The Spirits #34: The Garibaldi

~ Fluffy Oranges ~ Si fa l'Italia o si muore! ~ Whatever happened to the Great Elymra? ~ Starseeds ~ Go forth and forage ~

~ THE GARIBALDI ~

50ml Campari
150ml freshly-squeezed orange juice (around three oranges)
Drop of orange flower water (optional)
A liquidiser/blender

Squeers those oranges by hand please! This can be a slightly messy business but it is ever-so worth it; freshness is everything in this cocktail and you want a little of the bitter peel juice in there too. Once you have extracted the juice, sieve out all the bits and place it in a LIQUIDISER. Pulse the juice for a few seconds, five times, on and off. The aim is to aerate it the juice, introducing tiny air bubbles. Now fill a tall glass with ice cubes pour in the Campari and OJ and give it a little squiggly stir. Orange wedge garnish.

Some Garibaldi notes:

1) The liquidising techniques comes courtesy of Naren Young at Dante in NYC, whose Garibaldi with “fluffy” orange juice proved a huge hit and helped Dante to win the coveted World’s Best Bar award back in 2019. The menu features a whole range of “fluffy” citrus cocktails involving grapefruit, lime, you name it.

2) Mr Young used a Breville Juice to fluff his OJ, but any old liquidiser/blender will work just fine. No blender? No problem! I tried an electric whisk with OK results but then resorted to that old standby, the cocktail shaker, and found this 19th century technique perfectly decent. Simply shake up the orange juice extremely hard with no ice until your arms can take no more!

3) Halfway through sipping this delicious cocktail, I wondered what it would be like with a dash of orange flower water in it. Extremely nice, as it turns out. Give it a try!

SOME REVOLUTIONARY MUSIC. And off we go.

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You will find instructions for making sugar syrup, grenadine, ice, etc here and my 10 RULES FOR MAKING COCKTAILS here. I have also assembled some bottle recommendations for a cabinet here - and this here is the full archive of weekly specials. Do please share the Spirits with anyone who might like it - and feel free to tag me with your creations on Instagram or Twitter. Also scroll to the bottom for what to get in for next week! 👇

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WHEN the Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi and his Red Shirts landed in Sicily in the early days of May 1860, they immediately set about subverting the local population. The Sicilians were growing weary of the corrupt rule of the Kingdom of Naples and it wasn’t so hard for the Revolutionaries to convince them of the virtues of the Risorgimento - a united Italy. Particularly as Garibaldi had a secret weapon in his hip-flask. For it so happened that at (almost) the precise same moment that Garibaldi was crying “si fa l'Italia o si muore" (“Here we make Italy or die!”) at the Battle of Calatafimi, a few hundred miles North, a certain Gaspare Campari was astounding the burghers of Milan with his eponymous alcoholic aperitivo. Yes, Campari hit the trattoria in 1860 too, coloured with the precise same cochneal dye that stained the famous red shirts of Garibaldi’s men. Coincidence?

Well, Garibaldi and Campari had crossed paths a few years before - when they were both shipwrecked. Garibaldi had saved the life of the Lombardian merchant, who could not swim, and the pair of them had then spent three weeks waiting to be rescued from an outcrop of seaweed not far from Ischia. All that they had to sustain them through this ordeal was a crate of oranges, a packet of Fonzies cheese crisps and a barrel of the young Campari’s prototype elixir that had washed up from the shipwreck. During this time, Garibaldi had become fond of the stuff. And whereever the revolutionary went from that moment on, he always carried a flacon of Elisir di Campari - Campari having granted him a lifetime supply in thanks for having rescued him. And when his Red Shirts passed through the heaven-scented orange groves of Palermo, just then at the height of their blossom, it all came back to Garibaldi - who had the bright idea of mixing his favourite elixir with oranges and using it as a symbol of the Risorgimento. It was here that he gave his famous ‘Campari and Orange’ speech - “here we make cocktails or die!” - hymning Northern Italian ingenuity and Southern Italian zest and asking: “Are we not greater than the sum of our parts?!”

"Molto bene!” cried the assembled masses - and that’s how Italy was unified.

At least - that’s what I would like to think happened. To be clear, it did not. I think what happened in reality is someone worked out that Campari and orange juice were quite a nice combination and later named it after the Italian revolutionary. BUT I look forward to seeing this fanciful history reproduced in some less scrupulous cocktail blog by someone who can’t be bothered to read below the second paragraph!

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Campari and Orange, then. It is such a simple combination (and those who have been complaining about the recent spate of absinthe-spiked recipes will be relieved to note that it contains no absinthe whatsoever). In fact, it is so simple - and faintly démodé, in an Abigail’s Party sort of way - that I never really much of it despite my great love of Campari. I suppose the Spritz, the Negroni, the Boulevardier and the Jungle Bird had sort of stolen its thunder. But then word reached me of the revolutionary “fluffy” version served at Dante in NYC, a drink that had elevated its two constituents to the pinnacle of cocktail fashion.

It’s a good example of the transformative role of freshness in a cocktail (it’s really not the same with juice from a carton) and texture. Why do we shake cocktails? Well, it’s to amalgamate, to cool and to dilute - but also to aerate, to fill that liquid with tiny bubbles. It feels so much better in the mouth and the taste reaches a higher resolution too. The “fluffy” juice principle takes that as far as it can. It tastes about as healthy and life-giving as a cocktail can.

It is a delightful colour too and for once I would recommend not mixing the drink, at least to begin with, so that you get that delightful sunrise effect. This will work with blood orange or grapefruit juice too but in all cases, serve just as soon as you can after prepping.

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PLAYLIST

Revolutionaries, warriors, leaders, heroes, freedom-fighters - with the odd dictator lobbed in for good measure.

PLEASE NOTE! THIS PLAYLIST UPDATES AUTOMATICALLY EACH WEEK. Well, not automatically, I do it by hand, but my point is, follow the list and you will find musical refreshment. If you want to retrive an old list/song, here is an ongoing archive compiling all past songs.

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WHAT I’M READING

Books! Mostly: the forthcoming Connections: A Story of Human Feelings by the neuroscientist/psychiatrist Karl Deisseroth, which is truly one of the most amazing things I’ve read in a long time. Look out for my interview in the Guardian.

I thought this column by Megan Nolan on how suffering divides us as much as it unites us was particularly honest and insightful (New Statesman).

Matthew D’Ancona on the power couple behind the Tories’ culture war - and it’s not Boris and Carrie. (Tortoise).

Who are the Starseeds? This Substack about the growing number of people who believe they are descended from extra-terrestrial life-forms reminded me that I once had a clairvoyant reading from a starseed in LA… and made me really miss America. (Pirate Wires)

Sirin Kale’s wonderful interview with Malala Yousafzai (Vogue).

Enya’s Greatest Songs: RANKED! NB: I love it when a piece of writing gives you a new way of approaching an artist you may have once dismissed. This, from Luke Turner, did just that for me. (Guardian).

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FORAGING LIST

An armful of elderflower blossoms (pictured) and also: rosemary.

SHOPPING LIST

Gin, lemons golden caster sugar, citric acid. (NB, if you can’t be arsed foraging - or if you live in a different hemisphere from the one I do - you can always just buy elderflower cordial, rosemary and gin).

🌸🌿🌸🌿🌸🌿🌸🌿🌸🌿🌸