Winter : Citrus

The Fruit

I don’t remember knowing winter citrus was a thing until our first winter in Seattle. We lived right by a fancy coop that we used for fill-in grocery shopping. I ran in on a random weekday evening and came out with (probably) $40 worth of citrus I had never even seen before. They had them all cut up for tasting and they were all delicious so I definitely over-purchased. Three years later, this has basically become a ritual this time of year.

It makes very little sense to me that citrus is harvested in winter. It’s so easy to associate with summer that it seems as if it must be harvested right then! Winter needs some added pep much more than summer, though, so I’m happy to learn that I was wrong for so long. There are a ton of varieties, and you should see them popping up wherever you buy groceries right about now. I just bought a big white grapefruit and a handful of dekopon.

The citrus you can get this time of year tends to be different than the normal lemons, limes, oranges, and grapefruits available the rest of the year. They often look weird, the rinds are either super-thin or massively-thick, and there’s usually less sugar in the fruit than you may be used to. They’re almost always delicious, though, and the make for intriguing seasonal cocktail ingredients and garnishes. I’ll be writing a lot more about specific fruits as the season progresses both here an on my Instagram.

The Booze

Since I’ll be writing about seasonal citrus fruit, I want to pair that with citrus alcohol! For the most part, this means I’ll be talking about triple sec and Curacao.

You may have a similar reaction to triple sec as you did when I talked a lot about vermouth – you may not like it because it’s too sweet or because you have bad memories from college of watching it being combined with tequila, rum, vodka, and gin. You may also be scared of Curacao because you’re scared of all neon ingredients, especially those most-often seen in cheap plastic bottles on the bottom shelf.

Never fear – just like vermouth, this stuff is delicious if you treat it right. I’m going to tell you all about how to put them to work over the next few months.

I won’t go into too much detail here (I’ve gotta save some content for later), but basically these are liqueurs that have had a whole ton of citrus peel added to them to flavor them. For the most part, these are varieties of oranges. Like all old drinks, the actual blends are proprietary. Basically, let some orange peels sit in Everclear for a while until it’s delicious then water it down.

My favorite triple sec is Cointreau. I bought the full big bottle the last time we were in Oregon. It’s very sweet, but the bitterness of the orange exists at the start and finish of a sip of it, and the nose reminds me of the candy orange jellies that I loved as a kid. It’s also the “official” triple sec of the margarita and cosmo, so it’s got that going for it which is nice.

A Drink

I’ll get into the classic triple sec and Curacao drinks in good time. But, a drink I like a lot this time of year is much, much lighter.

I take about a quarter-ounce of Cointreau and add it to a glass filled with ice. Then, I take a few different bitters and give several good dashes of each. I fill with sparkling water (Perrier is probably my favorite for drinks) and give it a stir. Then, peel some citrus and express it over the drink. It’s extremely low-ABV but still flavorful and interesting!⁣ It’s also endlessly-riffable, so put your own spin on it.