The Aspall Cyder Match- Molecular Cocktails, Gastronomy and Cyder Tasting

The Cocktails Ponders of Mis Bella Rouge

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What an adventure I have had over the past few months.

Teaming up with Aspall Suffolk Cyder to create an event like no other has been one of the most challenging things I have undertaken.

  The Aspall Cyder Match

The Aspall Cyder match was set to intrigue and dazzle guests with weird and wonderful textures and sensations, achieved through tasting the wonderful Aspall cyder range, alongside Minchelan star Canapes and Molecular mixology and gastronomy.

For those of you unfamiliar with the term ‘Molecular mixology’ it simply refers to the use of science and food grade enzymes and agents that produce a different texture or effect when mixed with food items. This in turn creates unusual mouth feel sensations and wonderful taste and texture surprises. Think Heston Blumenthal...

With influences like Heston Blumenthal and Tony Conigliaro in the modern imbibing world its easy to believe that the scientific side of mixology and bartending is out of reach for us average joes. This is not the case!

The agents I used to create the Aspall Cyder Match menu were from a variety of explanatory website that even hosts videos to show you how to use the items you buy.

As Molecular bartending takes off on the on trade level, its nice to see that it’s catching the publics attention. Events such as the Cyder Match are there to make this wonderful creativity and passion known to everyone.

Even the Daily Mail has caught on... 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2229553/Watch-Heston-Here-comes-molecular-mixology.html

I spent a good month planning my menu, tasting the cyders and studying the array of flavour on the back bar to make a map in my mind of how the flavours could work together. This believe it or not is actually how I tend to think about flavour, like a big illuminated back bar full of bottles that when put together in different quantities, make something totally different.  I suppose this is what i'm used to.

Over a week or so I took to experimentation and the trial and error period of the whole process was thrilling. Why didn’t some things work and what could I do about it?

Here is the Cyder Match Menu...the final version.

  

Rhubarb Cuvee

Aspall Cuvee with a spoonful of Rhubarb Pearls

Created with a home blended Rhubarb, Radish, Vanilla and Rhuby Liqueur

CUVEE

Hennessey XO Brandy, Aspall Premier Cru, Pepper and Pickle Slices

Served on Crushed Butter Digestives with Applewood Smoked Cheddar

PREMIER CRU

Roast Creedy Carver Duck Breast with sliced apple chutney and hazelnuts

Pickled Purple Cauliflower with Goats Curd

HARRY SPARROW

Miniature Cyder Negroni

No3 London Dry Gin, Campari, Aperol, Antica Formula, Home Brewed Chinchona and Cassia Tonic Syrup, topped with Cryo-Juiced Cucumber and Aspall Organic Cyder Foam.

ORGANIC

Devonshire Crab with lemon oil and pickled Apple

Beetroot cured salmon with saffron mayonnaise

FESTIVAL OF BRITTEN

Roast Scallops with Chorizo and basil oil

DRAUGHT

Suffolk Delights

Aspall Peronelle’s Blush, Cherry Heering, Home Made Breakfast Tea Vodka, Kamm and Sons Ginseng Spirit and a touch of sugar. Coated in rich chocolate, dusted with freeze dried raspberriy crumbles and popping candy.

Frosted shots of Rhubarb, vanilla and Peronelle’s Blush. Served with Redcurrant floats.

PERONELLE’S BLUSH

With a rather large menu the event lasted over 3 hours, which actually flew by! Each course designed to excite and tantalise the tastebuds, whilst complimenting the ciders.

Without a shadow of a doubt the favourite Cyder of the evening was Harry Sparrow, a gorgeous ‘every day’ cyder which has proven to be more popular than the original draught.

At Circo we have just taken it on Kegs and its doing very well. A great lightness and balanced texture thats not too sweet or sharp. Just right!

Barry Chevallier- Guild

To present the Cyders, Barry Chevallier-Guild the owner of Aspall Cyder (along with his brother) and Nathan Sloane, and Jake Nickell too. The Cyder Trio of legends!

Whilst I spoke in depth about the molecular elements and the creation and innovation behind them, the gents stepped in to dissect each cyder and examine its flavour in depth. I can honestly say I learnt more about cider in those three hours than ever before, and the passion that Barry has in particular is humbling. His grandmother was Lady Peronelle, and the Blush cider is named after her rather rosy cheeks (Perhaps from a few too many ciders!), and the whole range is crafted from hundreds of years of tradition and family history. I tried to bear this in mind when going through the menu, keeping things as structured and simple as possible to ensure the flavour of the ciders shone and balanced the other flavours.

