Exploring Carrot’s Flavours: Breaking Down Sweet And Earthy Notes In Mixology
A crispy, crunchy root vegetable, the carrot is often sliced up and juiced for adding into different blends like a bloody mary or a carrot and turmeric gin fizz. The sweet and slightly earthy flavours of carrot juice blend well with multiple spirits to produce versatile cocktails complete with sweet, savoury and herbal flavours. As well, carrots also carry a rich orange and reddish hue which is steadily infused into blends through juices and garnishes.
All of these elements have a role to play in giving taste and texture to drinks. This is why understanding the carrot’s flavour profile becomes integral for a mixologist keen to incorporate its juice into cocktail and mocktail blends. Carrot’s flavours might be more subtle when they are added to drinks in the form of clarified juice yet their sweetness and nuttiness is unmistakable. It lends mixes a very sophisticated finish making carrots one of the more interesting ingredients used in modern mixology.
Sweet Carrot Flavour
Fresh carrots either cultivated in one’s home garden or bought from the greengrocer’s have a very crispy texture and hard, fibrous finish. They are deeply orange or red, depending on the carrot variety and this bright hue lends a pop of colour to the drinks prepared using this ingredient. These textures and colour characteristics of the carrot make it one of the more favoured ingredients among mixologists who like to work with savoury cocktail recipes.
More so because the sweet notes of the carrot which are highlighted in carrot juice give such spicy and herbal drinks a light contrast that brings about a fine flavour balance in the mixes. Sweet carrot juice extracted by blending carrot chunks can then be strained finely to remove any pulp or cloudiness and added to multiple cocktails like a carrot cumin margarita made using 30 ml Don Julio Blanco Tequila or any other premium tequila of choice.
Carrot Flavour Pairings
Such a brightly flavoured carrot can be paired with different ingredients for preparing versatile mixes. One such exquisite coupling is carrots and herbs with sharp flavours like dill, tarragon and celery. When carrot juice is muddled with these herbs, it leads to pronounced herbal, spicy and peppery notes mixed with contrasting earthy flavours that give drinks a complex, savoury flavour. Such a combination of ingredients can come together in a carrot flavoured bloody mary made using 30 ml Ciroc Ultra Premium Vodka or any other premium vodka of choice.
Another flavour combination that works well is carrots coupled with root vegetables and spices such as beetroots and ginger. While beets and carrots together produce dense drinks with rich hues, adding shaved ginger to these mixes lends them a spicy touch useful in crafting drinks with much depth and layered flavours. Such a combination would go well with more aged spirits like 30 ml of Johnnie Walker Gold Label or any other premium whisky of choice, blended with the juices and spices in a simple highball cocktail.
As well, carrots also tend to mix well with citrusy flavours like lime juice, oranges and yuzu that in fact play a significant role in highlighting the nutty, earthy and sweet qualities of carrot juice. Added to drinks like a straightforward carrot colada, these flavours become more pronounced when blended with 15 ml lime juice and 15 ml pineapple juice. Blended with 30 ml Captain Morgan Dark Rum or any other premium rum of choice, the mix acquires a rich depth finished off with the silky notes of 15 ml coconut cream and the savory touch of 15 ml allspice liqueur.
Drink Responsibly. This communication is for audiences above the age of 25.
