Cocktail stories: Jerusalem Artichoke, Waltz
The humble Whiskey Sour is given a savoury, umami twist at east London bar Waltz.
We say this a lot, but Waltz in London’s Shoreditch has got to be one of the hottest bar openings this year.
Set within a 10-minute walk of heavy-hitters like Seed Library, Swift, Nightjar, and Tayēr + Elementary, it’s a bold location for a debut venue. But Waltz’s founder, Gento Torigata, is used to rubbing shoulders with cocktail royalty. His CV includes nearly four years at Singapore’s Jigger & Pony and, most recently, two years managing London’s Kwãnt.
It’s the latter that has particularly inspired his vision for the Jerusalem Artichoke cocktail, a riff on a Whiskey Sour that features the eponymous vegetable and red miso. “Jerusalem artichoke is a very familiar food item for cooking in Japan,” he explains, noting it is often eaten in soup or pickled in his home country.
At Kwãnt, the ingredient had featured in a Sunflower Negroni. “That drink made me realise that a simple infusion in liquor would be the best method of extracting the flavour of Jerusalem artichoke,” says Torigata.
The red miso adds a rich umami saltiness. “Red miso is one of the most common pickling ingredients used in Japan,” he says, explaining that artichoke is commonly preserved using this technique, called misozuke. “I already knew those two ingredients go well.”
The final spark came from Kwãnt’s Erik Lorenz pairing miso with Bourbon in a cocktail. “I love that combination of those grainy, roasty aromas of Bourbon whiskey with the miso,” says Torigata. Currently, the drink sits in Waltz’s rotating Seasonal section, though Torigata is considering promoting it to the Evergreen list. Jerusalem artichoke is in season in the UK for nearly half of the year, and the distillates can be batched for when it’s gone. “A lot of guests enjoy it,” he says.
The cocktail is also very reflective of what he’s trying to achieve at Waltz. “The main theme of my cocktail programme is improvising with ingredients that are in season,” he says. “I try to showcase the flavour of an ingredient itself, by finding the best combination with secondary ingredients and keeping it simple. Sometimes we do clarifications, milk washes, distillations – but not all the time. It’s really based on the main ingredient.”
Jerusalem Artichoke
Ingredients
35ml Jerusalem artichoke-infused
Knob Creek Bourbon
12.5ml Red miso distillate
15ml Lemon juice
12.5ml Sugar syrup
2ml Liquid shiokoji
1 dash foamer (such as Ms Betters Miraculous Foamer Bitters)
For the Jerusalem artichoke infusion
Skin artichoke after washing and dice into 1cm pieces. Combine 650g of chopped artichokes with 700ml of Bourbon. Sous vide at 68°C for four hours, then fine strain.
For the red miso distillate
Sous vide 185g of red miso paste with 700ml Bourbon at 60°C for one hour. Then distil at 60°C.
Method
Shake with ice and strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with a dried artichoke skin.
Related news
Cocktail stories: Tomato Tree, Sip & Guzzle
