NEXT-LEVEL TECHNIQUE: CLARIFYING

Freshly pressed citrus juice is a key element of so many cocktails, and for good reason: it curbs the strength of alcohol and contributes flavor and texture. But it also adds color and opacity to cocktails. So, what if we want to add the flavor and balance without the color and density?

We’ve learned a lot about clarification from Dave Arnold in his excellent book Liquid Intelligence and his contributions to the blog Cooking Issues. Simply stated, clarification is the process of removing cloudy particles from a liquid, thereby making it transparent. This can be achieved easily with a filter. Consider the difference between filtered coffee and coffee prepared in a French press: The filtered coffee is lighter in color and more transparent, whereas coffee produced by a French press is cloudy. There’s also a remarkable difference in flavor between the two, with the filtered coffee having a light, clear flavor and the French press coffee being dense and bold.

While we could clarify juices for our cocktails using a paper filter, we prefer to use either a mechanical centrifuge or agar. At our bars, we clarify a wide variety of juices: from citrus fruits (lemon, lime, grapefruit, orange, tangerine), fruit and vegetable juices (apple, pear, fennel root), and even purees (raspberry, strawberry).

Before we get into the nitty-gritty details, we want to answer the question that may be on your mind: Why bother with clarifying? Honestly, sometimes we just like to play with people’s expectations: When they see a crystal clear drink that resembles a Martini, they assume it will be boozy and sharp. But if they take a sip and taste a shockingly bright and acidic Daiquiri, that’s a fun surprise. Clarification also serves a practical purpose: when making fully carbonated cocktails (discussed at the end of chapter 5), removing any particulate matter allows the carbon dioxide to disseminate more uniformly throughout the drink.

One final note: Because clarified juices tend to be more fragile than fresh juices, we recommend using them within one day. The exception would be if they’re mixed into batched or kegged cocktails (see this page) with sweeteners and spirits that will help preserve their delicate flavor.

Left: Lime Juice; Right: Clarified Lime Juice

EXPERIMENTING WITH CLARIFIED JUICE

Our root Daiquiri recipe will help you understand how clarified juice can change a cocktail. Before you do the experiment, clarify some lime juice. Since you probably don’t have a centrifuge (yet!), use the agar clarification method on this page. Then make the two recipes following, noting that the second one calls for stirring, not shaking.

This experiment clearly reveals that clarified juice is a world apart from freshly pressed juice and has a completely different flavor that’s lighter and less penetrating. As a result, the Clarified Daiquiri has a more pronounced rum flavor.

Clarification can also reset biases. For example, over the years we’ve mostly shied away from using orange juice in cocktails. A key reason is because the flavor of the juice can vary widely depending on the variety of orange, season, and where you live. (While this is true of all varieties of citrus, it seems more pronounced with oranges.) In addition, orange juice has a surprising homogenizing effect when mixed with other ingredients that tends to make drinks boring.

Take, for example, the Monkey Gland (this page)—a cocktail we’ve always thought was a big glass of BS. Why? Because it lacks balance. The gin is nice and the grenadine can be vibrantly juicy and astringent, but the orange juice—high in sugar and low in acid—mutes the gin and dulls the grenadine. The ingredients aren’t better for being put together; they’re worse. With each sip, we’re reminded of the bad old days, when the point of a cocktail was largely to mask the flavor of subpar booze. But in fact, the Monkey Gland is not irreparable. We can steer it toward a more pleasurable balance by swapping in clarified orange juice and stirring the drink rather than shaking it, resulting in a cocktail that has qualities somewhat akin to a Martini. (Another possible improvement would be to add a few drops of Citric Acid Solution, this page.) We heartily encourage you to try this experiment, again using the agar method (see this page) to clarify the orange juice.

Daiquiri

OUR ROOT RECIPE

1¾ ounces Caña Brava white rum

¼ ounce La Favorite Coeur de Canne rhum agricole blanc

1 ounce fresh lime juice

¾ ounce simple syrup (this page)

Shake all the ingredients with ice, then strain into a chilled coupe. No garnish.

Clarified Daiquiri

1¾ ounces Caña Brava white rum

¼ ounce La Favorite Coeur de Canne rhum agricole blanc

1 ounce clarified lime juice (see this page)

¾ ounce simple syrup (this page)

Stir all the ingredients over ice, then strain into a chilled coupe. No garnish.

Monkey Gland (Classic)

2 ounces Plymouth gin

1 ounce fresh orange juice

1 teaspoon House Grenadine (this page)

2 dashes Pernod absinthe

Shake all the ingredients with ice, then strain into a chilled coupe. No garnish.

