Edible Drinks: Turning Fruit Scraps into Cocktail Magic
Photos by Michael Piazza / Styled by Catrine Kelty
When Forage—a Cambridge bistro dedicated to local ingredients and seasonality—opened in 2016, then-bar manager Joe Choiniere considered a choice most barkeeps wouldn’t dream of: leaving citrus off the menu.
“I never order something just to have at the bar,” he says. “The citrus is the one thing, and it was an issue when we first opened.”
The team debated whether their farm-to-table concept could include fruits that would have to be sourced from Florida, California or even Central or South America. In the end, a focus on customer satisfaction won the day.
“It just became an issue of, ‘Are we here to prove a point, or are we here to make diners happy?’” Choiniere says. “The idea of not doing citrus was just a non-starter for us.”
Forage did give in to using lemons and limes, but their team would approach the nonlocal citrus the way they did all their ingredients: with a nose-to-tail ethos pushing food waste as close to zero as possible.
“If we have a waste product, we figure out a way to use it; nothing’s garbage until there’s no flavor left in it,” Choiniere says.
One example is a burnt lime syrup created by Forage Chef Eric Cooper, which combines lime juice with sugar at a high heat to stretch the ingredient’s shelf life from one day to up to 30.
“This is one of the more effective uses we get out of something that’s essentially a waste product. Because lime is such an unstable product, after we juice it fresh it’s only around for a day,” Choiniere says. “We use [lime juice] in place of water to make an invert sugar. In an invert sugar, you are basically restructuring the crystalline components of a sugar to make this hyper-viscous and really intense liquid. It involves heating it for a very long time, caramelizing some of the sugars and the lime. It also makes it shelf stable, so you won’t have to refrigerate it. In fact, it’s so thick at this point that if you do refrigerate it you won’t be able to get it out of the jar.”
This long-lasting syrup becomes a key ingredient in the punily named “Suze Your Illusion II,” where it’s combined with Suze, Benedictine, orange bitters and a bourbon produced by Sheffield’s Berkshire Mountain Distillers.
The burnt lime syrup can also be used to create a key component for an entirely different drink. By combining two parts of burnt lime syrup to one part roughly chopped ginger, you’ve suddenly got a burnt lime and ginger syrup on your hands. Combine that with blended scotch in a rocks glass rinsed with smoky Islay scotch, and it’s Forage’s riff on the classic Penicillin cocktail, dubbed Lover’s Ghost at the restaurant.
It’s not just the juice of the lime that gets an extra lease on life. The peels can be used to create an oleo saccharum, a traditional cocktail ingredient produced by covering citrus peels with sugar to extract their fragrant oils.
“You will have tons of waste when you’re making citrus juice. It’s peels galore and finding a use for those is difficult,” Choiniere says. “But this is a great opportunity, because there’s a lot of citrus oil in those peels. Before juicing we peel the limes and use sugar to extract their oils. You end up with a syrup that’s super intense and has no water … because of that it has an unctuousness that’s not at all in regular syrup and you get all of that lime flavor as well.”
For an extra element of flavor, Choiniere uses maple sugar to create a maple-lime oleo saccharum that finds use in his Quissett Road cocktail. This Manhattan variant relies on two rums produced by Ipswich’s Privateer Distilling as its spirit base: Privateer Amber Rum and the grassy, overproof Très Aromatique, both of which are enhanced by the oleo.
“Lime and maple is something we’ve played around with quite a bit as a flavor combination. It just seems to play into the rum really nicely,” he says.
The Forage team has found clever ways to utilize citrus scraps, but the most effective method to prevent citrus waste might be to avoid using citrus in the first place. To that end, Choiniere has explored local alternatives with an acidic kick.
“We do bring in and rely on things like vinegars and other local ingredients to create acid to use in cocktails. So of all the bar programs I’ve ever led we use the least amount of citrus by leaps and bounds,” he says.
