Present Joys

In today’s installment of no sugar grandparent’s delight, I’m trying some artichoke infusions.

Carciofo is Italian for “artichoke”, and also “artichoke liqueur”, I think. There isn’t much about how to make artichoke infusions at home on the English internet, but I found some Italian YouTube videos and lots of web pages in Italian that gave me some tips. It’s pretty easy.

I’m doing artichoke infusions because I keep Cynar on my bar and like it a lot, and Cynar is purportedly a carciofo. It’s clearly got more botanicals than just artichoke, though. In an attempt to figure out Cynar’s flavor profile, I tried three different infusions: one plain, one with citrus, and one with some more complicated flavors and bittering agents that seemed to fit.

From two globe artichokes, I collected about 200 grams of leaves. (Some Italian web pages I consulted said to avoid the outer layer of leaves, while others said to specifically select the firmest and biggest, which are the outer leaves. So I used all the leaves I pulled off.) I also cut about 30 grams’ worth of stems and threw those in, though I have no idea if that is a good idea… it may make the infusions worse. Oh well!

Yes, I know I am mixing grams and ounces. I have no excuse.

I tasted infusion 3 after three days and it seemed plenty strong. I don’t want to overdo the infusions, so I’ll plan to strain on day 4.

Update

After tasting my strained infusions, I’m declaring number 3 the winner… at least in terms of imitating Cynar. It’s clear Cynar’s flavor profile relies heavily on other botanicals, specifically bittering agents—not just the artichoke.

Infusion 1 (just artichoke) was interesting, and I think it was successful as a “pure” carciofo. It’s really not bitter at all, but quite vegetal, and when diluted 50% with 1:1 agave simple syrup, it was unsettlingly sweet. Not cloying, just odd to taste that much sweetness with the artichoke flavor.

Infusion 2 (artichoke + lemon + bitter orange) showed promise, but the lemon overpowers on both the aroma and palate. A second attempt with different ratios would taste more balanced, but I don’t think it’d be like Cynar—so not worth pursuing.

Infusion 3 is good to dilute and bottle. I’m going to blend infusions 1 and 2 together and macerate with the botanicals from infusion 3—that way those subpar attempts won’t go to waste. If all goes well, I’ll end up with an additional 600 ml of a decent Cynar copycat (I am hoping the lemon gets diluted and masked).

A few years ago I discovered I have a sensitivity (allergy?) to cane sugar, and since then it’s gotten worse and worse.

I finally got my butt in gear last week and ordered a bunch of herbs from Penn Herb—I’m going to try and make copycat infusions of some of my most frequently used bar ingredients (for now, that’s Campari, Chartreuse, and fernet). This is no sugar grandparent’s delight.

So I tried my first infusion of Chartreuse last night, and I’m going to print the recipe here so I can refer back to it later. This first test will end up being around 500 ml at about 45% ABV.