The Spirits #134: The Cinnamon Paloma
Plus: 101 MORE uses for Cinnamon Syrup
~ THE CINNAMON PALOMA ~
50ml tequila (reposado)
15ml cinnamon syrup
10ml lime juice
50ml grapefruit juice (white)
~75ml fizzy water
Place the tequila, cinnamon syrup, lime and grapefruit juice in a shaker with a single ice cube. Whip shake until the cube disappears. Now pour the mixture into a glass filled with ice cubes and top with fizzy water, stirring as you do so. Garnish to taste but why not go full TIKI? Mint, nutmeg, cherries, et
Some Cinnamon Paloma Notes
The OG Paloma is quite simply tequila, grapefruit soda (Squirt, by preference), squeeze of lime. Alice Lascelles recently named it the drink of the summer in the FT and provided much Paloma lore besides. “[It’s] 100 per cent more Mexican than the Margarita,” said Mexico City bartender José Luis León…. and best “when you don’t overcomplicate it.”
Which got me thinking about ways to ever-so-slightly complicate it. Which in turn led me the excellent combination of grapefruit and cinnamon syrup (see here for the recipe), which formed Don’s Mix #1, one of the secret Tiki blends that Don the Beachcomber used in Zombies, etc. Does a Paloma work with the addition of cinnamon? It does. It’s incredibly nice like that.
Pink grapefruit gets all the girls these days. But I have come to prefer the steely dry bitterness of white grapefruit which is also, I fancy, a little tarter than the pink stuff.
I also made a version of this with the addition of 15ml Ancho Reyes Poblano Chile liqueur and it was outstanding. A full post on Ancho Reyes (featuring some excellent Palomas) is coming your way next week. Don’t forget to like and subscribe!
🖊️I am Richard Godwin.
🧋My instructions for sugar syrup, ice, grenadine, orgeat, etc are here.
🧑🏫 My 10 RULES FOR MAKING COCKTAILS are here.
⚗️ My bottle recommendations are here.
📃 The full A-Z recipe archive is here.
➡️ Please find a round up of organisations helping Ukrainians here.
🏥 And here is a list of trusted charities who are helping people in Gaza.
101 FURTHER USES FOR CINNAMON SYRUP
LOK so you’re wondering if it’s worth your while making cinnamon syrup for one cocktail? Come on admit it, I know that’s what you’re thinking. And I’m here to say that it is worth making cinnamon syrup - because you won’t just be using it in one cocktail. Some of your less conscientious recipe writers might command you to make, I don’t know, honey-hibiscus shrub for some one-off Top 50 bar recreation. Not me. My syrups are for life - not just for Friday nights.
The first thing to say is that syrups (and shrubs for that matter) have a fairly decent fridge life, six weeks (or more) so these things keep. There’s no need to rush it. And the second thing is that they can always be used in other drinks.
Syrups are usually the backbone of decent, quick non-alcoholic drinks, notably sodas, which I will often serve on a summer evening. I wrote a fairly comprehensive guide how to do that RIGHT HERE but the tl;dr version is… 20ml flavoured syrup; splash of fresh citrus; 50ml juice if you feel like it; top up with fizzy water; plus maybe a dash of bitters. That’s precisely how I’ve been making my way through that lychee syrup from the other week. 20ml lychee syrup, squeeze of lime, fizzy water, dash of Peychaud’s.
As regards cinnamon syrup, I can think of two non-alcoholic drinks along these lines immediately and I hope my algebraic shorthand is comprehensible:
Cinnamon syrup + lime + pineapple juice (shake) x fizzy water
Cinnamon syrup + cider vinegar (instead of citrus) + apple juice (stir) x fizzy water + dash of bitters..
There are millions of variations on this theme. Indeed, you’ll notice that the Cinnamon Paloma works very well in a non-alcoholic equation.
Cinnamon syrup + lime + grapefruit x fizzy water (+ mole bitters?)
Another fun thing to do - which will amaze and delight any children you know - is to use syrups is in milkshakes. A banana smoothie made in the blender will not suffer from the addition of cinnamon syrup. But you don’t even need to be that fancy. Remember the classic Mexican cantina drink, Horchata? Why that’s quite simply:
Cinnamon syrup + rice milk (other kind of milk/mylk will work just fine)
Then there’s iced coffee:
Espresso (or strong coffee) + cinnamon syrup (stir) x ice and milk (shake)
Oh and there are lattes and hot chocolates and all sort of hot milky things in which cinnamon syrup will work so well. One little bedtime that I make fairly often is:
Cinnamon syrup + turmeric + whole milk (shake) > then microwave for 1 minute 20 seconds.
