There’s a surfeit of new speakeasy cocktail bars in Montreal of late, and the first one I checked out was Nhâu Bar, which is the subterranean lair of Hà, the Vietnamese place on McGill St. in the Old Port.
There, bartender Tao Zrafi has created an Asian-inspired drinks menu with exotic liqueurs, bitters and homemade syrups and exotic liqueurs that have nothing to do with Bacardi and the relative junk used in the fruity pitchers at Kampaï Garden, another Asian-inspired place that’s lots of fun despite the alcohol quality (the same designer, Amlyne Phillips, worked on both spaces). I settled into a back sofa shared with another couple while my drinks companion squat on a plush foot stool at the back of the room. Surveying the crowd, it was all suits, after-work drinks types and dates at 7pm on a Thursday.
But I didn’t come just for the people watching. I mostly came for the Banana Miso Cocktail, because doesn’t that sound awesome? The bar was kind enough to give me the recipe.
Banana Miso Cocktail
“The intriguing flavour combination of banana and miso came out of constant research to bring the boundaries between bar and kitchen a bit closer and think outside the box when it comes to what constitutes a ”classic flavour combo,” miso brings unparalleled umami notes to an otherwise completely fruity and naturally gorgeous sweet profile that banana has, crafting them into a syrup to control thickness of finalized product and pairing them with multiple layers of different bitterness agents makes this blend shine and adds complexity to the drink. So to summarize, trying to create a new pairing between two ingredients that seem too far apart from a culinary standpoint was the inspiration for this cocktail.”
– The story of the cocktail by Tao Zrafi
0.75 oz banana miso syrup*
0.25 oz Angostura Bitters
0.75 oz Meletti Amaro
0.5 oz Suze
0.5 Spanish Brandy
0.5 oz Lemon juice
Shake all ingredients, pour over fresh ice into a rock glass, garnish with mint, dried lime, and Matcha Powdered Sugar
*To make the banana miso syrup, cook 3 bananas in 1.5 litre of water with 1kg of sugar, bring to a boil, melt inside the mix 7 tablespoons of quality miso, take off from heat, let cool in the pan and mix with a hand blender, filter and store for up to two weeks in the fridge.
A few things: 1/4 oz of bitters is a lot of bitters, and it gives the drink a funky aroma that’s supposed to play with the miso’s own funkiness and the Brandy. I found the whole thing strangely fruity when I was expecting something creamy and sweet. But there’s no banana liqueur in here and no cream. My favourite drink of the night was actually the Tequila and Mezcal riff on an Old Fashioned (called Le Gee) with pineapple, brown butter bitters and chanterelle mushrooms. So you get a hit of the bitters when you smell the drink, then the booze of the Tequila and Mezcal and then a bit of sweetness as the alcohol fades from your tongue, and finally the funkiness of the chanterelles that lingers as the aftertaste. It’s awesome.
Photo credit: Nhâu Bar’s Instagram account
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