April 1, 2020
Brooklyn Crafted Extra Spicy Ginger Beer | A Review
My wife subscribed to Shaker & Spoon Cocktail Club which sends boxes periodically full of everything you would need, besides the spirit, to create specialty drinks, intricate stuff like a mixologist might prepare. In it might be found produce, herbs, bitters or syrups. The ingredients usually strike as unusual and creative, the product of a vivid imagination. One such box arrived, a rum box full of fascinating stuff including Brooklyn Crafted Extra Spicy Ginger Beer.
The small green bottle contains seven ounces and is wrapped in a label looking like textured paper torn across the bottom to reveal a bright orange region. The logo gives the impression of a stencil and features a cluster of tightly-packed buildings and a squared-off typeface. A fair amount of negative space surrounds it, drawing and steadying the eye. It all looks hand-crafted, a positive impression.
In addition to the typical carbonated water: cane sugar, ginger, ginger extract and citric acid. Not many ingredients and no fluff. 70 calories lurk within, translating to 120 for 12 ounces.
The instructions sent by Shaker and Spoon guided the creation of a cocktail called a Bajan Kiss, an elevated version of a beloved Barbados drink, the Corn ‘n Oil. Dreamed up by Paul Yellin, it calls for:
2oz aged rum
1oz falernum syrup
1/2oz scotch bonnet-sea salt syrup
1/2oz lime juice
1/2oz ginger beer
1 dash Angostura bitters
coconut water
After the drinks stood prepared on the bar, plenty of ginger beer remained for sampling. The cloudy liquid smells of sweet, earthy ginger as a healthy dose of sediment drifts beneath the surface. The flavor development happens quickly. A swift note of sweetness arrives followed closely by an ascending earthy ginger. Then at the end of the progression, the heat hits hard right in the back of the throat and underscores, nearly but not quite shouting down, a finish of sweet ginger. The heat is formidable, and lasting, and could scare off some unsuspecting drinkers but it never reaches a scalding level and plays well with the ginger and sweetness.
Brooklyn Crafted has brewed a well-tuned ginger beer for those seeking a fiery twist on the drink. The heat is regulated, set to thrill without overwhelming, to accentuate the primary duo of ginger and sweetness without hogging the spotlight for itself. Indeed, that’s not an easy task but it’s been well sorted here.
Final Decision: Second Tier – Alluring
Purchased at: It came in a Shaker & Spoon box. | Available online at: Brooklyn Food & Beverage in 7oz and 12oz bottles.
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