Description
Exploring the Aromatic Library
Saturday 10am–4pm
Covers blending by hand and in the still. We sample the full range of extracts that make up your flavour palette—raw materials, infusions, ethanolic extracts, hydrosol, quintessences and single flavour essences. Then practise both blending by hand, and building flavour in the still—featuring a hydro distillation in our 10L cask hood and a vapour-infusion to create a bespoke botanical spirit in our alquitar. At the end of the day we’ll create botanical drinks from our distilled blends, and send you home with samples.
Workshop Schedule
- Botanical infusions—a simple recipe for complex flavour. We make and sample a balanced blend spanning the flavour spectrum (citrus, leafy, flower, root) served with a herbal honey—to kick start our day.
- Blends from the still (water-based). We create a layered hydrosol in our 10L copper cask hood. Jill walks us through the steps for creating a well-rounded and complex flavour base using hydro distillation. Our blend will incorporate spices, fruits, leaves, berries and citrus, to be used as a drink concentrate or spirit replacement.
- The Flavour Explainer—a guided tasting of a single botanical across a spectrum of extracts. Experience how different extraction techniques draw out different aspects of flavour from the same botanical materials. This organoleptic evaluation will delve into all the flavour facets of our chosen botanical—raw material, infusion, tincture, quintessence, hydrosol and flavour essence. This is the same process we use in The Lab for educating our palates and minds about the aromatic potential of a new ingredient.
- Creating zero ABV drink blends. Make a simple carbonated drink using our distilled hydrosol and a selection of our favour samples, based on what we’ve learned from our flavour experience.
- BREAK FOR LUNCH.
- Exploring the aromatic library—we delve into our single botanical extracts to decide upon a blend recipe for our second distillation (for our botanical spirit). Using our extracts of fruits, flowers, roots, trees, grasses, seeds and resins, we will choose a hero botanical and structure a blend around that flavour.
- How to structure your blend—Jill walks us through her process for creating a well-balanced blend for new botanical spirits. Includes how to use a basic blend ratio that’s based on botanicals’ intensity, as well as building and balancing flavour.
- Distilling a botanical spirit—Using a copper alquitar still, we demonstrate the process of vapour-infusion to create a new botanical spirit showcasing our blend
- Build your own botanical spirit in a glass—while our blend distils, we’ll practise blending skills using our library of quintessences and single botanical flavour essences. Taste, build and bottle your own bespoke blend using The Lab’s range of different natural botanical essences.
- Finishing off our botanical spirit distillation—we complete our distillation and sample the results.
- End the day with a cocktail: making a botanical martini—we’ll end the day with this complex and delicious drink, using the products of today’s distillations.
- Each participant will get samples of our hydrosol, botanical spirit, and the bottle of their own botanical blend to take home.
**On purchasing you’ll receive a complimentary Foundation Distillation Course of your choice (valued at $175). Choose from Distilling Hydrosol, Distilling Essential Oil or Distilling Alcohol. All our online courses come with lifetime access, so you can refer back to them whenever you need, making them a great learning resource. Feel free to explore your online course either before or after your workshop with us.
Getting here: Ferries depart from downtown Auckland, and take approximately 45 minutes. If you are not staying on the island, we recommend an 8am ferry to arrive in plenty of time. You can easily bus to the venue—public buses depart from the ferry terminal at Matiatia. All three buses (50A, 50B and 502) will get you here—just ask your friendly driver which stop to get off at to get you to Moa Ave.
Lunch: The Lab is an easy 10 minute walk from the shops and cafés of Oneroa Village.
