Six years ago at this time of year, I was visiting my family in Washington, DC, for the Jewish holiday season. I found myself doing what many of us do on a holiday: roaming a grocery store, the more exotic the better.
As I got to the Middle Eastern section, whose contents I can normally list by memory from meters away, I came across a new ingredient: willow water. Already familiar with rosewater and orange blossom water, whose perfumed scent and flavor permeate Middle Eastern desserts and drinks, I had never heard of willow water, but I remember having a “Eureka!” moment in the store aisle: I know what drink I’m making this Sukkot!
Willow water belongs to a family of distilled waters from Iranian cooking, which are used as much for flavor as they are for health remedies. Distillation was perfected in medieval Iran, combining water and plants to extract their essential oils for use in perfumes, with the resulting distilled liquid used in cosmetics, as well as foods. Just as rosewater is the distillate of rose petals and water, willow water is the distillate of a certain kind of willow plant.
Finding willow water completed my search for finding all Four Species in a form suitable for a drink.
The Four Species – palm, willow, myrtle, and citron – play a central role in Sukkot, in which branches of the first three and a whole citron are held, waved, and processioned throughout the holiday. Picking just the right ones of each to best celebrate the holiday can be found in the Four Species markets, where the observant pore over the most minute of details in each leaf, branch, and rind of the species.
I wasn’t going to go shopping at one of these markets for my ingredients, not least of which because it’s been a long-standing industry practice to use harmful pesticides to ensure the most aesthetically pleasing species. As many Jews have the tradition of using their citron (etrog in Hebrew) after the holiday in marmalades or homemade liqueurs, this might be the year to start inquiring from vendors as to the use of pesticides in their products. Not to mention, to start washing your hands after handling your Four Species.
No, I planned to use local vendors and regional ingredients to infuse the Four Species into a series of drinks, starting with its most fragrant: the etrog.
Golani Distillery’s Etrog Gin (also labeled under its new subsidiary, Katzrin Distillery) is one of my go-to gins in cocktails throughout the year, its flavor enhanced by local botanicals and the essential oil-rich peel of the etrog, giving it a slightly yellow hue and citrus scent. This is a must-have for those anyone to up their gin and tonic game, let alone other gin cocktails.
If you live in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv, you may be familiar with the Etrogman, Uzi-Eli Hezi, who passed away last year. He entertained and nourished thousands of passersby in the Mahaneh Yehuda and Carmel markets with fruit juices and natural remedies for a variety of ailments, all thanks to the etrog. In addition to selling fresh etrog juice. Vendors often sell whole varieties that are safe for consumption. A great addition in any cocktail, the flavor can be replicated by using an equal combination of fresh lemon and grapefruit juices.
The palm frond, known as the lulav, is usually sourced from date palms. While dates provide an ingredient all their own to cocktails, which will be discussed later in this column, the palm tree itself provides sugar through collecting sap from its flowers. The resulting liquid is hardened and formed into discs known as palm sugar, which is used in Southeast Asian cuisines. You can find bags of palm sugar in any of the Pan-Asian stores throughout Israel, and use them just like sugar in producing syrups and cordials.
Myrtle, known as hadas, is a bit harder to procure in a food-safe form. Sardinian cuisine uses both the leaves and the berries in a variety of dishes, and the berries have been used as substitutes for once-expensive black pepper. I have used myrtle essential oil, which even a drop becomes too overpowering for anyone less than adventurous. Thankfully, the myrtle family taxonomy is wide enough to include spices such as allspice and cloves, which have a vaunted role in drinks. This year, I settled on blueberries, as they have become widespread in Israeli markets; they look similar to myrtle berries; and their name in French, myrtilles, further connects the two together.
Can’t find any of these ingredients? Don’t worry! You have a whole year ahead to search for them.
All the following cocktail recipes serve one.
Etrog Gin & Tonic
- 60 ml. Golani Distillery Etrog Gin
- A few drops of distilled willow water (you can substitute rosewater or orange blossom water)
- A handful of fresh blueberries
- Tonic water (preferably Fever Tree or other sugar-based brand)
- Ice
- Lowball glass, jar, or cocktail shaker
- Fine sieve
- Highball glass or other tall glassware
Combine the first three ingredients in a glass, jar, or cocktail shaker and muddle the blueberries with a muddler or the back of a spoon until their skins split. Let steep for 5-10 minutes. Strain into a highball glass, pressing on the berries but careful not to get any solids in the glass. Top with ice and tonic water, stir and serve.
HERE ARE a few other cocktails using Etrog Gin that will definitely lift your spirits this Sukkot and throughout the year:
Buzzed
- 2 parts Etrog Gin
- 1 part thyme-honey syrup*
- ½-1 part fresh lemon juice
*Thyme-honey syrup:
- 1 part honey
- 1 part water
- Several sprigs of fresh thyme (can be substituted with fresh sage and/or rosemary)
Optional:
Handful of juniper berries
For the syrup:
Combine equal parts honey and water in a small pot, and heat until honey dissolves (do not bring to a boil). Add herbs and steep until syrup cools to the touch, at least 15 minutes. Discard herbs and refrigerate until use. Syrup will last in the refrigerator for one week.
