I recently bought a dear friend of mine a giant box of alcohol for her wedding gift. Since she's a fellow Pennsylvania native, I wanted to be sure to include something local. I went with ROOT, which is made by a small distillery in Philadelphia using ingredients from 19th century root tea, which was the original alcoholic precursor of modern root beers. As someone who can't stand root beer, I was very surprised to like this stuff so much!
When I first discovered it, I made a drink called a "Pennsylvanian Devil." I'd like to link somewhere, but the Internet has failed me, so this is based off of drunken notes. If you know where this drink is from, I'd be happy to credit! :
The Pennsylvanian Devil (A not-brandy, not-Alexander)
(I don't have a picture of the drink because I'm currently a long way from my full bar. The things I do for science... )
- 1 oz. ROOT
- 1 oz. med-dark rum (Bacardi 8 is fine, but this is a fun place to experiment)
- .5 oz. cream liqueur (I use Coole Swan, but the recipe originally called for Crema de Alba, which does actually have brandy in it)
- .5 oz simple syrup
- 1 oz. cream
- fresh nutmeg
Shake all of the liquid with ice, strain into something that approximates a brandy snifter, and grate nutmeg over the top as desired. If you think the ROOT is overpowering, add a bit more cream. Enjoy!
