We foraged for this, yall.
Well, sortof.
Downtown Houston’s urban farm, Finca Tres Robles, let us come out and dig around in the dirt. We collected carrots of all sizes, scrubbed them clean and got to work – working on a few different drink concept ideas for two of our Texas bar clients while also playing with ideas on how to utilize carrots in the beverage format going forward.
While we can’t give away a few of the drink recipes we developed for hospitality clients, we can tell you how we put a spin on the Old Fashioned using a carrot syrup we batched during the R&D period.
We then had an idea: let’s celebrate the hard working staff at Finca Tres Robles – and have them over for a happy hour featuring cocktails we’ve pulled from our sessions with carrots and other fresh produce available on their farm and in their community market, which sells locally grown produce and meat on a sliding scale –- supporting Houston communities who live in a food desert, such as the Second Ward.
The Old Fashioned is one of our favorite cocktails to serve for our luxury events; clients always ask for them – so we knew we could tweak the spiced syrup so it married well into an old fashioned. When it comes to either building restaurant bar menus or designing specialty cocktails for private events, the easier it is to replicate, the better. Consistency is key to delighting guests, and with consistency comes trust.
Here’s our spiced carrot syrup recipe; try it in your coffee, too.
Spiced Carrot Syrup
- 1 cups water
- 3 cinnamon sticks
- ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
- 2 star anise pods
- 2 cardamom pods
- 1 tsp vanilla paste
- 3 medium carrots, washed and peeled and chopped
- 1.5 cups brown sugar
- .5 cup granulated sugar
Boil your water with all spices and carrots, for about 5 minutes. Stir all spices well so that they evenly heat within your saucepan. Then, add your brown sugar and white granulated sugar together until completely dissolved, stirring frequently. Remove from heat, allow to cool completely, and then strain out solids, keeping syrup in an airtight container.
What can you do with this syrup? Added to your morning coffee, it’s spicy and sweet. Drizzle it over your yogurt or vanilla ice cream; we recommend it in an Old Fashioned and it’s front and center in our Carrot Cake Martini.
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