Combine gin, syrup, and lemon juice in a cocktail shaker and fill with ice. Shake vigorously, 45-60 seconds, and decant into a frosted cocktail glass or a lowball glass on the rocks.
- Tangerine
- 2 parts Etrog Gin
- 1 part boukha/mahia (fig eau de vie), see below for details
- 2-3 drops orange blossom water
- Tonic water
- Soda water
- Orange peel
Combine the gin, boukha/mahia, and orange blossom water in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Stir for 45-60 seconds.
Decant into a highball or wine glass, fill halfway with crushed ice, and top with equal parts tonic water and soda water. Express the orange oils by twisting the peel over the drink, and add the twist into the glass.
Seven Species, infinite drink possibilities
In addition to the Four Species, Jewish tradition highlights seven other agricultural species with importance. Known as the Seven Species, together they represent the abundance of produce that the Land of Israel can provide, each ready for harvest at a different time of year to ensure an uninterrupted supply of food and work.
While many will decorate their sukkah with each of the species, and I’ve been known to make a Seven Species haroset for Passover, attempts at making a Seven Species cocktail have been awarded an A for ambition and much less for flavor.
Rather than retrying said experiment, here are ways to infuse each one as an ingredient into cocktails throughout the year, and a cocktail that brings five of these together:
Wheat and barley
Wheat and barley are not only staples of ancient Israelite cuisine, used to make both bread and beer, they are also the staples of whiskey. Whiskey production has spread worldwide and especially to warm climates, as the air temperature greatly accelerates the process of barrel aging, leading to bottles being produced in countries such as India and Taiwan.
Nowadays, both grains are largely imported into Israel rather than grown locally, but that’s beginning to change as the whiskey business grows. Of the five local whiskey distillers, Golani Distillery has just released its first run of whiskey made with locally grown barley. Sprouted and then roasted to produce malt, this is a game-changer for creating a sustainable and localized whiskey.
Dates
The honey most referenced in the Bible is likely date honey, the liquid seeping from ripe dates and/or extracted through pressing. Known in Israel as silan, the taste may not be as rich as that of bee’s honey, but its use in cocktails is a great substitute for those looking to avoid refined sugar and/or density in their drinks.
Pomegranate
That tart-sweet-tannin flavor has sadly been misrepresented in cocktails through the widespread distribution of grenadine, deriving from the French word for the fruit, which has little resemblance of its origins taste-wise.
The next time you’re making a drink, reach for a bottle of pomegranate molasses with as little added sugar as possible, for that unique flavor. I promise you’ll find many ways to use it in drinks and dishes alike.
Grapes
Grapes need little introduction, providing us with wine as well as cocktail-friendly sparkling wine and vermouth. What about grape molasses?
Grape molasses, like its pomegranate counterpart, is made by boiling down fresh grape juice until it turns into a thick syrup. The ingredient is a staple in regional cuisines, used in both savory and sweet recipes, and combined with pomegranate molasses and rosewater to create jallab, a syrup most commonly mixed with water and ice and topped with pine nuts. I first had this drink at a Lebanese restaurant and was immediately hooked, finding supplies of it closer by in Arab markets and using it in Old Fashioneds and other drinks.
Shem Rivers, a joint Arab-Jewish initiative in the Hebron Hills region, makes grape molasses, as well as pomegranate molasses and tehina, and can be found at gourmet and health stores throughout the country.
- 5/7 Manhattan
- 60 ml. whiskey
- 30 ml. vermouth, sweet or dry
- ½ tsp. silan
- ½ tsp. pomegranate molasses (preferably with no sugar added)
- Ice
Stir the first four ingredients together for 45-60 seconds. Pour over a large ice cube in a lowball glass and serve.
Figs
In addition to infusing figs, fresh or dried, into any alcohol to impart its sweetness, Jews have been making distilled spirits from figs for centuries in North Africa. Known as mahia among Moroccan Jews, and boukha among Tunisian Jews, figs are juiced and then distilled to produce an eau de vie that’s further flavored with anise when sold as mahia. Fig eau de vie is a favorite around Passover, as it contains no proscribed grains. Look for the very popular Boukha Bokobsa fig eau de vie (the black label has an even more intense fig flavor).
Olives
Forget olives as a garnish: Have you heard of olive oil-washed cocktails?
A technique made popular by bartender Don Lee at the iconic New York bar PDT, fat washing involves stirring a liquid fat into a measure of spirits, freezing the mixture until the fat rises to the top and solidifies, and skimming it off and any residual fat. The result is not only a smoother spirit and a softer mouth feel, but the fat’s taste is infused into the alcohol.
Use any of Israel’s premium extra virgin olive oils in this process to infuse a peppery fresh taste into your drinks, and experiment with other flavored oils. Sesame oil is perfect for those who love tehina or halva.
Originally from Washington, DC, and now residing in Tel Aviv, the writer is a self-taught mixologist and founder of Sheik It Up, an “edutainment” initiative to promote a better understanding of Israel and the Middle East. He is also the founder of Hayyati, a cross-cultural communications consultancy for small businesses, and civic initiative The Here & There Club. jay@hayyati.com