With winter well and truly settled in the Southern Hemisphere, time to spice up your cocktail repertoire with a winter spiced persimmon syrup.
Winter Spiced Persimmon Syrup – Photo © Cocktails & Bars
Persimmon is an autumn-winter fruit commonly grown in Japan and widely available in Australian fruit markets. There are two types of persimmon, an astringent one which is best left to mature before consumed and the non-astringent type with a soft, sweeter flesh that can be eaten and used in drinks.
For this winter syrup, we’re pairing the flesh of ripe persimmon with ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon and clove with honey. It’s a warming modifier to use in cocktails such as an old-fashioned with bourbon, to flavour a whiskey sour or highball or in a dark rum hot toddy.
Winter Spiced Persimmon Syrup Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup persimmon, peeled and chopped into small cubes
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup honey
- 1 cm piece of ginger, thinly sliced
- 1/4 whole nutmeg, grated
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 clove
Equipment: small saucepan, funnel, fine strainer, flip top glass bottle
Method
In a small saucepan, combine all the ingredients and bring to the boil, stirring until the honey is fully dissolved in water. Reduce the heat and simmer for approximately 5 minutes. Leave to cool. Using a fine mesh strainer, fine strain into a swing top glass bottle and repeat to remove any of the sediment then store in the fridge. It keeps for approximately 10 days.
