Other Fun Stuff!

These are just random other fun things I like to do and wanted to showcase!

Cocktails

I really enjoy making fun cocktails. These are some of my favorite creations thus far.

This is a gin and tonic from The Aviary’s cocktail book. It uses gin, tonic, and green chartreuse for the drink itself, with homemade cucumber popping boba.

This is another one from The Aviary cocktail book, the Jungle Bird. It’s layers of pineapple juice, campari, white rum, and dark rum, with rum infused popping boba bubbles suspended on the border between the campari and white rum.

This was inspired by S1 E6 of Drink Masters on Netflix–I learned that there are ways to make “caviar” out of any cocktail! This one is a deconstructed espresso martini, comprised of vanilla vodka jelly with coffee caviar.

Another caviar cocktail–this was my first sucessful experiment with the technique. The bubbles are comprised of white rum, strawberry syrup, and lime.

Here’s one I call “The Big Caper”. It’s a riff on a Mojito–white rum, tonic water, lime, sugar, and orange-mint caviar. The end result looks a lot like a jar of capers, which I thought was super fun.

This was my second time making the Aviary’s gin and tonic, but with a slight twist. The gin is infused with butterfly pea flower tea to turn it blue-violet, and then layered on top of the drink. As the drink is mixed, the acidity of the drink causes the gin to change colors from blue-violet to pink-lilac.

Coffee

I first really got into coffee while studying abroad in Japan! My host family founded Kariomons Coffee Roasters, so I had a great experience learning to appreciate coffee while staying with them. My favorite coffee shop in Pittsburgh is Redhawk Coffee; I have yet to find a cafe with a better espresso.

Gallery

Setup

I’m using a Niche Zero grinder with a Fellow Stagg EKG for my coffee. For espresso drinks, I use a Cafelat Robot with the Subminimal Nanofoamer.