Tamarind Boba Adventure

May 31, 2023 by Alyssa D in drinks

“What does tamarind taste like?”

We were at a Mexican grocery store food court in California with a friend from Serbia pondering flavored drinks. While I searched for the right descriptors, an employee offered him a tamarind agua fresca sample. Nothing beats actually trying it: sweet and sour, light and deep.

That was on my mind when I tasted a horchata boba drink one afternoon in Los Altos. Culinary fusion is next-level in the Bay Area. The creamy, subtly-spiced Mexican drink contrasted delightfully with dark, chewy Taiwanese tapioca pearls.

After Guillaume brought home a box of whole tamarind pods on a whim, I imagined tamarind boba must be someone’s specialty out here.

French 75 Cocktail Adventure

May 12, 2022 by Alyssa D in drinks

“Always keep a bottle of Champagne in the fridge for special occasions,” author Hester Browne once said. “Sometimes the special occasion is that you’ve got a bottle of Champagne in the fridge.”

Well, it was actually Asti Spumante sparkling Italian white wine, but we were still excited to open the bottle. The happy occasion was getting together with our wonderful neighbor Jen for the first time since the Marshall Fire.

She brought over delicious appetizers and we toasted to survival and friendship with my riff on a French 75 cocktail. The company was fantastic. The cocktail, uh, needed work.

Spiced Cider Syrup Cocktail Adventure

November 18, 2021 by Alyssa D in drinks

The generic apple cider made me angry. Not total Greek rage, but I was definitely frustrated. The cider was watery, tasted like nothing, and had simmered on the stove for hours without turning into anything better.

I also felt upset on behalf of all the people involved in producing the cider — all the suffering that led to such disgusting brown liquid. Maybe it was the pandemic. Supply chain bottlenecks. Labor shortages. Insultingly low pay. Illness. Burnout.

That cider tasted like failure. Pure, unmitigated failure. So I vowed to try again.

Not a Mai Tai Adventure

July 22, 2021 by Alyssa D in drinks

The orgeat separated. Almond-flavor-loving me had sprung for an artisanal version of this important mai tai ingredient, a special syrup with a floral, nutty flavor.

At the time, friends who lived in Hawaii before returning to Colorado inspired the doomed purchase. They’d brought back incredible rum — bottles, plural — and concocted the most incredible mai tais I’d ever sipped. On reflection, they were actually my first mai tais. Spoiled forever.

Cooperative Gaming Cocktail Adventure

January 28, 2021 by Alyssa D in drinks

Although I could hold my own in Uno after school at the local YMCA, competitive gaming wasn’t really my thing.

As little kids, my best friend Sarah and I turned Monopoly into a cooperative endeavor, pooling resources to help each other. Overhearing our conversation, Dad came into the living room and tried to explain the real rules to us.

Senegalese Hibiscus Drink Adventure

July 28, 2020 by Alyssa D in drinks

She transported me. I went from reading the horrific news in America and choking back tears to standing in her bright kitchen in Senegal, watching as she soaked hibiscus leaves for a refreshingly cool drink.

The lady behind the delightful Senecuisine blog, whose name I wish I knew but couldn’t find despite online searches, walked me through the steps to make “bissap juice,” which she calls, “the drink of all the occasions in Senegal.” Her recipe includes “orange blossom” and “sachets of vanilla sugar.” Yum.

Medicinal Elderberry Syrup Cocktail Adventure

February 28, 2020 by Alyssa D in drinks

The fear of coronavirus was palpable in Portland, Oregon.

Friends told us that the dim sum place where we took turns nabbing bite-sized wonders was normally twice as full. Famed Taiwanese dumpling restaurant Din Tai Fung didn’t have a wait. Even the Portland Japanese Garden had ample parking on a Sunday.

Much though I dislike crowds, this was thoroughly disheartening. Frankly, my bigger concern was catching a stupid cold from someone coughing near me on the plane. When I admitted as much to our friend Carol, she said that she swears by elderberry syrup to boost resistance.

French Lavender Cocktail Adventure

August 08, 2019 by Alyssa D in drinks

The old French men thought we were crazy. I remember their amused expressions as our young co-ed American college student group played pétanque at a park in Southern France. Someone brought pastis that we diluted with water and sipped surreptitiously.

Nobody cared who won. What stuck with me was that feeling of easy-going enjoyment. The Mediterranean sun shining, ice melting in a tall glass, relaxed smiles all around. That, to me, is the Midi.

Mastiha Liqueur Adventure

January 10, 2019 by Alyssa D in drinks

Mom texted me from the liquor store in Vermont. They had three bottles of a mastiha liqueur brand that had become impossible to get in Colorado. Did I want one? We’d finished off ours during the “house cooling” party to send off the old apartment.

What is mastiha? After a few minutes of trying to describe the crystalized Mediterranean tree resin that generally comes from the Greek island of Chios, I’d just remove the stopper so guests could smell the unusual ingredient.

To me, the slightly woody and citrusy flavor is synonymous with joy. It reminds me of how the whole house smells after my dad bakes his famous Greek bread. Tasting the liqueur recalls the refreshing cocktail my mom created. Everything about mastiha says, “Slow down. Relax. Let’s just sit here a while.”

Basically the opposite of how I felt in Vermont when finally holding the white bottle that Mom had given us for Christmas and pondering how to get it back to Colorado.

Fall Blush Floral Cocktail Adventure

November 15, 2018 by Alyssa D in drinks

The borage flowers were practically hitting us in the face when we opened the front door over the summer. The edible blue and pink flowers grew in my mom’s plant-your-own-cocktail Christmas present. They clearly liked the weather.

Instructions with the kit suggested freezing the flowers in ice cubes for a gin and elderflower liqueur cocktail. Guillaume became adept at making the sweet-celery-like drink, which called for muddling sizable borage leaves and throwing fresh flowers in at the end.

Before we could blink, summer was over and our planter got covered in snow. But we still had the flowery ice cubes and a bottle of Lillet Rosé in the fridge. I decided to experiment.