Monkey Gland (Made with Clarified Orange Juice)

2 ounces Plymouth gin

1 ounce clarified orange juice (see this page)

1 teaspoon House Grenadine (this page)

2 dashes Pernod absinthe

Stir all the ingredients over ice, then strain into a chilled coupe. No garnish.

HOW TO CLARIFY JUICE WITH AGAR

Juicer

Fine-mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth

Several bowls or other containers

Gram scale

Saucepan

Agar

Stove

Whisk

Superbag or paper coffee filter

  1. Juice the fruit or other fresh produce, then strain the juice through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl. Prepare an ice bath.

  2. Measure the weight of a container using a gram scale, then add the juice and calculate the difference. (Or, if your scale has a tare function, place the container on it, zero the scale, then add the juice and determine its weight.) Record the weight of the juice.

  3. Calculate 25% of the weight of the juice (multiply by 0.25). Measure out that amount of water and put it in a separate container.

  4. Add the weights of the juice and water, then calculate 0.2% of the combined weight (multiply by 0.002) to get X grams; this is the amount of agar you’ll use.

  5. In a saucepan, combine the water and agar. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the agar is dissolved.

  6. Remove from the heat, add the juice, and whisk until combined.

  7. Pour the mixture into one of the containers, then put the container in the ice bath.

  8. After about 10 minutes, the mixture will set up. Once it does, use a whisk to break it into curd-like chunks.

  9. Transfer to a fine-mesh sieve lined with several layers of cheesecloth placed over a bowl.

  10. Gently gather the edges of the cheesecloth and form the mass into a ball. Squeeze out the liquid; don’t squeeze too hard, or some of the agar may come through.

  11. If any particles are still present in the clarified juice, pass the liquid through a Superbag or paper coffee filter.

  12. Transfer to a storage container and refrigerate until ready to use.

HOW TO CLARIFY JUICE WITH A CENTRIFUGE

Juicer

Fine-mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth

Gram scale

Centrifuge containers with lids

Pectinex Ultra SP-L

Kieselsol

Chitosan

Centrifuge

Superbag

  1. Juice the fruit or other fresh produce, then strain the juice through a fine-mesh sieve.

  2. Measure the weight of a centrifuge container using a gram scale, then add the juice and calculate the difference. (Or, if your scale has a tare function, place the centrifuge container on it, zero the scale, then add the juice and determine its weight.) Record the weight of the juice.

  3. Calculate 0.2% of the weight of the juice (multiply by 0.002) to get X grams.

  4. Stir X grams of Pectinex Ultra SP-L and kieselsol into the juice. Cover and let sit for 15 minutes.

  5. Stir X grams of chitosan into the juice. Cover and let sit for 15 minutes.

  6. Stir in X grams of kieselsol right before putting the container in the centrifuge.

  7. Weigh the filled container and fill each of the other containers with an equal weight of water. Each container in a centrifuge must weigh exactly the same in order to keep the machine in balance.

  8. Run the centrifuge at 4,500 rpm for 12 minutes.

  9. Remove the containers and carefully strain the juice through a fine-mesh sieve lined with several layers of cheesecloth or through a Superbag, being careful not to disturb the solids that have collected on the bottom of the container.

  10. Transfer to a storage container and refrigerate until ready to use.

SPECIAL CLARIFICATION INGREDIENTS

Kieselsol and Chitosan: Frequently used in the wine industry, where they are known as fining agents, kieselsol and chitosan are often sold as a set for clarifying suspended particles in wine, but they’re also useful for clarifying ingredients for cocktails. Most of the suspended solids in a liquid have an electrical charge, either positive or negative. Fining agents also have a charge: kieselsol, which is added first, has a negative charge, and chitosan, added second, has a positive charge. Each will attract and bind particles with the opposite charge, forming clumps that are heavier than the surrounding liquid. With wine, the clumped sediments are allowed to settle for days before being separated, but when working with cocktail ingredients, we’re often playing a game against time. Their freshness will rapidly deteriorate, so we can’t let them sit around for a couple of days. Therefore, we typically start by using fining agents to clump the particles together, then run the liquid through a centrifuge to separate out the solids.

Agar: An alternative clarification method uses a gel approach wherein liquid is combined with an agent that turns the mix into a gel; the clarified liquid can then be expelled from the gel, leaving the particulate matter behind. A variety of agents can used, from egg whites to gelatin, but we prefer agar because it’s derived from algae and is vegan-friendly, whereas many other gelling agents are animal products. Although kieselsol and chitosan are great for clarifying cocktail ingredients when used in tandem with a centrifuge, they don’t produce the same results without one, so we use agar when we don’t have a centrifuge or don’t want to use one.

Pectinex Ultra SP-L: See this page.