Damien mixes: “Dirty Paloma” with Olive 

© Damien Guichard

This month, the star of our Community Cocktail is the olive. Damien Guichard shows how to properly showcase it in drinks.

It is hard not to rush straight to a Martini twist when making a drink with olives. The dirty martini is one of the most enjoyed variations worldwide, and nothing will elevate it more than a little brine and an iconic olive garnish. Which is why we will not be doing any of that. Instead, we will be making one of my favourite classics to twist: the Paloma.

In order to do that, we will be using our old trusty rotovap. While I’m aware that not every bar has a rotovap, I believe putting it up to use in this format demonstrates its possibilities. Olives have a really high-fat content which makes them quite hard to use and process in cocktails. Unless you are looking specifically for a heavier drink, you’re a little limited if you want something lighter.

Using our rotovap, we will be able to make a black olive distillate thus allowing us to extract the flavour of olives with none of the oily, fatty textures. 

© Damien Guichard

1.      First of we blend 1:1 olive-to-vodka ratio at room temperature until completely homogenous.

2.      Then we transfer the mix into our evaporation flask.

3.      We then attach the evaporation flask to the rotovap and start the distillation process: the water bath is set at 35C and the pressure is gradually lowered to 35MBAR. 

A rotovap allows us to extract flavours at a very low heating temperature. When ethanol would need to be heated at around 78C to start evaporating at atmospheric pressure, the vacuum inside the rotovap allows ethanol to vaporise at a temperature as low as 35C, meaning we will not be burning our ingredients.

4. We make sure our resulting distillate is at the same ABV as the solvent, in this case 40%.

The result is a completely clear product that tastes of the savory black olive. It packs a lot of flavour and has no residual oils or an unpleasant colour, which you would have with an infusion.

Now that we have our distillate, let’s make a tasty drinkie:

Recipe for a “Dirty Paloma”

© Damien Guichard