Sharkbait’s Cocktail of the Week: Tomato, Tomato

Happy Friday and welcome back! Hopefully you’ve been able to catch most of the World Cup, which I will say has been much more entertaining than I thought it would be. Today’s Norway France game will definitely be the highlight despite it meaning very little for both teams outside of positioning. But, such is the draw of two of the best players right now in Mbappe and Haaland. Now, you need to be properly hydrated for viewing such a game, and I’ve gone a little off the beaten path with this one.

My algorithm must think I’m an alcoholic because of all the random drinks related stuff that gets pushed to me. However, one drink I saw on Instagram caught my eye. They call it the Sungold Zinger. It’s cherry tomatoes, gin, lemon and elderflower. It seems interesting, and for a hot day, could be a good changeup.

4 halved Cherry Tomatoes
1 pinch Salt
1.5oz / 45ml Dry Gin
1/2oz / 15ml Elderflower Liqueur
1/2oz / 15ml Lemon Juice

Muddle the tomatoes and salt together, then add the other ingredients and shake with ice. Strain into a chilled martini glass and garnish with another cherry tomato.

This is interesting. There isn’t much of a nose on this one. I find that a bit surprising. I expected gin to be more forward, but I don’t pick up much of anything at all here.

Now this is interesting. The tomato, as light as it is, starts out as the dominant flavor. After that the lemon comes in with it’s sour notes on the back end. It’s a nice combination, but then something comes in and…it seems a little off. Not in a bad way, but something does more harm than good here. Maybe the salt? The recipe was very vague when it came to the salt. “A pinch of salt” is basically useless. What kind of salt? That determines the size of the pinch! In the post, it looked like more of a coarser salt, so I opted for kosher salt. That may not have been the best move for the flavor? Though in reality it would help with the muddling. Maybe reduce the pinch size perhaps?

If it’s not the salt, that leaves the elderflower liqueur. I don’t really pick up any flavors from that. But its job isn’t necessarily flavor related. Its role is to mitigate the acidity from the tomatoes and the lemon juice. I think it does an OK job of it, but I wonder if the acidity is what’s throwing my taste off, and making me second guess this one.

Second guessing might be a little too harsh, but yeah…I don’t think I’ll be making this one again. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t what I got here. It doesn’t seem very balanced and seems like it’s a worse version of a bloody Mary or a Caesar. That might be a bit of an unfair comparison, but that’s what I’m getting here. I’m still glad I went off the board here and tried something new here, even though this one is more of a breakfast drink than an evening one.

(Banner image courtesy Matthew Tetrault Photography)