Using Short Vocab Explainer to Satisfy You with Interesting Ingredients
Considering the unusual ingredients used to create funky cocktails, students are able to pick up a plethora of nouns and adjectives in the English language, learning new descriptive words like ‘aromatic’ or ‘earthy’ , or even ‘zesty’ . The ability to talk about flavors also adds onto oral skills, particularly when speaking about food and drinks.Some unique ingredients sound different, and often hard to make sense of for the first time. New vocabulary such as “infusion” , “tincture” , and “botanical” , are used in the field of mixology and can be hard for younger students. However, once these basic terms and phrases are introduced, students are able to understand how to describe minute details about a recipe or taste.
Why Find and Use Unique Ingredients in Cocktails?
The search for unique ingredients in cocktails is more than a quest for originality. It aims to achieve balance and harmony in a drink. Sweetness, sourness, bitterness, or aroma can be added in moderation and will allow for a cocktail to be well-rounded. Talking about such duties allows students to learn words "balance" , "contrast" , and "complement" that are not only useful in mixology but in English language as well.Let’s take the word ‘balance’ as an example. In the context of a cocktail, balance refers to the proportion of sweet to sour and the amount of alcohol in the drink. Here the students can use the focus on balance as an opportunity to use comparatives: “there’s too much sweetness for the tartness to generate an appeal” or “an ideal cocktail has balance and should not be too bitter.” Such utterances assist in getting fluency in describing different items in a relationship.
The Use of Unique Ingredients
In the world of mixology, unique ingredients tend to include herbs, spices, fruit, and even some vegetables considering their true essence. The variety of these types allows for a different spice to add a different essence to a drink. For better understanding let’s take some examples.Saffron
Saffron is a unique ingredient because it is safran which is a flower from Crocus sativus . One can embellish the saffron rims with fancy cocktails as it has a beautiful golden hue and a flowery fragrant scent. It is also effective with gin or vodka as it improves the botanicals. When talking about luxuries, it is safe to say that students consider this to be rare and one of a kind.Lavender
Lavender is also an excellent option as well. Lavender is a sweet-smelling herb which is used in cocktails in small amounts to add light and calming floral scent. Lavender is sometimes infused in syrup or can be made with bitters and adds subtle complexity. “Calming” and “sweet” - these are two words which can come in handy when one is describing a lavender cocktail.Tamarind
Tamarind is yet another ingredient that can add an extra oomph to a cocktail. Tamarind has a tangy and slightly sweet taste, which is a signature feature of the tropical fruit. Tamarind can be found as syrup or paste and goes well with spirits like tequila or rum. Tamarind can conjure up other words such as ‘tangy’ , ‘tropical’ or ‘paste’ to the conversation, which can help explain its flavor as well as its texture.
Infusions and Tinctures
Mixologists seek to add unique elements to their cocktail using infusion and tincture techniques. More specifically, herbs, spices, or even fruits are beaten or soaked in either alcohol or even water, in order to extract a certain flavor. Several of these actions serve as learning cues for students, in this case “steep” , “infuse” or “strain” .Steeping rosemary in vodka can be referred to as infusion, where a vice such as ‘herbaceous’ can be included to describe the end product. As for tinctures, soaking alcohol-soaked chili peppers comes to mind, resulting in a strong flavour. ‘Spicy’ , ‘fiery’ or ‘tinctures’ are more terms that can be associated with this cocktail.
Cultural Connections and Ingredients
In relation to geography, ingredients of the cocktail provide a connection to the culture and diversity of people. For instance, yuzu, a fruit that is said to have originated from East Asia, is now a mix that is added to cocktails on a global scale. Tasting yuzu lemonade, or anything lemon-related touches upon Japanese cuisine, making students understand cultural context.In much the same way, the role of hibiscus can be emphasized as well. Hibiscus is also used in beverages in a variety of regions around the world, especially in the Caribbean, Africa, and Latin America! Hibiscus is also common among cocktails because of its ease of use as tea or syrup. There is a strong connection with using words like “vibrant” , “tart” , “brew” while learning about hibiscus.
