Jørn Utzon

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This cocktail is tropical yet savory. It’s made with aquavit, apple brandy, passionfruit, lemon, ginger and beets. Great for when you want something tropical in the winter time.

Way back when I had dreams of opening my own cocktail bar, I wanted to name it The Wee Pearl (hence the name of my website). In my dreams it had a very classic, but tropical vibe. Much to my surprise that bar already existed. It was called Mother of Pearl on the corner of 6th and Avenue A. Not only was the decor on point, but the drinks were stellar. One of my favorite drinks from there was called Jørn Utzon - named after the famous danish architect. Unfortunately Mother of Pearl closed last summer, so I likely wouldn’t be having that drink again, unless of course i made it myself- which, (spoiler alert!) of course i did! Just like my other favorite cocktail recreations, and I’m noticing a running theme here- they each contain passionfruit! Passionfruit has such a bold, tropical yet savory flavor that just works so well in these cocktails.

You’ll need the following equipment:

Ingredients:

Passionfruit
Simple Syrup
Ginger
Calvados
Aquavit
Beet Powder

In Serendipity passionfruit blended beautifully with tomato. In the Whiskey Passion Fizz it lifted the sweet malty flavors of the whiskey. In this cocktail, passionfruit is paired with beet, aquavit, apple brandy and lemon to make a truly remarkable drink. For apple brandy I’ll be using Calvados which is an apple brandy from Normandy, France. You could also use American apple brandy here, but do not he that it will be a bit sweeter. Calvados tends to be drier and have a bit more complexity. It can only be made with cider apples, unlike American apple brandy. It works really nicely with aquavit. For the aquavit, I’ll be using the one I made last year.

I couldn’t find any recipe online for this cocktail, so I had to make some estimations on the recipe.

I decided to make my own passionfruit syrup using fresh passionfruit. It’s best to use older passionfruit for this syrup - ones that look like they’re a bit shriveled. While they aren’t the prettiest they actually have a more intense flavor.

To make the syrup, I’m going to cut open the passionfruit and scoop out the seeds and pulp from inside.

I also want to add a little ginger in the syrup too. Just a tiny piece that I will peel before tossing into my blending container. I think it will compliment the other flavors in the drink. The passionfruit yielded about 1/4 cup. To my blending container I’ll add 1/4 cup of simple syrup.

Now I’ll just blend this until the ginger has been pulverized, then I’ll strain out the seeds and the stringy parts from the ginger.

To make the drink, I’ll add 1/2 an ounce of fresh lemon juice to my shaker tin, 3/4 oz passionfruit ginger syrup, 1 oz aquavit, 1 oz calvados. Now I’ll add the ice and shake for 10 seconds. I’ll double strain into my coupe and dust a layer of dehydrated beet juice powder. I love the look of the red powder sitting on top of the drink. I think it looks quite striking!

This is a great cold weather cocktail. The caraway from the aquavit and the beet bring a nice savory balance to the tartness and fruitiness from the calvados and passionfruit syrup. The hint of ginger adds a nice bit of spice too.