Heres a quick delve into the way each element was created:

Rhubarb Cuvee

Aspall Cuvee with a spoonful of Rhubarb Pearls

Created with a home blended Rhubarb, Radish, Vanilla and Rhuby Liqueur

As the Cuvee is a celebratory champagne like Cyder I thought it should be decadent and fun. By creating these spheres that float and bob inside the flute its like jewels that sit inside your drink, that are surprisingly squidy and burst in the mouth. Last year I took part in the Rhuby Pink your Drink competiton as part of London cocktail Week and the focus of this gorgeous Swedish Liqueur is also grounded in its history and roots, as well as its organic, natural and ethereal nature. I wanted to extend the theme and use it in this drink. From the competition I knew only too well how fantastically Rhuby goes with Prosecco (Rhuby Fizz...i may have had a few too many) and the larger bubbles ensure the flavour of the rhubarb is not lost amongst the grape notes as it may be with champagnes. The Cuvee was the perfect match for Rhuby and the sweet notes from the liqueur offset the citrus and tangy apple. By blending fresh rhubarb with some radishes I was able to create a gorgeous jus which I then strained through coffee filters (I wish I had the fancy equipment Tony C and Blumenthal have..but hey im on a budget!) By straining out the fiberous elements I obtained an essence of rhubarb and radish that could easily be used for sperification. I wanted the mouth feel to be silky and smooth, almost frogspawn like without the slime. A sumptuous caviar feel- without the strong fishy taste! By adding vanilla essence I was able to round the sweetness with an earthy feel. All in all it tasted so fabulous and every so often this little pop in your mouth gave wonderful aromas of home baked rhubarb crumble!

To create pearls  of all flavours see this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6FUuxcPoQw

Hennessey XO Brandy, Aspall Premier Cru, Pepper and Pickle Slices

Served on Crushed Butter Digestives with Applewood Smoked Cheddar and candied Granny Smith Slices

Anyone who knows me well knows I LOVE a bit of home baking, given a day off you can usually find me covered in flour and egg trying hopelessly to create cupcakes and pavlovas for any event that’s happening. So I had to try to make my own digestive biscuits to go with this gorgeously delicate smoked cheese. The biscuits were a success, even after burning a few in a pizza oven (don’t ask) and they worked perfectly as a base for the various elements that were to top them. First of all I wanted to candy some thin apple slices, an idea I got from my Assistant Manager Grant who in an in hour Aspall Cyder completion, covered apple slices in icing sugar and blow torched it to create a sticky, yummy candied apple wedge. By using a meat slicer I was able to get seriously fine sliced which I dried in the oven for half an hour. After taking them out I coated each one in icing sugar and blow torched each side. These then sat on top of the biscuits with the cheese and jelly on top.

To make the jelly slices I used AGAR AGAR which is a gelling agent that is actually found in algae and seaweed as a structural supporting element.  I blended coarse black pepper and a teaspoon of branston pickle in a micro herb chopper till it was almost paste like. I then added this to Hennessy XO Brandy, a seriously strong flavour in it’s self. I also added the Permier Cru, one of Aspalls stronger ciders that sat really well with the brandy. After bringing all of this to the boil and filtering through coffee filters  and adding some pea shoots for decoration I set it in the fridge for 15 mins to gel completely. Once set the AGAR AGAR produces a strong hard gel like texture that doesn’t produce the nicest mouth feel when its solid on its own, but alongside the soft cheese, apple and digestive it worked nicely. As the final product was rather peppery and strong tasting, I used a small amount of it to ensure the balance was right. When creating the Suffolk Delights (see bottom of the menu) I had to reduce the quantites of AGAR AGAR used and subsititute it with Gelatine to create a melt in the mouth feel, whilst being rigid enough to be coated in warm chocolate. Agar Agar doesn’t melt until 80 degrees but gelatine is different!

Roast Creedy Carver Duck Breast with sliced apple chutney and hazelnuts

Pickled Purple Cauliflower with Goats Curd

These wonderful canapé creations were created by Rob Clayton and his team. Rob is about to open Clayton’s Kitchen at The Porter in Bath, the site that the owner of Circo has just taken over. The evening was a sure fire way to showcase his Michelin star skills and boy did he wow! The intricacy of presentation is what really got me, the way the food looked was good enough, but the taste was sensational. The duck here was tender and wrapped in a ribbon of leek and a few crumbled hazelnut chunks. A gorgeous array of textures met your mouth, and then the flavour hit. Rich and sumptuous that went fantastically with the roundness of the Harry Sparrow Cyder.

                              Miniature Cyder Negroni

No3 London Dry Gin, Campari, Aperol, Antica Formula, Home Brewed Chinchona and Cassia Tonic Syrup, topped with Cryo-Juiced Cucumber and Aspall Organic Cyder Foam.

This drink was by far the funnest part of the evening for me. Not only is the Negroni my all time favourite tipple but using funky new techniques to create an drink that blew people away made me feel incredible!

