Hello Everyone. The Apothecary is now open!! After a few false starts, over cogitation and Type A anxiety and jitters, we have decided just to get it up and running. The ordering and payment options are really basic right now so that we can see if there is actual interest in our products. Once we get some orders and feel confident with sales, we will look into more E-commerce options. There are a few tweaks to take care of but for all intents and purposes, The Apothecary is open.
Tag Archives: Beginnings are delicate times.
Munchkin and Gnome's Guide to Elixir Tasting.
We are doing an Elixir Tasting for 15 people at Cotton Tree lodge tonight. So, whilst waiting for the appointed time (it will be a late night) I thought it would be the perfect time to talk about how we have devised a system to taste Elixirs (or Liqueurs).
The purpose of Our Elixir Tastings is to create an experience which allows people to expand and quantify on their olfactory and taste senses by taking them through a flight of various liqueurs.
Gnome usually goes through the history and background, expanding on the use of this beverage as a medicine. He talks about the four ingredients which include alcohol,sugar,water and flavouring. Basically, any material which is aromatic, coloured and medicinal makes up the fourth component and examples of this are fruit, herbs or flowers.
My part is to take the tasters through the journey of “eye”, “nose” and “mouth”.
The “eye” component includes the colour and the clarity. I always like to emphasize the importance of the clearness of the liquid because it represents time and dedication in the making process. We allow our Elixirs to clear naturally by gravity and we take the time to let all the sediment settle down to the bottom. The clear liquid is siphoned out of its vessel and left to sit again and the racking process is performed on a monthly basis until clarity is achieved. It usually takes about 12 months to get to crystal clearness and in a few cases, this perfect visual appearance is never reached, despite our conscientious methods. The next step is the swirling of the glass to see the “legs” of the liqueur which gives an indication of the sugar content of the drink. High sugar content is shown by wider legs and a tendency for the liquid to cling to side of the glass and travel slowly back down to the bottom.
Next, is the assessment of the “nose” component which I feel is actually the most important part of the tasting because the human olfactory system is very sensitive and has the ability to separate and sense hundreds of different smells. Compare this to the human taste system which can only detect 5 components (sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami). The inhalation of the liqueur will give an idea of smell and the actual exhalation combines the flavour component.
Usually at this point, everyone gets twitchy because they want to start drinking so I try to speed it along to the taste experience. This part involves explaining the intricacies of “mouth-feel” and making people think about texture and taste. Usually, this is guzzling time but tonight I am going to do something different and request that they hold the tasting in their mouth for a few seconds, in order to saturate the taste buds, before swallowing.
And so tonight, I have chosen the following Elixirs for tasting: Lemongrass, Limecello, Passion Fruit, Cacao Fruit, Balam (Mayan White Cacao), Culantro, Suriname Cherry and Roselle (Sorrel).
Gnome is also going through a timed series of various fermentation products to emphasize the importance of time required in reaching the full potential of a mature final product. Also, there will a bit on bitters if we can fit it in…
Phew…hope everyone enjoys themselves tonight!!
Uploading Old Articles and the like.
Gnome:
Weather not as labile as yesterday.
General Ambient Mood (GAM): Lunacy at full power, chaos reigns supreme. It is a good day for soap, fermenting, doing repetitive things, mushrooms, plants and essentially staying away from trouble.
Today is good if you like reading about mushrooms and plants, uploaded many of our old published articles…enjoy if you have the time:
From me:
- The Paddy Straw Mushroom in the Library, new Section: Mushrooms.
- Corn Smut in the Library.
- Schizophylum comune or Split Gill in the Library.
- Observations of the Wild Edible Mushrooms of Stann Creek and Toledo District in the Library.
- The Oyster Mushrooms in the Library.
- The Stinkhorn Mushroom in the Library.
From Munchkin:
- The Belize “Green Pea,” in the Library.
