18. When You Have a Day Like ____

Try making a Swizzle.

Some days, I just want to make something beautiful. And delicious. And that’s it. 

I wish I had all kinds of time to do such a thing, but I don’t. It’s been an intense week over here. When my wife is busy at work, I’m busy too. The days can be a blur. As a stay-at-home dad, I often feel like I’m trying to get 20 things done at once—feeding the girls, feeding Jenny, forgetting to feed myself, homeschooling the girls, potty training Juni, still potty training Juni, cleaning the kitchen, folding laundry, feeding myself, paying bills, sneaking in 20 minutes to write when (if) Juni naps and EJ has her TV time, getting the girls outside, cooking a dinner that doesn’t suck, giving the girls a bath (or just wiping them down for the second day in a row and trying not to feel ashamed about it), reading stories, trying not to pass out while reading stories, telling stories, wondering when the day will end—and succeeding at doing maybe two of these things in a less-than-average fashion. 

I cannot say this enough: I have so much respect for single parents. 

So yeah, because I wanted to make something beautiful and delicious in the midst of today’s version of this whirlwind, I let EJ and Juni watch an extra cartoon together (it was Esme & Roy, if you’re wondering), and then promptly went into the garage with a meat tenderizer so I could hammer the hell out of some ice. 

Why, you ask, would I do such a thing? Because I wanted to make myself a Swizzle. And we have the privilege of having a lot of space where we live. And Jenny was on an important work call. And though it’s hard, loud work to make a Swizzle, especially when you don’t have a working ice crusher or a fancy machine that makes pellet ice, it is a damn fine drink, and is as refreshing as the pandemic is long. 

Below is the recipe for the Swizzle I made today. It’s heavily-Asian inspired, in part as a nod to the organization we’re contributing to this month, Stop AAPI Hate. In the notes that follow, I’ll offer some variations, because I imagine not everyone has a bottle of sake or yuzu liqueur within easy reach. (But you should!) 

Blackberry Sake Swizzle

Ingredients

• 1.5. oz. Aviation gin

• ¾ oz. Junmai sake

• ¾ oz. lemon juice

• ½ oz. blackberry Sichuan pepper syrup 

• 6 dashes of yuzu/Angostura bitters

• lemon wheel garnish

• crushed ice

The sake-filled maneki neko wishes you luck in making a Swizzle.

Directions

1. Crush your ice. If you want to be a Midwestern Neanderthal like me, you can wrap about 1 lb. of cubes in a kitchen towel, fold it up like you would a burrito, then take it out into your garage and whack it until you’ve exorcised most (if not all) of your demons. 

2. In a chilled highball glass, combine all the liquid ingredients. 

3. Add ice about halfway up the glass, then take a barspoon between your hands and swizzle! (Rub your palms together “supa-fast” (as my younger daughter would say), causing the bowl of the spoon to swirl the crushed ice like a blender would.) Do this for about 15 seconds, until the sides of the glass are ice-cold. 

4. Add more ice, almost to the lip of the glass. Give it another swizzle, about 10 more seconds. Add even more ice, creating a small mound above the rim of the glass. Tuck the lemon wheel alongside it, like a big sun behind a little mountain. 

5. Dash the bitters onto the top of the ice. Serve with a straw and enjoy. 

Notes

Aviation Gin is ideal but not necessary. It’s a New World style gin, which basically means it’s not completely dominated by juniper. It’s quite floral, with some lavender and vanilla on the nose. 

I am not a sake connoisseur (though I would like to be one someday), but I know that junmai means “pure rice,” and it refers to sake that has no additives such as sugar or alcohol. If you’re able to get your hands on some namazake (unpasteurized sake), that would be tasty too; it would bring a slight fruit note to the umami body that a solid (and yet not top-shelf) junmai will add to this cocktail. If you don’t have any sake, use dry or blanc vermouth instead.

To make the blackberry Sichuan peppercorn syrup, grind 1 tbsp of Sichuan peppercorns (available at pretty much any Asian market, and some other grocery stores too) with either a muddler, a mortar and pestle, or a spice grinder. Add the peppercorns to 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of blackberries, and 1 cup of water; bring to a boil, then simmer over low heat for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Strain through a cheesecloth, let cool, then bottle. It will keep for 2-3 weeks, or 2 months if you add an ounce of vodka to it.    

If you can find yuzu liqueur at a liquor store in the States, then you’re probably at a pretty nice liquor store. If you’ve never had yuzu liqueur, and you do find it, do yourself a favor and buy it. Add a half ounce to your next gin and tonic and you’re welcome. Here though, it’s honestly just a really nice finishing touch, mixed equally with Angostura bitters, to add that bold, bright citrus aroma that is so unique to the yuzu fruit. If you don’t have it, just use Angostura bitters by themselves.

Juni can’t even bear to look at this Swizzle anymore.

If you want to get really legit with your technique, you won’t use a barspoon like I did to swizzle, but rather, a swizzle stick. It is an actual stick, known as a boi lele, harvested from a shrub that grows in the Lesser Antilles. You can buy one here, at Cocktail Kingdom. Honestly though, I think the barspoon works just fine, as long as you don’t go banging the metal against the glass and breaking it.  

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Alright, friends, that’s all for this week. Thank you for reading, and thank you for subscribing. Let me know if you try making a Swizzle! It’s a decent amount of work, no doubt. But if you’re game for it, I think it definitely pays off. Just try not to drink it down in 2 minutes while hiding from your kids (or anyone, for that matter) in the bedroom like I did.  

Finally, totally unrelated—and some folks probably saw this on my Instagram already—our daughter EJ just ran 2.4 miles the other day! She is 5 years old. She’s also a future astronaut, future President, future DJ… among many other things. And I’m a proud papa. Who may or may not have let her make this drink for me. 

Cheers!

J.