Last fall, a bartender at Washington, DC’s Nocturne started serving a ramen cocktail that was exactly what it sounds like: a bowl of ramen that had been expertly spiked with rum and Scotch. The Nuac the Casbah’s lengthy ingredients list included ramen noodles; a broth made of coconut milk, lime juice, palm sugar, ginger juice, fish sauce, and Thai chili; crushed pistachios; a poached quail egg; basil; smoked chile salt; and generous splashes of both Arrack rum and Scotch. “It’s unlikely you’ll finish it,” the Washington Post wrote in its review. “A little bit goes a long way.”
But French liqueur brand Cointreau has just released its own take on the ramen cocktail, and it’s skipped the noodles and the coconut in favor of more booze (and a more savory flavor, but mostly more booze). According to SoraNews24, for the past year, Cointreau has been commemorating Japan’s 47 prefectures by designing a special beverage for each one. For the 16th installment of its Gotochi (Local) Cocktail Project it chose to honor Fukuoka—and its famed tonkotsu ramen—with a pork-broth based drink.
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The word tonkotsu means “pig bone” in Japanese, and Cointreau has used that as a starting point, although mixing this drink is still one billion times easier than making ramen. (For starters, it uses tonkotsu seasoning granules instead of a broth made from pork bones that have simmered overnight.) If you’ve already decided that you’re going to make this at home, you’ll need:
- 40 milliliters (1.35 ounces) bourbon
- 3 teaspoons Cointreau
- 10 grams tonkotsu soup granules dissolved in 100 milliliters (3.4 ounces) water
- 3 teaspoons apple juice
- 1 tablespoon apple vinegar
- 2 teaspoons beni-shoga (red pickled ginger) juice
After the tonkotsu seasoning has dissolved, put 4 teaspoons of the insta-broth into a cocktail shaker, and then add the remaining ingredients. Give it a few good shakes, strain it into a glass of ice, and garnish it with a single pork bone (yup) and some thin slices of beni-shoga.
“The pork bone and red pickled ginger topping might not be for everyone, but as long as you can get your hands on the other ingredients, you’ll be able to taste the delicious blend of alcohol with orange, apple, coriander, ginger and… tonkotsu ramen broth,” SoraNews24 promises.
If you want to get extra, triple (or quadruple) the recipe and put some already-cooked ramen noodles in it. There. Dinner’s ready after all.