- Grow Your Own Heirloom Seeds in the Library, new Section: Plant Descriptions and Plant Related.
- Tobacco, in the Library.
- Five Acres of Coconuts and Security in the Library.
- Observations of Sour Peach in the Library.
- Venison and Tangerine with Peach Palm Flowers served with Sweet Potato Greens in Belize Wild Recipes.
- Tangerine Zest Bread in Belize Wild Recipes.
- Ramen Noodles with Meat and Greens in Belize Wild Recipes.
The amount of energy it takes is amazing to move this much information. Did not have time to finish How to Die in Belize.
G’day.
Today’s Work So Far.
Gnome: Today: It’s Guy Fawkes today. Don’t have fireworks and can’t burn the mattress yet. Watch V instead, for consolation.
- Deliveries and town, great fun.
- More media up-loaded.
- More general, obsessive, messing around…
- Wrote Fuel Additives in the Library.
- Added to Acknowledgements.
- Started on How To Die in Belize in the Library.
- Weather is labile.
- General Ambient Mood (GAM): Mildly Lunatic but still efficient.
November 4, 2014.
Gnome:
A day for setting things up. The change-log for the site today would be:
- Wrote up and set up hierarchy for pages.
- Tried to get pictures sorted out…not quite yet.
- Get into the habit of posting things; wrote first post.
- Sorted out domain name.
- Uploaded more pictures for Munchkin.
- Added some of the links.
Not ready yet to include the day…did make a batch of soap, incidentally but will get to such things in the future.
Munchkin:
We made a batch of chocolate artisan soap together; gnome did all the mixing whilst I assisted with the weighing of chocolate powder and cut-up soap pieces. This type of soap is what I call a “Soap Story” which includes odds and ends of old soap, cut up into pieces, which is mixed into a back-ground of opaque (in this case, chocolate) soap. Each soap we make has a “story” or a “description” as you will see later in more detailed blogs and so the visual appearance of these soaps end up as “soaps within soaps” or metaphorically speaking: “stories within stories”.
If my shop were working…this is where I would send you.
I weeded the vegetable beds today and also took the opportunity to gather the greens for eating today. See below, a huge basin of green leaves which are weighed exclusively for this blog: 420g ie. close to a pound in uncooked greens. Earlier, I marinated chicken breast with soya sauce, yellow ginger, cumin and salt in preparation for an “indian-style” fried chicken on a bed of steamed greens. No carbohydrates tonight.
The greens which I picked today is a vegetable known as “Avuvo” in Nigeria. The seeds were given to me a couple of years ago by a lady who wanted to start a pilot project on growing Nigerian vegetables in Belize with a view to an export market in the US. I had been given a plethora of seeds, perhaps about a dozen including vegetable greens, many types of egg plants and hot chillies. Since then, only two plants have survived: one is the Avuvo and the other is a domesticated type of Purslane. I will write more about purslane another time. Avuvo tastes like a spinach and produces a spiked “teasel-like” flower; it grows prolifically like a weed and takes over everything! That’s why I love it so much because it requires very little maintenance and the leaves remain pristine as no bugs seem to eat it. Contrast this with the callaloo here in Belize which is usually riddled with holes.
Below is a picture of our Meal of The Day:
Contrary to popular opinion there is an art to cooking fried chicken even although it is seen as major junk-food in this country. The chicken is removed from the marinade and dusted with white flour. Have a heavy cast iron skillet ready with vegetable oil filled up to 3 millimeters depth; put the flame on a medium to high heat and brown each side of the chicken. Then, turn down to the lowest flame and cook chicken for 10 minutes (may take less or more time depending on thickness of breast). About 2 minutes prior to this, flip the chicken over so that it is evenly browned on both sides. Drain on paper towels before serving. Steam the greens for 1-2 minutes and arrange on plate with the fried chicken. This goes well with a glass of mead (we make this too!!!).
If you wanted the recipe…I would send you here.