnt caramel aspect of it was going to keep it in that transitory place of ‘sort of a dessert, sort of not.’”
As for the absinthe rinse that graces the glass with its herbal bite, “that’s been around in cocktail books as far back as 1900. It’s an old trick to make a gin drink a bit more ginny, but it works really well with a number of spirits. A Sazerac is basically a rye Old Fashioned served without ice in a glass that has been chilled with a little bit of absinthe in it. You empty the glass before pouring in the drink, but it has a lovely residual aroma. And the oldest version of a Sazerac is a cognac Old Fashioned. We’ve been messing with that combination since forever.”
Born and Raised
Born & Raised’s
Holiday punch
- .5 oz VSOP cognac
- .5 oz. Licor 43
- .5 oz caramelized orange syrup
- .25 oz amaro CioCiaro
- .1 oz cream
- egg yolk
Combine ingredients with ice in shaker can and shake vigorously. Strain into the small side of the shaker can, empty ice, re-seal shaker and shake intensely for a brief moment. Pour into 6-7 oz cocktail glass that has been rinsed with absinthe.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Born & Raised offers a less decadent Holiday Punch
Cognac serves to lighten the mood
Born & Raised offers a less decadent Holiday Punch
Cognac serves to lighten the mood
Holiday punch
The news of late has been full of stories about the price of eggs; some pundits have gone so far as to suggest that it tipped the recent Presidential election. It’s not just a lot of clucking and crowing; the Bureau of Labor Statistics website features reports on eggflation. Eager to toast the end of same and the promise of better times to come, I went looking for the most elevated egg nog I could find, and soon found myself ensconced beneath the walnut blooms of the baronial bar at Born & Raised, there to sample their Holiday Punch.
“They say you can live on one egg a day; I can feel that in this drink,” marveled The Wife. “That substantial yolk secures the center, and yet it’s not cloying or heavy. You want a tray of them to send down the hatch, like Anthony Blanche with the Brandy Alexanders in Brideshead Revisited.” I had to agree, at least about the relative lightness of the foamy-custardy cocktail.
It turns out that much was intentional. “Not every egg cocktail needs to have a whiskey base,” says Anthony Schmidt, partner and Beverage Director at CH Projects. “We wanted a lighter version, something not crazy decadent — especially in a situation like Born & Raised, where so much of the experience is decadent. Cognac tends to be more velvety and luxurious than whiskey, but while there’s a richness and an opulence to it, there’s also some lightness. We didn’t want a dessert drink to just hammer you.”
There are similar reasons behind the use of amaro CioCiaro. “We have what we call ‘burnt orange;’ it’s a super-reduced orange juice — we cook it down, down, down to 70% water reduction. It’s this intense orange — super thick and syrupy, and slightly bitter and roasted. Then we stabilize that with the CioCiaro bitters, which has its own hint of orange. We knew the orange aspect would freshen up the drink, lighten it. But the burnt caramel aspect of it was going to keep it in that transitory place of ‘sort of a dessert, sort of not.’”
As for the absinthe rinse that graces the glass with its herbal bite, “that’s been around in cocktail books as far back as 1900. It’s an old trick to make a gin drink a bit more ginny, but it works really well with a number of spirits. A Sazerac is basically a rye Old Fashioned served without ice in a glass that has been chilled with a little bit of absinthe in it. You empty the glass before pouring in the drink, but it has a lovely residual aroma. And the oldest version of a Sazerac is a cognac Old Fashioned. We’ve been messing with that combination since forever.”
Born and Raised
Born & Raised’s
Holiday punch
- .5 oz VSOP cognac
- .5 oz. Licor 43
- .5 oz caramelized orange syrup
- .25 oz amaro CioCiaro
- .1 oz cream
- egg yolk
Combine ingredients with ice in shaker can and shake vigorously. Strain into the small side of the shaker can, empty ice, re-seal shaker and shake intensely for a brief moment. Pour into 6-7 oz cocktail glass that has been rinsed with absinthe.
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