Grass Clippings

This year I was tasked with putting some serious effort into the Union Wine Co. FIELD NOTES   This is a part of their site that tells employee stories, showcases recipes and cocktails as well as a few cool How To’s…

This is one of those posts.  Check them all out in the above link.

Creating the Perfect Springtime Cocktail

(featuring the one and only Lucas Plant)

  There is a particular Portland phenomenon we have been noticing for years.   Every Spring there is one weekend where, with no conscious cues or communication,  everyone in town decides it's time to cut the grass.    It's that first perfect weekend,  when the rain has let up,  the grass is a little too tall and healthy,  and so the ol’ lawnmower gets dusted off,  gassed up and put to task.

During that weekend (which just by coincidence happened to be last weekend), all of Portland is filled with that unmistakably sweet, musky scent of freshly cut grass.   The kids are playing in the yard,  the parks are full and Spring has officially Sprung.

Enter Lucas Plant….  bartender and cook extraordinaire, Navy man, father and all around charming guy.  Lucas has worked at many of the best spots in Portland,  from Clyde Common to Central to Oven & Shaker.   Currently,  Lucas is a “luxury spirits broker” for Coastal Pacific, but he is also part owner of Bull In China    We asked Lucas to create a cocktail that captured the happiness of the first weekend of Spring and all the nostalgic flavors it evokes.   

Lucas set to the task and concocted an intriguing cocktail,   (whose name, coincidentally, originated from the memoir  I Couldn’t Smoke the Grass on my Fathers Lawn by Charlie Chaplin’s son Michael.)

Grass Clippings

3 1/2 oz Kings Ridge Riesling

1/2 oz Bee Local Honey Water

1/2 teaspoon Bee Local Bee Pollen

1/2 teaspoon Steven Smith Powdered Macha Tea No. 7

STEP ONE:

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with lots of ice.   

Lucas uses a professional bar spoon,   but a 1/2 teaspoon measure works just as well.

STEP TWO: Shake like your life depends on it!

STEP 3:  Strain (to remover solids) into another shaker with no ice.

STEP FOUR:  Shake again as if you life depends on it.   This step is very important as it aerates the liquid and releases all the pollen and macha flavors.

STEP FIVE:   Pour into a chilled coup glass and enjoy.

Much thanks to Lucas for lending his time and talents to this post.  And if you dig the custom apron he is sporting,  check out Portlands own 

OROX Leathers.

Also,   head over to Bull In China for all your professional (and unprofessional) bar accoutrements.

Photography and Text by David L. Reamer.  (@dlreamer)