As I’ve been drinking fewer cocktails this month, I have been trying a range of things instead for that slightly celebratory and self-indulgent moment when nothing but a cocktail will do. At points just making simple non-alcoholic drinks with a bit of flair was all that I needed.
For instance, tonic is often ignored other than as a mixer, but a decent tonic served in a nice glass with plenty of ice and a garnish can really hit the spot. If you want to take it a bit further, I find a dash of bitters rather helps. Angostura has the benefit of altering the colour, and depending how much you use it can go from the gentlest pink to quite a dominant red.
As well as that sort of ‘mocktail’ – for want of a better word – I have tried a few kombuchas. I will not bore you with extensible tasting notes as many of them were quite similar, but it is worth noting how they nearly all have a nice play between acidity, sweetness and a hint of tannic bitterness. This does sound rather like wine.
Indeed, some of the kombuchas I had were clearly aimed to be drunk in the place of wine, and do work rather well. But I think it says something about the mental position of wine in society that it is used as the ideal from which other drinks should be understood.
That pleasing balance of acidity, sweetness and tannic bitterness just as easily applies to cider, or – with a slight reconsidering of the bitter aspect – works for beer.
This might seem a bit odd. Beer tends not to be discussed in terms of acidity, or dryness etc. But when talking about the malty body of a beer, some of that vital flavour is sweetness, and some beers, such as gueuze, are known for their acidity. For it is not just the ingredients that dictate the flavour, but also the fermenting process that happen in production.
The discussion of prebiotic bacteria in kombucha might seem a far cry from the yeast common to wine and beer. But for a moment imagine that bacteria and yeast are not know. Would you then draw a line between the almost magical process which happens in some drinks and instead of the normal degradation of rot, improves the fermenting matter?
You might then suggest that a clear line could be drawn between things like kombucha that are not notably alcoholic and things like wine that are. But that is only the case from certain angles. Most vinegar is made by first fermenting a juice with yeast, and then uses a culture of bacteria to convert the alcohol to acetic acid (and of course do so much more). In this way could you not say that wine and vinegar are just the same thing on different stages of the same process.
So, you can see that there is less of a clear distinction between drinks that use yeast for alcohol and other drinks that use a culture of microbes to alter the flavour. And really even the idea that alcoholic drinks just use yeast is often wrong. Many wines and ciders rely on malo-lactic fermentation which uses bacteria to convert the fresh tart tasting malic acid (present in lots of fruit) into the less tart lactic acid. This also produces side products which can give a buttery note to some wines. In a similar way many beers rely on lactic acid bacteria to convert sugar into lactic acid, and so provides an acidity that the ingredients cannot provide.
Fermentation is a wide process and, I think, produces some of the best drinks (and foods). It is a shame that sometimes it is pigeonholed, with only one single process considered. In a way this is a natural desire to compartmentalise and understand things as discrete entities, but not thinking outside of those compartmentalised concepts ignores so many possibilities.
So back to kombucha. Why must it strive to compete with wine, when it could be part of a wider continuum of drinks. One day you might want to reach for a kombucha, another day a very traditional wine, and another a lowish alcohol drink made from grapes with some tea which plays with the possibilities of different, symbiotic, fermentations.
Drinks are most of all about drinking. It should matter more what something tastes like, rather than exactly what it is, and, as a slightly topical way to end this ramble, if this leads to non or low-alcohol drinks being drunk in places that currently are taken by wine, beer, or cocktails, all the better.
Next time, I will finaly get back to cocktails with some recipes (with pictures!).
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