What I Am Reading Now! Zero.

 What am I Reading now?   Zero! No, I mean the Book “Zero”. 

“Zero: A New Approach to Non-alcoholic Drinks.” 

Upon my return from my “Sabbatical” – what seems like a year – I had another conversation with Virang. Who is Virang? He is my “go to” man for life’s significant questions on anything from what is new in the consumable electronic market, living life with your brother and his family at your home to good books to read! How about that! 

I was speaking with Virang, I always enjoy talking with him. He tells me such fantastic stories about his habits and a cool bar that they have in the Chicago area; that would be Chicago, Illinois, in the Midwest of the United States in North America.  

So, he mentions to me this bar and restaurant that he and I have spoken of before, that on the next trip to Chicago we would go for a drink, to enjoy some cocktails with my girlfriend and a BFF of his own.  

So, Virang asks me, “Have you seen the new book on liquor and cocktails? Non-alcoholic cocktails. (Why? comes to mind.) 

 I say, "No, I have not. Talk to me. let us explore this".  

He says well, he ordered one, it is expensive. As he speaks about the recipes and ingredients, it does not appear he’s going to make any of these whiskeys or liquors. Then it dawns on me, that the recipe is not for cocktails. It’s a recipe book on how to make your own imitation liquors. Such as wine, Campari, bourbon, gin, etc. 

As he speaks a little bit more about this, I am driven to order the book. The book is titled  “Zero” and it comes in a pristine white binding. And no jacket, so I tend not to let people hold it exceptionally long, and only if they have gloved hands. As background, the restaurant is in Chicago; I gather from the little research that I did it's one of those uber expensive restaurants Alinea, where you make your reservation six months ahead of time, you do not even bother asking the price. Nevertheless, it sounds quite intriguing. I'm uber impressed that they have created their own book of recipes on how to make nonalcoholic beverages. I gather they plan to put Seedlip out of biz.  

Gin.

I get the book. Excitedly, I begin to peruse it. Well, it is as Virang said. It is a recipe book for which required me to get a gram scale, needed for all sorts of drinks; for example, Campari or a bourbon or rum, all of which are non-alcoholic. Even wine!  

It is quite fascinating. For example, here is a small list of ingredients for the recipe on how to make a bitter Amaro (code for Campari) mock liquor. 

To summarize. Am I glad I got the book? Yes, I am incredibly pleased! If nothing else, when you are President and CEO of Spirit Snob Enterprises LLC, and you are entertaining at home, you need to have something on the cocktail table that's kind of “snobbish”. This book meets that criteria. Am I going to use it? Yes. I told Virang just the other day when we were talking, that I was going to start with one of the minimal recipes and figure out how to get the ingredients, all of which are quite unique. And try just one recipe to start. But my suggestion to you would be, unless you have a lot of time on your hands, which I do not, try Seedlip distilled non-alcoholic beverage from the UK. See what you think of that. 

I will have a post on that soon.  

 

 

Boite 

Cocktail: Negroni and alternatively, The Negroni Zero 

2 oz. Gin 

or Seedlip Garden 109 

2 oz.  Campari  

or Sanbitter 

2 oz. Italian Vermouth, Cinzano 

or verjus rouge, slightly sweetened 

Served on a rock of ice, hand crafted, clear large ice cube. 

    garnish - 1/2 slice of orange

Hors d'oeuvre: Roasted sugar snap peas with toasted sesame oil. 

Music: Jazz, Zanini exclusively! 

Editor's Note - Let's just hope Constantine does not receive a "Cease & Desist" for unauthorized publication of the recipe.

And Constantine has already used their recipe for simple syrup.

Editor

 

Gin. The Recipe.

Colophon- 

    “Zero” published by the Alinea Group, 2020. Printed in Shenzhen, China. Prepress by iocolor of Seattle, Washington, USA. Design & Photography by Sarah and Allen Hemberger. Small batch creative LLC. Printed using Chroma Centric HUV inks on 140 gsm Dadong free FSC paper. Typefaces used include Twentieth Century, Grad & FFM Mark. $85.00 in “Reserve Edition”. Converted price 61.55£ or Quid: and 72€.