Say Quat?

I did not realize how much I love kumquats until I dreamt up this recipe. I bought a one pound bag of the small oval sweet/tart fruits at my local farmers market, thinking I would use them in a whiskey cocktail (I still might). Since kumquats are a citrus, I figured I should make an oleo saccharum, but they are just too tiny to peel. You can’t really juice them either. Things were looking bleak. Fortunately, just about anything can be made into a syrup, so I concocted a hybrid oleo-syrup which retained 100% of that unique kumquat flavor. As a bonus, the lovely little kumquat totally lacks the bitter pith found in most citrus, which turned this into the easiest oleo-type sweetener you can imagine.

Now let’s pair this delightful kumquat syrup with the award-winning citrus forward Confluence American Gin from StilL 630. With savory peppery notes, and a light creamy mouthfeel, I wanted to highlight the spirit, not bury it under too many mixers. Together these ingredients sing, but we always want to level up, so the real magic to this cocktail is the muddling of fresh kumquats and shaking it with a sprig of rosemary. It’s not often that I claim “these go down like a fat kid on a see-saw,” but please believe this fat kid right here, as I tell you that I now have a kumquat tree planted in my own yard. I plan to drink these for the rest of my life!