The Drunken Botanist: The Plants that Create the World's Great Drinks (61 page)

That is the Italian style; the French version would be something more like Edmond Briottet's Crème de Noisette, a pale amber liqueur with a bright, clear hazelnut flavor. Craft distilleries in the Pacific Northwest have also begun experimenting with hazelnut-infused vodka and hazelnut liqueurs. And behind the bar, hazelnuts are an ingredient in small-batch bitters, and pure hazelnut extract can be used as a cocktail ingredient or whipped into cream for nutty coffee drinks.

KOLA NUT

Cola acuminata

sterculiaceae (cacao family)

T
his African tree, a relative of the South American chocolate-producing cacao, grows to over sixty feet tall in its natural state and unfurls sprays of exquisite pale yellow flowers streaked in purple. After it blooms, a cluster of leathery, wrinkled fruit emerges, each containing about a dozen seeds. Those seeds are the kola nut, a mildly caffeinated treat enjoyed by West Africans as a stimulant. Once Europeans discovered it, the nut followed a now-predictable journey from eighteenth century medicine to nineteenth century tonic to twentieth-century flavoring extract.

Kola elixirs were prescribed for seasickness and as an appetite stimulant, often in combination with gentian and quinine. Early recipes for kola bitters were straightforward combinations of kola nut, alcohol, sugar, and citrus. By the late 1800s, kola wine and kola bitters were available in markets in London, and French and Italian distillers were releasing aromatized wine and
amaro
s with kola as an ingredient. Toni-Kola, an aperitif wine, is one famous and now defunct brand.

Soda fountains stocked kola syrup to make cocktaillike mixtures of fizzy, nonalcoholic drinks in the early twentieth century; these elaborate drinks were seen as one way to encourage temperance. The Coca-Cola company fought endless trademark battles over its use of the word “cola” to describe its products, but courts remained firm that “cola” was a general term to describe any beverage made with an extract of the kola nut and could not be trademarked. It remains an approved food flavoring today, and many natural soda companies still use the nut to add caffeine and that sweet, round cola flavor.

South Africans can buy a sweet syrup called Rose's Kola Tonic, and British, Australian, and New Zealand drinkers can look for Claytons Kola Tonic, a mixer that is also marketed as something a nondrinker can order in a bar (much like any other cola). Master of Malt, a UK liquor retailer, sells kola bitters in a dark rum base, which they promise will deliver “depth, tang and astringency” to cocktails. And although Italian
amaro
s, including Averna Amaro and Vecchio Amaro del Capo, are described as having “notes of cola,” the manufacturers offer no clue as to whether the nut is in fact part of their secret formulas.

WALNUT

Juglans regia

juglandaceae (walnut family)

T
here is nothing as astringent and unpleasant as a green, unripe walnut—until it has been soaked in alcohol and sugar, that is.
Nocino,
an Italian walnut liqueur, is surely one of the most ingenious uses of surplus produce ever invented.

Walnut trees are native to China and eastern Europe, and still grow wild in Kyrgyzstani forests. They were introduced to the West Coast by Franciscan monks around 1769, and are still seen growing on the grounds of California missions. The black walnut, J. nigra, is native to the eastern United States and is prized as much for its durable, dark wood as its fruit. Because it tolerates cold temperatures so well, European explorers brought the black walnut to Europe in the seventeenth century.

The magnificent trees reach over one hundred feet and cast a wide shadow. Long, ropy clusters of male flowers, called catkins, emerge in spring and release pollen, which is captured by the decidedly unglamorous green female blossoms. A soft green fruit emerges after pollination, and by early summer, the tree is laden with more walnuts than it can possibly support. Many of them drop to the ground before autumn.

This must have frustrated early orchardists, who would have wanted to make use of everything their trees produced. Fortunately, the tannic green walnuts made an excellent black dye, wood stain, and ink—but a liqueur made from the inedible fruit would have been valuable as well.

The recipe for
nocino
(called
liqueur de noix
in France) has changed little over the centuries. It's nothing more than soft green walnuts, cut into quarters or crushed, and soaked in some kind of spirit along with sugar. Vanilla and spices can be added; some people include lemon or orange zest. It's ready to drink after it has sat for a month or two and turned a deep, rich brownish black.

Nocino
doesn't have to be made at home. Haus Alpenz imports Nux Alpina Walnut Liqueur from Austria, and California's Charbay distillery makes a black walnut liqueur with a Pinot Noir brandy base called Nostalgie. Another California brandy-based walnut liqueur, Napa Valley's Nocino della Cristina, has also won rave reviews. Although
nocino
is intended to be sipped on its own as an after-dinner drink or poured over ice cream, bartenders also serve it in coffee drinks or in cocktails that call for spicy, nutty liqueurs.