The Kiss of Sake Cocktail

Some Asian desserts from the last time have moved me to use sake as a base for this cocktail recipe because the taste that sake brings to a drink in combination with fruity ingredients, such as guava, is very aromatic. Sure, it would be too shallow now just to mix sake with guava juice, but a basic flavor it is already in any case.

I always like to learn from other colleagues and so I was already familiar with rice as a flavoring agent in liquids or drinks. It doesn’t take much at all to do this, as the rice is simply heated in a pot without oil until it takes on color. The roasted rice thus gains a wonderful aroma, which is then extracted like a tea. So simply, as in this cocktail recipe, deglaze with guava juice and let it steep. It is important to have an open window, as the rice develops some “smoke” during the roasting process and that the stock is just infused afterwards instead of boiling. We do not want to cook the starch out of the rice with this technique. This would be interesting for rice creams or rice foam.

Now that sake has been brought together with a fruity stock of guava, passion fruit and rice, the finishing touches should follow. As described above, I like to enjoy a classic sour, because I like how the fresh egg white used for the sour, binds the acid in a fine way and gives the cocktail this creamy structure. So, a Whisky Sour comes together with a delicious interplay of aromatic whisky with fine acidity. Like this cocktail, I thought the rice could stand in for the deeper flavor of the whiskey without completely overplaying the yet delicate sake. The acidity was basically already there from the guava and passion fruit but was sharpened with some fresh lime. Shaken well, my Kiss of Sake cocktail is a wonderful way to end the evening, or even to begin with as an aperitif.

For the Sour friends among you, here is the wonderfully aromatic-smoky Bell Pepper Sour!