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Feature
Cocktail stories: Dara’s Maverick, Kink
Berlin’s Kink offers the long and short of it with this cocktail, which features two versions to appeal to a wider audience.
*This feature was originally published in the May 2024 issue of The Spirits Business magazine.
Berlin’s Kink is both a restaurant and a cocktail bar. In the former, drinks are designed to complement the food, but in the bar “our signature drinks naturally take centre stage”, explains assistant bar manager Nedal Abu Nada.
The bar offers two versions of every drink: a long and a short. One drink, the Dara’s Maverick, shares similarities with a Pornstar Martini, with passionfruit, vanilla and vodka as key elements, but “with significantly more complexity and finesse”, according to Abu Nada.
For the drink, the team developed its own ras el hanout spice blend. The blend is infused into vodka using an ultrasonic bath and sous vide, which create “maximum intensity and extraction of flavours in a short amount of time”. To add body, dry white Port is blended with clarified passionfruit and carrot juice. Sugar beet syrup (or ‘gold juice’, as the Kink team refers to it) and a dash of peach liqueur bring sweetness.
“The short version of Dara’s Maverick is a sophisticated and challenging drink for experienced connoisseurs,” explains Abu Nada. “For those who prefer a lighter and more approachable option, we offer a long version, which is extended with our homemade cream soda. It turns the drink into an exotic Highball, with a full-bodied texture. Both versions are equally exciting.”
Dara’s Maverick – short version
Ingredients – makes approximately 960ml liquid
- 302.5g Ras el hanout vodka
- 348g Carrot-peach Port
- 152g Cream soda cordial
- 64g Dry white Port
- 3g Turkish orange blossom water
- 1.4g Angostura Cacao Bitters
- 4.8g Angostura Orange Bitters
- 45ml Water
Method: Combine all ingredients. Blend with a hand mixer. Pour 100ml of the chilled mixture into a stirring vessel. Add plenty of ice, then stir gently and taste for the perfect dilution. Pour into a chilled Nick & Nora glass and enjoy.
For the ras el hanout vodka
Infuse one litre of vodka with 7.5g ras el hanout.
For the carrot-peach Port
- 700ml Clarified carrot juice
- 90ml Clarified passionfruit juice
- 60g Sugar beet syrup
- 50ml Simple syrup
- 1,500ml Dry white Port
- 100ml Merlet Crème de Peche
Method: Centrifuge: 4,200 rotational speed/4,810 RCF for 30 minutes.
For the cream soda cordial
- 750ml Water
- 325g Clarified passionfruit juice
- 20g Citric acid
- 25g Ascorbic acid
- 5g Organic lemon zest
- 5g Organic orange zest
- 500g Sugar
- 2ml Butter-vanilla baking aroma
- 50ml Crème de cacao
- 5ml Bourbon vanilla extract
Mix water, passionfruit juice and the acids in a pot, and blend until the acids are dissolved. Add the zests and steep for 10 minutes. Filter first roughly through a sieve, then finely through a mesh cloth.
Stir sugar into the butter-vanilla aroma until it is absorbed.
Heat the filtered liquid with the sugar in a pot until the sugar has completely dissolved. Allow the mixture to cool slightly.
Now add the crème de cacao and vanilla extract to the cordial. Blend it well and cool it completely.
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