(Dry shaking milk-based drinks prior to heating vastly improves the texture and taste of the finished result . You can even make a passable microwave cappucino in this way).
You might also use cinnamon syrup in desserts. Say you’ve made some waffles. A scoop of vanilla ice cream is as we speak melting into the lattice, forming a dulcet pool of deliciousness. Do you know what’s going to be nice with that? Cinnamon syrup. Oh and you’ve some Greek yoghurt in the fridge and some figs… Might I suggest a little drizzling cinnamon syrup? Likewise: you’re whipping up some cream to serve with some chocolate cake? Why not add some cinnamon syrup. You grasp the central idea, I’m sure.
And remember cinnamon is just the working example here. You can employ most of the same strategies with vanilla syrup, orgeat, grenadine, ginger syrup, etc. OK groseille syrup isn’t going to be so nice in coffee. But I bet it would be heavenly drizzled over yoghurt. Remember that time we made strawberry balsamic gastrique? I swear I made tons of that stuff and it disappeared in a flash: in strawberryade, in pavlovas, in milkshakes, salad dressings, etc!
All of that and we haven’t even broached the cocktails. Your first port of call in such instances is my extremely handy A-Z of Ingredients. But I’d highlight for you the following:
I’d add that it is also a handy switch for plain old sugar syrup in Old Fashioned variants (such as the Treacle) or for honey syrup in the Chet Baker. But likewise, the same strategy. Use rhubarb syrup in a Ramos Gin Fizz. Use gooseberry syrup in a Daiquiri. Whatever you do - don’t waste that stuff.
THE PLAYLIST
Another airing for the Japanese list from last week.
NB: This playlist (ideally) updates with fresh songs each week, rather in the manner of Spotify’s ‘Discover Weekly’ list. But this is personally curated by me. Save/download and you should have a fresh supply of cool music in perpetuity. I store all the archive lists in one long megaplaylists, which you can find here.
WHAT I’VE BEEN WRITING
I wrote a longread about the gambling industry - and how it uses the benign entry point of Premier League football to groom a new generation of future gambling addicts. Researchers have counted 6,996 separate pro-gambling messages in a single weekend of Premier League football on TV; 96% of 11-24 year olds have seen pro-gambling messages in the previous month; my own ten year old could reel off gambling companies (“Bet365… Betfair…?”) despite me never ever placing a bet, simply from being a football fan. All with the purpose of creating future gambling addicts - from whom the companies make almost all their profits.
“This industry isn’t interested in recreational gamblers. They want to move you to the most addictive products… and our laws and regulations are not protecting children and they’re not protecting the young men who are experiencing the most harm.” - Dr Mark Gaskell, NHS Northern Gambling Service
Note the profuesion of algorithmic gambling adverts littering a piece about people who have killed themselves due to gambling(!) That’s what we’re up against. (Men’s Health)
WHAT I’VE BEEN READING
Wellness by Nathan Hill which is not only extremely funny (and to be approached with caution if you’ve middle-aged and marriaged) but a brilliant dissection of the algorithmic machine, the wellness complex, gentrification, individualism, parenting in the age of Minecraft - all that stuff. I’ve read a bunch of great novels recently - I’ll do a little summer reading list next time.
CABINET POSTS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
🐿️ Amaretto
🧡 Aperol
🍑 Apricot Brandy
🕊️ Bénédictine
❄️ Brancamenta
🍌 Crème de Banane
🍫 Crème de Cacao
🫐 Crème de Cassis
🌷 Cynar
🌸Elderflower Liqueur
🏝️ Falernum
🦅 Fernet-Branca
🌿 Green Chartreuse
🐻 Kümmel
🍒 Maraschino
🌵 Mezcal
🦙 Pisco
🐂 Sherry
🌻 Suze
SHOPPING LIST
Gin, French vermouth, orange liqueur, absinthe.
🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸
Richard! You may not have spotted this but Greggs have recently-ish being doing a cinnamon flat white with whipped cream which has become slightly iconic and an incredible hangover cure. So I will be making a batch and getting creative, I absolutely love horchata in this heat, and perhaps a slug of cinnamon in a pisco sour?? Though I don’t get how it can keep for 6 weeks when my regular bar syrup only lasts for a week or two before going weird? Would a splash of vodka help?
YOU’RE RIGHT!!! There are 100 ways to use up your cinnamon syrup. I was doubtful, but clearly shouldn’t have been. I like the idea of the apple cider and fizzy water for an NA Thanksgiving option (not trying to rush the season, but like a good Girl Scout always planning ahead.) Just started Wellness; it hasn’t kicked in for me yet, but I expect good things.