One substitute is the Dolgo apple, a crabapple that’s less intensely tart yet acidic enough to sub in for lime juice in a cocktail. In the Alpha Dolgo Sour, Dolgo apple slices are used to infuse both a vodka and a simple syrup before being dehydrated for use as a garnish. The drink also calls for Dolgo apple juice and an apple pulp cider vinegar created with the leftover pulp from the juicing process and a high-quality apple cider vinegar (that same solution is used to create the nonalcoholic Apple Switchel as well).
Using the following recipes, you can try your hand at Choiniere’s methods to re-purpose your own fruit scraps, but if there’s a single lesson he’d like you to absorb, it’s “save.”
“The one thing I would suggest is that you save everything. If you have something that’s left over, taste it. And if it has something that’s worth using, then find a use for it.”
This story appeared in the Winter 2020 issue.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The best way to approach the following recipes is as a project with a payoff; making only one or two of these cocktails will miss the point a bit. We recommend spending a weekend morning building all the lime, ginger and apple syrup components, creating storable “pantry staples” for the home bar. The magic here for most amateur mixologists will be to expand their skillset building a custom cocktail cabinet, bringing the nose-to-tail ethos to fruits, vegetables and happy hour.
Here's why: The waste created when making the Burnt Lime Syrup from Suze Your Illusion II is used in all the other lime-based concoctions. The lime rinds flavor the Maple-Lime Oleo Saccharum. The lime pulp goes into the Ginger-Lime Molasses Syrup, as does the ginger pulp strained out of the Burnt Lime and Ginger Syrup.
The Apple Sour cocktail functions in much the same way: Apple slices you’ve infused in vodka for a week then go into hot simple syrup for another three-day bath. Once you’ve strained the apples from the syrup, they’re blended into a pulp to sweeten the Apple Pulp Cider Vinegar, used both in the Sour as well as the Molasses Apple Switchel. Each component utilizes ingredients from the last, leaving you in the end with a small amount of well-depleted waste to send to the compost bucket.
The drinks themselves are easy; it’s the prep that requires some time and attention to detail. But, if all this sounds too complicated, quench your thirst at the Forage bar where current bar manager Katrina Valenti mixes innovative cocktails Monday through Saturday, 5–10:30pm. Or follow former bar manager (and creator of these recipes) Joe Choiniere’s Instagram feed, preventing food waste one locally sourced, innovative cocktail at a time. Forage’s bar menu changes regularly and reflects the seasons.
recipes
SUZE YOUR ILLUSION II
The first iteration of this cocktail, made in different proportions with straight lime juice, was named for the Guns N’ Roses album Use Your Illusion I. The fact that Guns N’ Roses released a companion album entitled Use Your Illusion II made a sequel cocktail inevitable.
Makes 1 cocktail
1½ ounces Berkshire Bourbon Whiskey
½ ounce Suze
½ ounce Burnt Lime Syrup (recipe follows)
½ ounce Benedictine
2 dashes Regan’s Orange Bitters lime peel, for garnish
Add all ingredients to a cocktail glass filled with ice and shake until chilled. Double-strain into a coupe glass and garnish with lime peel.
BURNT LIME SYRUP
Essentially a simple syrup made with lime juice in place of water, the hard boil transforms the acidic citrus into something more mellow and caramelized. Getting the juice-sugar mixture to the correct temperature and consistency takes time and patience: Watch the pan carefully and regularly insert an instant-read thermometer to check your progress. Big bubbles will form and subside and then form again. Persevere, attain 235°F and enjoy this unique ingredient in cocktails year-round.
Makes about 2 cups
2 cups lime juice (about 15–16 limes, reserve pulp and peels)
2 cups sugar
Juice limes and strain, pressing the pulp into a fine-mesh strainer with the back of a spoon to extract all the juice. Reserve pulp for Ginger-Molasses Lime Syrup and save peels for Maple-Lime Oleo Saccharum. Add all ingredients to a saucepan and bring to a boil. Continue to heat until mixture reaches 235°F. This will take longer than you think—use an instant-read or candy thermometer. Remove from heat immediately, pour into a heat-proof container and seal. Set aside 1 cup syrup to make Burnt Lime and Ginger Syrup. Do not chill or refrigerate. Keeps about 1 month.
