Æcorn Bitter Citrus, Non-Alcoholic Spritz 50cl

Product Information

We have a lot more acorn recipes coming this year, and next up is acorn ice cream…stay tuned! More Foraged Food Recipes The game of thrones recipe, on the other hand, is more like actual nut butter. The hot-leached acorns are quite soft after all that boiling, and they need to be roasted to drive off some of the water. Aecorn Apéritifs, Seedlip’s sister company, made its debut in 2019. Inspired by the “European apéritif tradition”, its range of non-alcoholic aperitifs are based on English herbal remedies from the 17 th century. Each expression is produced from grapes and aromatised with herbs, roots and bitter botanicals. The range includes: Aecorn dry white (nettle, gentian, clary sage and chamomile with a herbal, bittersweet finish); Aecorn Bitter (grapefruit skin, bay and orange marmalade with lingering notes of quassia and honeycomb); and Aecorn Aromatic red (smoked cherrywood, vanilla, kola nut and chinotto, finishing with subtle notes of chocolate, raisin and oak). Belgian brand Opius is on a mission to ‘capture the experience and sensation’ of spirits without alcohol. Its Albedo expression aims to achieve this goal using anise and a variety of herbs and spices, and our judges found it to be successful thanks to its notes of “fennel and sweetness” on the palate, plus its “lovely bitterness and notes of spices, such as cumin and cloves”. This fall we made it our mission to collect and process as many acorns as possible. Generally, acorns are processed into acorn flour or grits, for either baking or porridge. But I got to thinking, isn’t an acorn a nut? Couldn’t you make woodland nut butter from acorns?

The sweetened nut paste is then either pounded by hand or processed in a food processor. The resulting acorn butter is sweet, with a slight nuttiness, and a good bit of apple flavor. Acorns, on the other hand, took more like 1/3 of a cup (to 1 cup acorns). A little research and this amount actually makes sense.

Almonds are around 50% oil, while acorns are usually much lower, less than 10%. There are some specific oil varieties of acorns, but based on the taste and texture of our local variety, I’d guess they were the low oil type. A place within the aperitivo hour, a drinking time previously dominated by alcoholic spritzes and Aperol, is a game changer for the low and no category. But Aecorn are also targeting another popular trend; that of the 'home-grown' drink.

Hot tip: To increase surface area and speed up leaching, grind the acorns first. Then, soak them in hot or cold water and strain them using a cheesecloth when the water runs clear. Acorn Flour Acorn flour is nutritious, but acorn recipes with only this flour can be too dense. (Foto: CC0 / Pixabay / Taken) Chopped acorns can be used as a topping on desserts, incorporated into baked goods or tossed onto a salad for some added crunch. They can either be chopped on a cutting board with a knife or in a food processor. The size of the chop is up to you. Obstacles, to be sure, but I wasn’t deterred. The acorns can be leached first, then dried and processed into acorn butter. Adding additional oil isn’t that big a deal, and a teaspoon or two should be enough to bring the nut butter together.Zajneb Al-Rahma from Aecorn Aperitifs has an answer: every venue should be offering a carefully thought-out low and no range. "We're at the beginning of a paradigm shift in the role drinks play in people's lives," she explains. "The timing and need for quality, adult non-alcoholic options has certainly never been more relevant." Another Cornish export, High Point launched in 2021 with an innovative take on the aperitif / digestif category. It produces a Ruby Apéritif made by infusing and fermenting natural ingredients, largely from the Cornish countryside, including tea leaves, hibiscus, lavender, wormwood, pink peppercorn, orange zest and grapefruit. It also produces a non-alcoholic Amber Digestif, made with lapsang, ginger, clove, vanilla, cacao nibs, gentian root and oak. The result is a drink with notes of smoke and spice, vanilla and “log-fired toffee”, designed to be serves over ice and topped up with ginger ale.