Scandinavian Sour
At Kachka, Bartender Jamie Cecchine brings bitters and birch together in a cocktail with roots in Northern Europe.
Embracing bitterness in cocktails can be challenging. Finding balance in structure without muddling the complexity of the concentrated botanicals takes a keen palate and the right ingredients. Drinks like the Negroni or the Toronto—which use bittering agents as more of an accent—have become mainstream, but cocktails that up the ante on bitterness are still often polarizing for drinkers, and only in the last decade or so have bartenders really dug their heels into the development of new recipes.
Inspired by the Angostura-centered Trinidad Sour, Bar Manager Jamie Cecchine sought to create a cocktail with bitters as the focal point at Kachka, and the Gammel Dansk sitting on the back bar called out to her. Cocktails at Kachka mirror the Soviet era-inspired menu from Chef-Owner Bonnie Morales, typically leaning heavily on vodka and fresh, savory flavors like horseradish and rhubarb. “There wasn’t really a strong cocktail history in the Soviet Union,” says Cecchine. “Everything there is pretty over-the-top sweet, so it's really about working within the parameters of flavor profiles. It does feel a bit more limited, but it pushes me to explore more.” Each cocktail is an opportunity for Cecchine and her bar team to introduce uncommon ingredients, make historical references, and highlight different regions: the Mount Kazbek cocktail features gin and house-made Tarjun, the Georgian tarragon-flavored soft drink, and the rhubarb vodka-based Volga Monopoly includes a note on the menu that says “in the 15th century, Russia held a monopoly on the export of rhubarb controlling its flow into Western Europe. Breaking the ban was punishable by death.”
Bartender Jamie Cecchine
Kachka’s Scandinavian Sour with Birch-Infused Vodka, Orange-Lemon Cordial, Gammel Dansk, Linie Aquavit, Egg White, Bitters
Gammel Dansk, the Danish bitter with a blend of 29 botanicals, has a bitterness akin to Fernet. “There's an interjoined history with Scandinavians and the former USSR,” says Cecchine. “Bitters were a huge thing there in the 60s and 70s. Gammel Dansk was basically made to compete with Fernet and Jager.” The bitter is spiced and savory with notes of ginger, nutmeg, and anise, so Cecchine chose to pair it with birch bark-infused vodka. The infusion gives a nod to a symbolic Russian tree, while also enhancing the dry, woody flavors found in Gammel Dansk. She landed on an equal parts split base to level the bitterness and let the birch shine through, and added four dashes of Angostura bitters for enhanced depth of flavor.
The next addition was aquavit. Caraway is a common flavor at Kachka. They offer caraway-infused vodka and have Kummel on the back bar, so Cecchine was familiar, and knew it would complement the bitters and the birch. She adds a quarter ounce and garnishes the drink with ground, toasted caraway seed to boost aromatics. For the sour component, she opted for a lemon-cara cara orange cordial to highlight peak season citrus. “The birch plays off of the [Gammel Dansk] and the orange, and the aquavit helps to bring out all of those flavors.“ The final touch was an egg white for a frothy texture to tie everything together.
“When anyone starts here, you go through an hours-long orientation to learn about Bonnie's family, and all of the history behind the dishes. When I start searching for ingredients, I can really go down the rabbit hole learning about why quince is so important to Armenia. I realized that by building flavor profiles and taking more of a culinary approach, instead of focusing on spirits, that we could have a very profitable bar program.”
Recipe: Scandinavian Sour
