Damien mixes: Palo Santo Negroni

Palo Santo aka “holy stick” aka “Bursera graveolent”

Palo Santo is most commonly found in South American countries such as Peru, Venezuela and Ecuador. When smoked around the house, it is believed to cleanse it of bad energies and bring good luck. It can also be consumed as a tea as remedy for common ailments such as stomachache or rheumatisms. But it also happens to be really tasty. It is full of limonene, a compound found in citrus, caraway and dill – isn’t Wikipedia great?

Let’s get cracking!

Palo Santo is extremely aromatic when brewed in water. You will get notes of pine, citrus, wood and mint which is why we are going to go ahead and infuse it in a neutral grain spirit in order to keep the flavour intac – in this case vodka. We like to start by burning it in order to extract even more flavour out of it.

Then simply combine one stick of Palo Santo in 700ml of vodka in a vacuum sealed bag and heat it sous vide at 50C for 30min. It is very fragrant and leaving it in too long will impart an unpleasant rubbery aroma. If you don’t have access to sous vide equipment, infuse the vodka and place it in the fridge overnight.

At Wax On we are lucky to have a rotary evaporator at our disposal. When using the Palo Santo vodka after infusing is an absolutely acceptable option, but we like to distill it. It gives a nice citrusy finish as limonene happens to be quite volatile and is therefore a good candidate for distillation. We strain the vodka into the evaporation flask and redistill it at 35C and 30mbar. Once it’s done, we make sure the distillate is at 40C again and voilà, we’re ready to make a tasty cocktail with it! 

Palo Santo Negroni

I’ve never been a huge fan of negronis as I find them quite aggressive and unbalanced. But in this case, I find the delicate flavour of palo Santo particularly pleasant as a negroni variation.  I’ve combined it with the usual suspects – Campari and sweet vermouth – but also added a little bit of Muyu vetiver gris to bridge all the aromatics together.

The final specs are:

Palo Santo Negroni (with distillate)

• ·        30ml Gin
• ·        20ml Cocchi Red ( Antica Formula, Carpano Classic work wonders too)
• ·        20ml Campari
• ·        5ml Muyu Vetiver Gris
• ·        1bsp Palo Santo Distillate

Palo Santo Negroni (with infusion)

• ·        20ml Gin
• ·        20ml Cocchi Red
• ·        20ml Campari
• ·        10ml Palo Santo Infused Vodka
• ·        5ml Muyu Vetiver Gris

Stirred and strained over a large block of ice. No Garnish. Cheers!

© Damien Guichard

© Damien Guichard