This cocktail employs a technique called the “reverse dry shake,” which is way less complicated than it sounds. All you need to do is combine these ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice, shake until you get some solid chill and dilution going on, then remove the ice from the shaker and shake your cocktail WITHOUT the ice until you hear the texture get all foamy and silky from that aquafaba. At this point, you can strain into a stemmed cocktail glass, garnish with a fresh strawberry, and enjoy.
We wanted to feature the Molly Pitcher Sour because it perfectly embodies the difference between a mocktail and a no-ABV cocktail, which is something we really dig into in this episode. Let’s take a look at why this drink is so delicious and complex.
First, we’ve got a complex acid profile. The lemon juice brings citric acid to the table, whereas the primary acid in the verjus is Tartaric acid. For our money, jacking the flavor profile of a cocktail by using multiple acids is one of the best tools in the no-ABV toolkit.
Then we’ve got your sweeteners – the strawberry, of course, is fruity (i.e. fructose), while the maple syrup is primarily comprised of sucrose. So we’ve got a complex sugar profile as well. Not to mention, Maple syrup has several different grades, ranging from light amber to dark amber, which all have wildly different flavor profiles, giving you a whole ton of control over the precise character you’d like this cocktail to take on.
Then we’ve got texture from the aqua faba and the affiliated dry shake, and finally, we have those 6 drops of salt tincture. When you add this to a drink, it’s almost like you’re micro-dosing it with something that makes the world brighter. The salinity exists in small enough quantities that you can’t really tell there’s salt in your cocktail, but it really brings out the vividness of the other flavors by cutting down on bitterness and enhancing sweetness. It’s like an enzyme that catalyzes a chemical reaction, making it more efficient and intense.
