For years, bartender Keith Mrotek, of Flora Room in Minneapolis, has been mixing drinks with Primitivizia, a bottled mugolio by Eleonora Cunaccia, a forager who canvasses the Dolomites for the choicest cones. The Mediterránea features mugolio alongside alpine gin and alpine liqueur, ginger syrup and citrus. “Categorically, I’ve used [mugolio] in gin-based cocktails because I feel like it can—magically—remove some of the ‘pine’ taste that gin cocktails have and mellow it out a little bit,” Mrotek explains. “It adds complexity in a way that you can’t wrap your head around. It’s like MSG or shio koji.”
Mediterránea
Keith Mrotek | Minneapolis
Ingredients
Serving: 1
- 1 1/2 gin, preferably Alpine 1643
- 1/2 lime juice
- scant 1/2 ounce mugolio, preferably Primitivizia
- scant 1/4 ounce Brovo alpine liqueur
- scant 1/4 ounce Italicus bergamot liqueur
- 1 dropper harmony tincture (see Editor’s Note)
- 1 barspoon ginger syrup (see Editor’s Note)
- 2 1/2 ounces tonic water, preferably Fever-Tree, to top
Garnish: small pine cone, buzz button flower buds
Directions
- Combine all ingredients except tonic water in a cocktail shaker with ice and briefly shake.
- Strain into a highball glass with ice and top with tonic water.
- Garnish with a pine cone and three buzz buttons.
Editor's Note
Harmony Tincture
Combine citric acid, malic acid and ascorbic acid in a ratio of 1:4:4, then add to water in a ratio of 4:1 water to powder. Then make a saline solution in a ratio of 4:1, water to salt. Combine equal parts, by weight, acid solution, saline solution and rice vinegar.
Ginger Syrup
Combine equal parts fresh ginger juice and granulated sugar, then shake or whisk until the sugar dissolves.