If you’re headed to Sanctuaria for “wild tapas” this weekend, be sure to leave time for a round or two at the bar, where mixologist Matt Seiter is crafting distinctive cocktails with house-made tinctures.
“Tinctures are the easiest thing to do, you just have to have patience,” said Seiter. Pour a few cups of Everclear in a Mason jar, add some toasted dried herbs and let it age for four to eight weeks. Cut it with water, adjust for taste and strength, filter through a cheesecloth, and then into a tiny glass dropper bottle it goes.
Seiter’s got at least a dozen single-ingredient and combination essences to add depth and character to his drinks. There’s lemon-tarragon, aromatic orange and honeysuckle bitters, linden flower, and a fiery cinnamon reminiscent of Red Hot candy. One of our faves is Flora, a blend of honeysuckle, hibiscus, rose petals, lavender, oris root and orange peel.
These tinctures are what lend that je ne sais quoi factor to many of Seiter’s cocktails. He proposes the orange-honeysuckle bitters in a bourbon or American rye whiskey drink as a nice winter sipper. But we’re pretty partial to the All Good, which features a couple drops of Flora muddled with house-made hibiscus syrup, fresh mint and orange, shaken with the rum-based liqueur St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram and cachaça, then topped with Fentimans tonic water. The botanical nature of this tincture lends the happy drink that extra dash of flowery pep and an island feel – a perfect way to lessen the drab chill of a January weekend.
– Ligaya Figueras
This article appears in Jan 1-31, 2010.