Like most of the smartphone-wielding planet, my attention span these days lasts about as long as a pop rock on the tongue.
In this impulse-driven world, it’s no surprise that cocktails, too, have to compete for our attention. Many of these grabbers are visual – drinks with elaborate garnishes that make for Instagram catnip, luring customers to bars to become the 10 000th to snap a shot of the cocktail that smokes, changes colour or slaps your date when he suggests you order the salad.
Not all attention-grabbers are purely for the eyes, though. Among my favourites are drinks that keep your attention once you’ve started sipping, through flavours that evolve from your first taste to your last.
One of the best and easiest ways to do this is by getting funky with ice, a critical component of most drinks – the water for dilution, frozen to provide chill. But water isn’t the only substance that can freeze and gradually re-liquefy. By incorporating other ingredients into your ice cubes, you can create cocktails that evolve over the time they’re being consumed, warding off palate fatigue.
Ice cubes custom-frozen for a Sicilian Melt Martini.
PICTURE: Deb Lindsey for The Washington Post
You can make these cubes in a traditional ice-cube tray, but the recipe is best suited to the kind of silicon mould that makes 15 small, square ice cubes – each divot perfectly holds an olive plus the right amount of liquid.
When putting the olives in the ice moulds, you can also include a thin strip of orange or lemon zest; place it so it encircles the olive.
The Washington Post