Damien mixes: “Five Fingers Martini” with Soy Yoghurt

© Damien Guichard

This month, Damien Guichard shows us how to mix a very special drink with soy yoghurt from the comfort of your own home.

This month will be a little bit different. As some of you may know, I am currently on paternity leave after becoming a daddy to the most beautiful daughter for the first time in January.

When you would usually find me experimenting behind the bar at Wax On, I decided to fully embrace my new and current lifestyle and go full home bar style with the Five Fingers Martini.

Why Five Fingers Martini? Amongst all the skills I have had to master over the last few weeks, using one hand only to accomplish any kind of task is the one I have used the most. Five fingers make one hand, you get the gist of it. Now that doesn’t mean that we won’t be making anything interesting so let’s get right into it and mix something delicious with vanilla soy yoghurt. 

© Damien Guichard

I find using yoghurt in drinks an interesting way to cover two important aspects of a cocktail: flavour and texture. When it comes to Martinis the dilution and viscosity of your drink are as important as its flavour. Now to make sure our martini remains as clean and crispy as it should be, let's look at how we can easily clarify yoghurt in the kitchen at home. All you will need for this one is basic kitchen utensils and a freezer.

First of all, let’s weigh our vanilla soy yoghurt and combine it with 40% ABV vodka. I like to use 1/3 yoghurt to vodka ratio, so in this case: 170g soy yoghurt for 500g of vodka. Give it a good stir until all the ingredients are perfectly combined and place the mix into a container. Place the container overnight in your freezer and filter your infusion through a coffee filter. And voilà, you now have delicious clear soy vanilla vodka. If you feel like adjusting the intensity of the flavour for your own personal taste, feel free to dilute it with a little more vodka.

Now let’s mix our Martini!

I wanted to play around with the infamous Grasshopper and give it a more modern, minimal twist. Using our vanilla soy vodka as a base, we will be adding mint eau de vie and white vermouth, enjoy! 

Recipe for a “Five Fingers Martini”