Christmas-Cricket

Alicia Perry

It’s that time of year: the time when Polite Provisions transforms from an alcohol apothecary into a Miracle on 30th Street. Surrounded by kitschy holiday décor, general manager Alicia Perry patiently talks me through this season’s specialty cocktails. “The communication piece, helping folks navigate the menu, is really important, because this year there are a lot of unique flavors and ingredients,” she says. To put this week’s cocktail in layman’s terms: the Christmas Cricket tastes “like a peppermint patty with warm notes of coconut.”

The name alludes to the classic after-dinner cocktail called the Grasshopper, of which the Christmas Cricket is a variation, and which similarly gets its green color from crème de menthe. “It’s definitely gonna be a dessert-based cocktail,” says Perry. “In terms of mouthfeel, very creamy. But even though it’s a dessert cocktail, it’s actually quite refreshing. It’s gonna have notes of spearmint in there. And then nuances of dark cacao. And the pandan.”

If you’re unfamiliar with pandan, she explains it thusly: “It’s essentially a long leaf, if you will, that derives traditionally from the Philippines… you can steep the leaf itself, or you can use the extract of it. It produces this almost warm, buttery, caramelized note in cocktails. It’s something that you wouldn’t expect, because you see a leaf, you think ‘vegetal.’ But I definitely think it helps to round out the cocktail as well. And I think pandan pairs really well with notes of cocoa and coconut, and that it plays nicely with the mint.”

Unlike the Grasshopper, the Cricket uses blanco tequila, balanced with mole bitters that tie back into the agave spirit. And rather than cream, Perry says, “We ended up wanting to make a vegan variation of this, by using oat milk. I think it’s very common nowadays to get an oat milk latte, so that’s what came to mind.”

Perry shares tips and tricks for recreating the recipe at home. “A lot of it has to do with not overdiluting the cocktail. So if you have a cocktail shaker at home, I would say you don’t necessarily have to pack it with ice — less is more with that. When you have less ice, it allows the cream and the cocktail to froth a little more. That allows for that creamier mouthfeel.”

If you want to switch it up a bit, she suggests “It’s even kind of fun to add a pinch of salt. It does round out some of the flavors. And, if you’ve ever made ice cream and added salt to it, you know that it helps solidify it a little more.”

Polite Provisions

• Polite Provisions’
• Christmas Cricket
• 1.5 oz blanco tequila
• 0.5 oz Licor 43
• 0.25 oz crème de menthe
• 0.75 oz coconut pandan syrup
• 0.75 oz oat milk
• 2 dashes mole bitters
• 2 dashes black walnut bitters

• Mix all ingredients in a shaker tin with ice and strain into a Nick and Nora glass. Garnish with grated nutmeg. Makes one 2.5 oz. batch.