LOVER'S GHOST
This Penicillin variant was created to make the most of the fresh ginger Forage receives from Old Friends Farm in Amherst, but regular root ginger from the grocery store works just as well. To minimize waste at the restaurant, an atomizer is used to rinse the glass with Islay scotch but you can skip that step at home and simply shake the scotch with the syrup and strain.
Makes 1 cocktail
2 ounces blended scotch
1 ounce Burnt Lime and Ginger Syrup (recipe follows)
Islay scotch, for rinse
Coat the inside of an old-fashioned glass with Islay scotch using an atomizer, optional. Add all ingredients to a shaker filled with ice and double-strain into an old-fashioned glass.
BURNT LIME AND GINGER SYRUP
You’ll be reserving the ginger pulp after straining to make the Ginger-Lime Molasses Syrup. But what of the peels? See note below for bonus waste-reducing ideas.
Makes about 1 cup (plus 2 tablespoons ginger pulp)
1 cup reserved Burnt Lime Syrup
½ cup fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped, peels reserved
Add all ingredients to a blender and blend until puréed. Gently strain out mixture, reserving ginger pulp for molasses ginger syrup.
Note on the ginger peels: Add ¼–½ cup peels to 2–3 cups of water and bring to a boil; simmer 30 minutes. Strain and chill. Now you have a potent, spicy ginger broth to cure what ails you this winter: Heat with lemon juice and honey and drink at the first sign of a cold. Or use as yet another cocktail component, stirring equal parts ginger broth, vodka and simple syrup over ice. And if you need an easy, back-pocket soup recipe, simmer 6 chopped carrots and 2 cloves garlic in 2 cups ginger broth until tender, season with salt and pepper and blend—you’ll have a nourishing, warming vegan soup in minutes.
QUISSETT ROAD
This rum-based Manhattan riff is named in honor of Quissett Hill Farm in Mendon which supplies Forage with its maple sugar (Choiniere also enjoys their maple syrup). Privateer Amber Rum is widely available, but Très Aromatique has a more limited distribution. If you cannot locate the spirit, a French Caribbean rhum agricole can be used in its place.
Makes 1 cocktail
¾ ounces Privateer Très Aromatique Pot Stilled Overproof Rum
¾ ounces Privateer True Amber American Rum
½ ounce sweet vermouth
½ ounce Maple-Lime Oleo Saccharum (recipe follows)
2 dashes Angostura bitters Luxardo cherry, for garnish
Add all ingredients to a stirring glass filled with ice. Stir until chilled, then strain into a Nick and Nora glass (small stemmed cocktail glass). Garnish with Luxardo cherry.
MAPLE-LIME OLEO SACCHARUM
Essentially an uncooked syrup infused with the oils of citrus rind, this Oleo Saccharum recipe can be recreated with oranges, grapefruit or lemons for use in many cocktails—save your citrus peels and make a batch in each flavor. Don’t have access to granulated maple sugar? Make this easy syrup with cane sugar instead.
Makes about 1 cup
Peels of 16 limes (from the limes used to make the Burnt Lime and Ginger Syrup)
1 cup granulated maple or cane sugar
5 tablespoons near-boiling water
Toss peels in sugar until they are covered completely. Let mixture stand at room temperature for 24 hours. Rinse peels with near-boiling water until all sugar is dissolved. Strain liquid and bottle. Keeps about 2 weeks, refrigerated.
APPLE SOUR
Forage uses Dolgo crabapples for this drink and gets them from local foragers and Buckle Farm in Unity, Maine. Choiniere suggests contacting an orchard directly during the short season if you’re interested in using this wild fruit. Out of season you can substitute with an apple mix consisting of 2 parts Granny Smith apples to 1 part McIntosh. The drink is shaken three times—twice dry and once with ice—to create a frothy, meringue-like head.
