celery bowl a l'amerique

Peel 3-4 celery roots (1/2 celery root) and cut into thin slices.
Cover thickly with powdered sugar (1 1/2 oz).
Infuse with half bottle of brandy, arrack, or rum (1 1/2 oz Batavia Arrack).
Cover for 12 hours (10 hours, chilling for the last hour, then strained into a mixing tin).
Add 4 bottles of Rhine Wine (12 oz Bear Flag White Wine Blend, chilled) and 1 bottle of Champagne (3 oz Cava, chilled).
My eight-fold scaled down recipe made two servings when poured into highball glasses. I garnished each with a celery stalk.

Earlier on Saturday, I finally bought some celeriac since I have wanted to make the Celery Bowl à l'Amérique from William Schmidt's The Flowing Bowl for quite some time. After peeling and slicing the celery root, I opted for Batavia Arrack to steep it in for I figured that its funky and earthy notes would complement the celery flavors better than brandy or rum. I waited until after we were finished with the Everyman Afterall cocktail before starting on the final preparations for the Celery Bowl.

The Celery Bowl's provided a white wine aroma that led into a crisp, bubbly wine sip. The intriguing part came in the swallow which presented a combination of the celery, cava, and Batavia Arrack notes along with a lingering celery finish. We had already discovered that celery and sparkling wine worked well together; indeed, we had tried that pairing at Tales of the Cocktail in 2009 when our hotel provided us with a complementary bottle of champagne and all we had on hand were the celery bitters that I was competing with later in the week. Moreover, our choice of Batavia Arrack did not disappoint here. Over all, the Celery Bowl à l'Amérique would probably make for a great breakfast or aperitif drink.