This was a really fun cocktail to make. It was the first time I started with a theme and worked back to the ingredients. Here’s The Neighborhood, based on My Neighbor Totoro.
Despite being a milk or soymilk if you prefer, based cocktail the Neighborhood is surprisingly light, this is mostly due to the low-alcohol nature of the cocktail. It’s mostly a nutty flavour with a bit of creaminess from the milk and a small fruity aftertaste. I’ll explain a bit about the process.
I chose a wine glass to capture the rounded shape of Totoro’s body seen below.
The trickiest part of the cocktail was recreating Totoro’s signature greyish colour. I considered a few different ingredients, from black food colouring to Kristoff Black. But I wanted to avoid artificial colours since what’s the point. I could have just coloured anything grey and then called it a day.
I ended up choosing black sesame powder, though based on some issues that I encountered I would recommend using black sesame paste in the future or superfine black sesame powder since as you see from the picture there was a fair amount of sediment at the bottom of the cocktail.
Since in the film part of Totoro’s character is giving nuts and seeds as gifts and his whole nature collection I thought a nutty/fruity cocktail was best.
Some of the ingredients may be a bit difficult for you to get your hands on. I recommend seeing if there is a specialty Asian store and a specialty liquor store near you.
Ingredients
15g Black sesame powder
220ml semi-skim milk or soymilk
50ml Frangelico or other hazelnut liqueur
3-4 dashes Plum Bitters
Granulated sugar for rim
Combine sesame powder and milk in a pan on the stove over low heat. Whisk until powder dissolves and milk turns the desired grey colour. Transfer the mixture to a different container and put in the fridge to cool down.
While that’s cooling rim your glass with sugar. Coarse sugar is recommend as it adds a nice crunch and crystal look to the drink.
Once cooled combine mixture with frangelico and bitters and shake well with ice. Double strain into the glass.
Garnish with mint leaf and little umbrella. Big thanks to Kim-Joy for inspiring this cocktail with her Toroto cosplay she rocked last weekend.
A doctor made it his regular habit to stop off at a bar for a hazelnut daiquiri on his way home. The bartender knew the doctor’s habit and would always have a drink waiting. But one day the bartender ran out of hazelnut extract, so he substituted hickory nuts. When the doctor arrived, he took a sip and exclaimed, “This isn’t a hazelnut daiquiri!”
“No, I’m sorry,” the bartender replied. “It’s a hickory daiquiri, doc.”
What Ales Ya? 