A sustainable focused cocktail. This cocktail itself was the one that first got me the opportunity to attend Hennessy My Way (2025). Using seasonality and using the fruit in many different ways. This drink it pushed my boundaries in what I thought I could do.
1 1/2 oz Hennessy VSOP
1/2 oz Grand Marnier Cuvee Louis Alexandre
3/4 oz Acid Adjusted Lacto Fermented Blood Orange Juice*
3/4 oz Lacto Scented Blood Orange Honey***
2 oz Osmanthus Oolong Cold Brew Tea****
Rim: Lacto Fermented Blood Orange Powder**
First rim a collins glass with the Lacto Scented Blood Orange Honey & sprinkle over Powder Mix onto the glass. Clean up the edges of the cocktail. Place Glass into the freezer for it to chill. Add all ingredients into an empty soda bottle. Squeeze the air out of the soda bottle & close the bottle with a carbonation cap. With your CO2 Tank available, ensuring that the gas is switched off connect the hose onto the carbonation cap & turn the gas on. The gauge should be set at 40PSI. Shake bottle for 30 second allowing the CO2 to bind the drink together. After 30 seconds, turn the gas off & disconnect the hose from the carbonation cap. Allow this drink to chill before opening. CO2 works best when everything is chilled. Once cocktail is chilled, release the pressure from the bottle, fill your cold glass with ice & pour cocktail into glass. Garnish with a dehydrated orange***** clipped to the side.
*Acidified Lacto Fermented Blood Orange Juice:
989g Blood Orange
400g Water
27.78g Salt
3.9g Citric acid per 100g
Fermentation 10 days
Measure out the weight of diced blood oranges & place them into a blender. Add in the water into the blender and blend the ingredients in on low until the blood oranges are a mash. With the mash fully blended, add in kosher salt into the blender and blend everything until combined. The total weight of the Kosher Salt should be 2% of the combined total weight of the blood oranges & water. Once everything is combined, place the mash into a vacuum seal bag & seal contents with a chamber sealer.
The fermentation should take 7-10 days. During that time the bag will expand from carbon dioxide. Bag may need to be burped a few times during fermentation to prevent the bag from exploding. After 10 days the fermentation is complete. Burp the bag one more time to have the mash ready for pasteurization. Place bag into sous vide bath and let it sit for 40 minutes at 145° Fahrenheit. The contents are now pasteurized & is safe for consumption.
After Lacto Fermented Blood Orange Mash has been pasteurized, have a Cambro, Muslin bag & Chinois ready for extracting the juice from the pulp. Pour the blood orange mash contents into the muslin bag with the Chinois & Cambro underneath to catch the juice. Once everything is in the muslin bag, Tie the muslin bag with butcher twine and hang the bag over top of the Cambro. The Chinois is there as a safety in case the muslin bag rips. extract out the juice from the pulp until there is not more juice left over.
The Pulp will be used as the Lacto Fermented Blood Orange Powder rim. This process will be explained further below in a different segment.
Now that you have the Lacto Fermented Blood Orange Juice extracted, next step is to adjust the ph of the blood orange juice. With PH Strips measure out the current PH of the juice. The PH of the juice should be at a PH of between 4-5. The end PH of the juice will be between 2-3. The ratio used for this juice is 3.9g of Citric Acid for every 100g of juice. Measure out 300g of Blood Orange Juice and add in the 11.7g of Citric Acid. Stir in the Citric acid until the acid is fully dissolved & the juice is ready for use. The left over juice can be used for future use.
***Lacto Scented Blood Orange Honey:
372g Blood Orange
375g Honey
375g Water
5g Green Cardamom
1 Bean Madagascar Vanilla
2% Total weight salt
Fermentation 10 days
Ratio 4:3 Lacto Honey to honey to get to 60° Brix Hot in grams
Dice the blood oranges & place into a vacuum seal bag. Combine Water & Honey together then stir the two until the ingredients are fully combined. Cut the vanilla bean into 1 inch pieces & add into the vacuum seal bag. Add in all other ingredients into Vacuum seal bag then seal the bag in a chamber sealer. Fermentation process takes up to 10 days for it to be complete. Carbon dioxide will begin to build up during this process, if the build up is too much, the fermentation will need to be burped.
As the fermentation hits 10 days burp the bag again removing any carbon dioxide and reseal. Prepare a sous vide bath set at 145° Fahrenheit, place the bag in and begin pasteurizing the Lacto Scented Honey for 40 minutes. Once 40 minutes is up remove bag from the bath, have a Cambro, Chinois & muslin bag ready to extract all the liquid out. Same process with the Lacto Fermented blood orange is being preformed. Extract all liquid out of the Lacto Scented Honey, the remaining ingredients that are left over will be further dehydrated and made into a powder.
With the liquid now extract, measure the sugar content that is in the Lacto Scented Honey. Honey will need to be reintroduced to get the Brix level to 55°. Ratio used for this process was 4:3 amount of lacto scented honey in grams to honey being reintroduced. Measure 200g of lacto scented honey into a sauce pan then add in 150g of honey. Place the sauce pan over medium heat and stir until the honey being reintroduced is fully dissolved. Measure the sugar content of the Lacto Honey, If the contents measure 60° Brix your honey is complete. Letting the honey cool down drops the Brix level to 55° which is the ideal sugar content for this ingredient.
****Osmanthus Oolong Cold Brew Tea:
8g Osmanthus Oolong Tea
2L Filtered Water
In a 2L Mason jar, place in 8g Osmanthus Oolong Tea & 2L of filtered water. Let the tea steep overnight for 12 hours. Once cold brew is ready strain out the tea leaves & Tea is now ready for use.
*****Dehydrated Blood Orange Wheel:
Cut Blood Orange Slices at roughly an 1/8″. In a dehydrator add in your Blood orange wheels and let it dehydrate over 12 hours at 140° Fahrenheit or until Blood Oranges have completely dehydrated.
**Lacto Fermented Blood Orange Powder:
Process: With the remaining pulp from the Blood Oranges, spread over the pulp on a tray & place the pulp into a dehydrator for 8 hrs at 140° Fahrenheit. Once the pulp had been dehydrated place the pulp in a spice grinder & grind until it is a fine powder.
***Lacto Scented Blood Orange Honey Powder:
The remains from the Lacto scented honey will need to be dehydrated twice. Place the contents into the dehydrator for 8hr at 140° Farhenheit. After 8hrs place the remains into a spice grinder & grind until the remains are coarse. Place the remains back into the dehydrator again for another 8hrs at the same time until it is fully dry. Once the remains are fully dry, add them into the spice grinder and grind until it is a fine powder.
Rim Mix:
Process: Weight equal parts of the Lacto fermented blood orange powder & the Lacto scented honey powder. Combine the two together and place mix into a powder sugar duster.