My love affair with No3 Gin was the base of this concoction. Not only have I competed in competitions with No3 but I even won a comp at Imbibe live this year with it...more on that later. To me No3 depicts everything great with a gin, it appeals to my hardened taste receptors that like the taste of strong alcohols and bitter savoury twangs, so naturally, to create the ultimate Negroni I had to use it. Not only would it sit perfectly with the Campari and Aperol, but it wouldn’t distract form the sweetness of the Antica Formula. From the No3 Comp in Bristol a few months back I created a home made Cinchona and Cassia Bark Tonic Syrup, as I had some of this left I thought it only fit to use its unique home brewed bitterness and citrus punch to steady savoury tones of the foam. The foam was a real triumph for me and I squealed like a fan girl when I watched it appear like a glossy mr whippy from the soda siphon. To make the foam I cryo juiced 2 cucumbers ( a process I read about from Kevin Liu’s Craft Cocktails At Home) which involved freezing and thawing at different stages to produce a clear juice. This juice was gorgeous and I want to use it in everything I do! I’m already thinking about creating a cucumber tonic water that would pair nicely with Hendricks, or even a coconutty gin like Hoxton. I then matched this with Aspall Organic Cyder, using 50ml Cyro Juiced Cucumber and 300ml Cyder, Xanthane and a derivative of Cellulose which I then blended and whacked into a soda siphon, and charged with one co2 canister. Even without the siphon the foam was great just using the hand blender. It was more like an air with larger bubbles, but the siphon created a regulated, consistent texture that produced a sumptuously silky mouth feel. With this floating on top of the drink, as soon as you started to drink you are greeted with a luscious cucumber heavy foam then hit with a cold bitter and citrus of the Negroni. Stunning. We then found that it worked really well on top of the Cuvee too...perhaps something else to try out next time.

Devonshire Crab with lemon oil and pickled Apple

Beetroot cured salmon with saffron mayonnaise

                                                                            

     Roast Scallops with Chorizo and basil oil

Another selection of goodies from Rob and the team, with a fish heavy section that was designed to complement the Limited Edition Festival of Britten Cyder and the Draught Cyder too. The guys worked hard thinking of ways to cut through the strength of the Britten, as its punching well over 8% its certainly a Cyder to be consumed with some food! Sure enough these delicate yet filling canapés did the trick and brought out the best in the Draught and the Festival of Britten.

Suffolk Delights

Aspall Peronelle’s Blush, Cherry Heering, Home-Made Breakfast Tea Vodka, Kamm and Sons Ginseng Spirit and a touch of sugar. Coated in rich chocolate, dusted with freeze dried raspberry crumbles and popping candy.

Frosted shots of Rhubarb, vanilla and Peronelle’s Blush. Served with Redcurrant floats.

The Peronelle’s Blush is one of my favourites from the Aspall range, with hints of blackberry its seriously good as a desert on its own! Now although the Aspall crew say that it doesn’t go particularly well with chocolate, I wanted to prove them wrong.  so I came up with the Suffolk Delights, my take on the traditional Turkish delight but flavoured with blackberry and cherry. Everyone knows that Turkish delights are a rose heavy, highly perfumed treat. Personally, Im not too keen on the uber floral aspects in it and I thought about creating something a little more balanced and perhaps more herbal. Cherry Heering is the star of this delight with cracking herbal twangs and sweet fresh cherry scents. It reminds me of a really fresh loose earl grey tea with minor hints of rose and blossom, but fresh herbs and cherry stickiness too. This is where I then thought about the tea vodka. A few months ago an old colleague made some breakfast tea vodka, its dry, crisp and gorgeous. This then added to the herbal notes, giving it a digestive feel that cut through the sweetness of the Peronelle’s Blush.  In future I may even use Harry brompton’s London Ice tea, a new product about to storm the market with its fresh citrus bursts and gorgeous tea tannin dryness... something to try for sure! After trying it I found that a lot of the citrus had been lost, so in Kamm and Sons came...One of my favourite things on the planet! This yummy ginseng based grape fruity spirit really packs a punch and gave the finishing touch to the delight. I was always conscious of how much the chocolate coating would affect the overall flavour, there was no point in creating the gorgeous jelly inside if no one could taste it in the end.

The final product smothered in dark chocolate and covered in fizzy popping candy and freeze dried raspberry proved a texture sensation. When it fist goes in the mouth the popping begins. Popping candy is simply Sucrose, Glucose and CO2 and when it meets dampness, in this case saliva, the sugars break down revealing the enclosed co2 on the inside that ‘pops’ when released. This feels like a miniature world being attacked inside your mouth, it gets into the back of your cheek and gums and pops when you least expect it. It’s exciting and unexpected and it lasts for ages! As this feeling continues you immediately get the chocolaty coating which fades into a silky jelly, releasing the cherry, blackberry and herbal notes. It melts in your mouth with the occasional ‘pop’ and ‘crunch’ form the raspberries and popping candy.

Alongside this I had some left over rhubarb and vanilla jus from the pearls so decided to mix it with Peronelle’s Blush as a finale. Together it was placed in the freezer for an hour to produce a frosty ice crystal shot, complete with two floating redcurrants that not only gave a mega zing when chewed but also represented Lady Peronelle’s blushing cheeks too.

The event will be happening again in October as part of The Great Bath Feast 

http://www.greatbathfeast.co.uk/ i may even pull out some new recepies and try some different cyders...watch this space! 

Write up's on the Cyder Match can also be found in Bath Life and the Bath Chronicle towards the end of August

For more info follow me on twitter @bellanewman1