Drinks with Sugar Snap Peas

There are those of you out there who know of my current obsession: peas. Peas are the new mint! Here's why:

I started some research last year prior to a visit to Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans on odorant compounds and Odor Activity Values (OAV) (i.e., the things that make drinks, wine and food smell and taste good) and found that peas share a lot of similar odorant compounds as whisk(e)ys and cognacs. However, since pea season ended right after making this discover, I had to sit on a number of recipes. Here's my first recipe last year with peas:

Green Kathy
1 1/2 oz. whiskey (I used Suntory Yamazaki, 12 yr. )
2 oz. sugar snap pea juice
1/2 oz. simple syrup
1/4 oz. lemon juice

Shake and strain into chilled glass.

The first recipe is a drink I created for the guys at The Violet Hour. They asked if I'd like to go on a distillery tour at North Shore Distillery with the crew last Monday. I had a great time. Derek and Sonja Kassebaum were hospitable and great as always. The picture taken above was of the Violet Hour crew and me with the Kassebaum's 250L pot still.

Anyway, as a thank you to those at The Violet Hour, I decided to take my base pea recipe ('Green Kathy') and tweak it to make my first bacon bourbon. I made the drink (enough for 5 - 6 people), put it in a cryo-vac bag and brought to the guys last Saturday.

Twenty Beds
1 1/2 oz. bacon bourbon
2 oz. sugar snap pea juice
1/2 oz. simple syrup
1/4 oz. lemon juice

Shake and strain into a chilled glass.

MOTO'S Mike Ryan was the first person in Chicago I knew of who made bacon bourbon back in 2006. And given that there are a number of people in town making bacon bourbon (e.g., Adam Seger, Peter Vestinos, et al.), I decided to stay away and do things with duck fat, et al. However, in thinking of ways to add depth to my base pea drink, I decided to throw in the towel.

I settled on Ancient Age because of it's taste and price. I added 6 oz./wt. cooked bacon to a liter of bourbon in a bag. Infused under sous vide at 173.8 F for approximately 1 1/2 hours. Strained and froze. Strained again and bottled.

The next drink was an entry to Hennessy VSOP's recent cocktail competition. This drink seeks to have the peas subtly highlight the cognac in a dry, aperitif cocktail (which was a contest stipulation). Despite timing issues during my round (none of us finished within the alloted five minutes), I think the drink turned out great.

Dismissed Pea
2 oz. Hennessy VSOP
3/4 oz. 10 Cane rum
1/2 oz. pineapple juice
1/4 oz. grapefruit juice
2 - 3 sugar snap pea pods

Muddle pea pods with pineapple and grapefruit juices. Add cognac and rum and sharply shake and strain into chilled glass. Garnish with pea tendrils.