Nitrate Manhattan

A few weeks ago someone asked for help reverse engineering two drinks they had tried at Seed Library, a bar in Shoreditch. One of them had five house-made ingredients (including “rapid aged blood”), any one of which could take months of expensive experimentation to replicate. The Nitrate Manhattan, described on the menu as “Aberfeldy 12, blanco tequila, rhubarb saison, lanolin, bitter & sweet herbs,” sounded equally interesting and significantly more doable.

A little digging turned up a basic recipe and some background information on the drink, which was originally created for another of Ryan Chetiyawardana’s bars: the highly praised (but now closed) Dandelyan. It’s inspired by West Yorkshire’s Rhubarb Triangle, where a fertilizer made with wool waste breaks down in the soil to form nitrate, providing the nitrogen essential for plant growth.

The rhubarb saison “vermouth” is the heart of this drink, and is made by “taking pale ale and enriching it with various vermouth botanicals. We then added rhubarb, raspberries and lanolin — a wax made from sheep’s wool. This is then fortified with mezcal.” This is pretty vague, so I just picked a few botanicals that I thought sounded good and tweaked the ratios until I had something that I liked the taste of.

Infused Saison

• 700 ml saison
• 0.2 g cinnamon
• 0.2 g hyssop
• 0.2 g wormwood
• 0.3 g yarrow
• 0.4 g tarragon
• 0.5 g lemon balm
• 0.5 g safflower
• 1 g chamomile
• 100 g raspberries
• 100 g rhubarb

Infuse for 24 hours. Strain through a fine mesh filter, followed by a coffee filter. Mine still had some unwanted particulates at this point, but after letting it sit in the refrigerator for a couple of days I was able to decant a fairly clear liquid off of the turbid dregs.

Lanolin-washed Mezcal

• 600 ml mezcal
• 30 g lanolin

Seal ingredients in a vacuum bag and cook sous vide at 130° F (55° C) for twelve hours. Chill and strain.

Rhubarb Saison Vermouth

• 600 ml infused saison
• 200 ml lanolin-washed mezcal

Final Assembly

• 1.25 oz blanco tequila
• 1 oz rhubarb saison vermouth
• 0.5 oz Scotch (Seed Library’s Aberfeldy 12 is a little lighter than the Talisker 10 that Dandelyan used, I split the difference and went half Islay, half Highland.)
• 0.25 oz simple syrup (optional; one review calls it “a dry, driving whirlwind of a cocktail” so it’s maybe not supposed to be here, but I feel that the drink opens up and becomes more complex and enjoyable with a touch of sugar.)

Stir with ice, strain into a chilled sherry glass, and spritz with absinthe.

Having never tried the original I have no idea how well I’ve done in replicating it, but it came out unique, complex, and intriguing so I’m willing to consider it a success.