pimm's chalice

1 oz Simple Syrup infused with Lemon Balm and Pimm's #1
3/4 oz Lime Juice
1 oz Pimm's #1
1/2 oz Martin Miller's Gin

Shake and serve on the rocks in a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon wedge and cucumber slice.
On Friday night before the On the Fly competition at Tales, Andrea and I went to Green Goddess restaurant for their 6 course vegetarian tasting dinner. We opted for the paired cocktails which matched each successive two dishes with a new beverage. The first two dishes were served with Green Goddess' variation on a classic Pimm's Cup. The lemon balm infusion used herbs straight from the chef's garden and these herbal flavors really came through in the drink. In addition, the chef said that the Pimm's in the simple syrup was heated to open up some of the fruity notes in the Pimm's; Andrea thought she tasted some apricot notes which might have derived from this process. Lastly, the drink started sweet but finished dry perhaps due to the gin.

This drink was paired with our first dish of a cucumber and sumac soup with Lebanese yogurt and Pimm's. Moreover, it was also paired with the second dish of a niggate bruschetta -- an edamame, mint, and winter malted chili pepper from northern Japan "tapenade" served on fougasse bread. While not a true tapenade, the chili paste did have a very olive flavor to it.

In between our next set of courses, we were treated to a sample of another drink on their menu called the Green Fuse. This drink featured a Spanish absinthe, Obsello, along with sugar cane juice and lime. The sugar cane juice seemed to clean up the flavor a bit, and while the lime juice is not a part of the standard absinthe-sugar combination it seemed to work rather well. Also, the Obsello absinthe did not seem to overpower the drink whether by proportion or by its relatively more gentle, less anise composition.