Damien mixes: Horseradish

© Damien Guichard

As the weather gets noticeably warmer every day on our side of the globe, bartenders are having a field day exploring the flavours that spring brings along its pleasant weather: berries, herbs, fruits - it therefore seemed all the more natural to make something with *reads again* …. horseradish?

Yes! Horseradish. Now don’t turn away, horseradish has more reasons to exist than Bloody Marys and Sunday brunch oysters (although I have nothing against those). Now before we take a deep dive into the how-to let me give you a fun fact: horseradish has nothing to do with horses or radishes. Mind blown? Let’s relax with a drink.

Horseradish owes its spicy properties to an enzyme very hard to spell and difficult to bring up in conversations: isothiocyanate. When oxidized by air and saliva, it generates the heat that we are all familiar with. 

© Damien Guichard

Ok enough theory let’s skip to the drink!

First of all, we are going to chop up our fresh horseradish roughly. Then we will infuse it with vodka for 24 hours: 500g of fresh horseradish to 1000g of vodka. I choose to vacuum seal our infusion as we are lucky to own a vacuum chamber at Wax On but horseradish does not naturally contain chlorophyll or other components causing browning so you may infuse it in a container. Once that’s done, filter your infusion through a coffee filter and your horseradish vodka is now ready to use.

Behold the TRUE NORMAN: a fun little spin on the classic gin fizz with a savoury twist.