Makes 1 cocktail
1½ ounces Apple-Infused Vodka (recipe follows)
½ ounce fresh apple cider
½ ounce Apple Simple Syrup (recipe follows)
½ ounce Apple Pulp Cider Vinegar (recipe follows)
¼ ounce Becherovka (or another amaro or bitter liqueur like Cynar, Averna or Montenegro)
1 egg white
dehydrated apple chips, for garnish
Peychaud’s bitters, for garnish
Add all ingredients to a shaker without ice and dry shake for 15 seconds to combine. Add ice, then shake for an additional 45 seconds. Single-strain mixture into the other half of your strainer, dump ice and then shake again without ice for 15 seconds. Pour directly into a large coupe glass and garnish with dehydrated apple chips and a few drops of Peychaud’s bitters.
APPLE-INFUSED VODKA
This intriguing ingredient is essential to the Apple Sour but is equally nice blended with a dash of any of the lime syrups included in this story, topped with soda water over ice—takes the generic vodka-soda-lime to a whole new level.
Makes about 2 cups
3 cups apple slices, sliced thin, skin-on (a combination of Granny Smith and McIntosh apples)
2 cups vodka
Add apple slices to a 1-quart Mason jar and cover with vodka before sealing and refrigerating for 1 week. Strain apple slices, reserving them for Apple Simple Syrup. Keeps indefinitely if refrigerated.
APPLE SIMPLE SYRUP
As you’ll be using the vodka-infused apples from the previous recipe to perfume this syrup, remember that a trace of alcohol will remain so it’s not a good choice for kids or those avoiding booze. But it is a nice change from maple syrup or honey drizzled over Greek yogurt with granola or to sweeten a steaming hot cup of ginger tea.
Makes about 2 cups
2 cups cane sugar
2 cups filtered water
2 cups vodka-infused apple slices (reserved from previous recipe)
Bring sugar and water to a boil; simmer until all sugar has dissolved. Pack vodka-infused apple slices into a 1-quart Mason jar and pour the hot syrup over. Seal and cool before refrigerating. After 3 days, strain out apple slices and reserve 1 cup to make Apple Pulp Cider Vinegar. Syrup keeps about 2 weeks, refrigerated. Keeps indefinitely if refrigerated.
APPLE PULP CIDER VINEGAR
The “sour” in the Apple Sour, you can use this sweetened cider vinegar as the base for any vinaigrette, to add a gentle sharpness to vegetable soups or stews or as a supplement to fruit smoothies.
Makes about ½ cup
1 cup syrup-infused apple slices, reserved from making Apple Simple Syrup
½ cup high-quality local apple cider vinegar
Add all ingredients to a 1-quart Mason jar and allow mixture to sit for 1 week. Strain off solids and allow mixture to rest 1 week before using. Keeps about 1 month, refrigerated.
MOLASSES APPLE SWITCHEL (ZERO-PROOF)
Choiniere created this zero-proof “super Yankee” cocktail with the ginger left over from making the Lover’s Ghost. The switchel is an artifact from colonial times, when farmhands would be given a sweetened, lightly alcoholic cider to drink during the harvest.
Makes 1 drink
1 ounce Apple Pulp Cider Vinegar
1 ounce Ginger-Lime-Molasses Syrup (recipe follows)
sparkling water
dehydrated apple chip, for garnish
Add Apple Pulp Cider Vinegar and Ginger-Lime-Molasses Syrup to a rocks glass. Fill glass with ice and top off with soda water. Garnish with single apple chip.
GINGER-LIME-MOLASSES SYRUP
Keep a jar of this spicy black liquid in your fridge and add to plain sparkling water for a vaguely gingerbread-scented non-alcoholic soda.
Makes about 1 cup
2 tablespoons brown sugar
¼ cup molasses
½ cup water reserved lime pulp from Burnt Lime Syrup (see recipe above)
reserved ginger pulp from Burnt Lime and Ginger Syrup (see recipe above)
Add all ingredients to a saucepan and bring to a simmer. After 10 minutes, strain and bottle. Refrigerate. Keeps about 2 weeks.