In the coming years, Sam Anderson hopes for a shift away from classic formulas, and towards a “freeform” approach in which ingredients dictate the resulting recipe. He offers the Tide Pool, a mixture of lemon verbana- and kombucha-infused distillate, American-made aperitivo, passionfruit amazake and crisp, acid-driven pét-nat, for a drink that’s utterly detached from preexisting formulas.
Tide Pool
Sam Anderson, Mission Chinese Food | New York

Ingredients
Serving: 1
- 1 1/4 ounces Empirical Spirits Clarence & Alabama Blend
- 3/4 ounce red aperitivo, preferably Forthave Red
- 1 ounce passionfruit amazake (see Editor's Note)
- 1 ounce pét-nat
Garnish: edible flowers
Directions
- Pour the pét-nat into a Collins glass and top with crushed ice.
- Combine all remaining ingredients in a mixing tin and dry shake without ice.
- Strain into the Collins glass.
- Garnish with edible flowers.
Editor's Note
Passionfruit Amazake:
1 cup white rice
2 cups water
2 cups koji
3 passionfruits
In a medium saucepan, combine the rice and water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 50 minutes. Let the rice cool to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. In a sterilized wide-mouth jar, combine the rice and koji. Incubate the mixture for 10 to 14 hours by placing the jar in a cooler filled with water heated to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. After 10 hours, taste the mixture for sweetness. If it’s not sweet enough, continue the incubation process for a few more hours. Once you’ve reached the desired level of sweetness, stop the fermentation process by boiling the mixture. Then, puree the mixture with the inner pulp of 3 passionfruits and strain through a fine mesh strainer into a sealable container and refrigerate.