Pumpkin Cocktails Spice Up Fall Drinking

Pumpkins are on our mind this month. We love “produce-in-a-glass” cocktails and these children of the gourd family, brightly dressed in orangey flesh and offering a mildly sweet flavor, are oh-so-ripe for some adult beverages. At Harvest in Richmond Heights, lead bartender Veronica Schuster is shaking up the Spice Pumpkin. The cocktail features fresh pumpkin purée; Calvados Pays d’Auge, a French apple brandy; Licor 43, the golden Spanish liqueur that’s studded with citrus and vanilla tones; apple spice ginger liqueur; and a couple dashes of orange bitters. Prep begins with a purée made from sugar pumpkins that owner and chef Nick Miller seasons with a touch of salt, pepper and oil before roasting. The pumpkins are not drained after cooking lest the purée become too thick. Schuster chose Calvados because it “gives a nice apple-y taste to the drink that’s reminiscent of fall.” Garnished with star anise and an orange twist, the amber concoction is “what a pumpkin pie would taste like,” summed Schuster. At Yia Yia’s Euro Bistro in Chesterfield, bar manager Jay Olson is also embracing creative cocktails, many of which use fresh produce grown by chef Rob Uyemura on the three-quarter acres donated to the restaurant from Benne’s Farm in St. Charles County. This month, the culinary-school-trained Olson is playing with pumpkins. The Smashing Pumpkin is a not-quite-frozen cocktail that mixes pumpkin purée with vodka, Kahlúa, pumpkin liqueur, crème de cocoa and cream. The purée is a flavorful combination of roasted pumpkin, nutmeg, cinnamon, simple syrup and sweetened condensed milk, the last added because it “gives a luxurious mouth feel,” said Olson. The drink is fairly potent – a combined 3 ounces of alcohol from four kinds of liquor. Olson opts for Missouri-made 360 Vodka because “it is a little sweeter than most vodkas,” yet the drink isn’t overly sweet; the flavors are so well balanced that there is no one pronounced flavor. A topping of foamed milk and a chocolate spear garnish signal the drink’s inspiration: a pumpkin spice latte. But as with a hot espresso drink, you do need to sip your Smashing Pumpkin slowly lest you get burned from brain freeze or hit too quickly from quaffing booze.