Singing the virtues of balsamic vinegar in... beverages

Okay, bear with me -- I'm eventually going to get to the drinks.

In the beginning, I was visiting the offices of Rally Health (my then-employers) for the first time since I was hired. Rally was on K Street in Washington DC, a neighborhood that I hadn't spent any time in before. We were having our first on-site for our entire team, getting to know each other.

I had a couple of hours to kill that first afternoon, so I decided to go for a wander into nearby Georgetown. And it was there that I stumbled into Georgetown Olive Oil Company, and was utterly consumed.

Those of you who know me well will know that I'm a bit of a novelty and variety geek -- FOMO is a major force in my life. I want to try everything. (Smorgasbords are horribly dangerous for me.) So this store was a wonderland of varieties of olive oils and balsamic vinegars.

Messing around with olive oils, sure -- I'd been picking up a variety of those for various olive oil stores over the years. But I'd never seen such a selection of balsamics before, and so many of them were so cool. Black Truffle! Blood Orange! Bourbon! Mojito! Smoked! And of course, they promise flat-rate shipping if you buy enough bottles, so it's even a deal. I bought a lot of bottles, mostly small ones.

And then I had all these bottles, and was presented with the dilemma of what the heck to do with them. I mean, some could be used simply. (The Smoked Balsamic is thick, intensely flavored, and fabulous on veggies -- half a tsp on plain vegetables is glorious, and highly recommended.) But some were just weird. I mean, Mojito Balsamic? It sounds cool, but what do you do with Mojito Balsamic?

Finally it hit me: why not take it literally? It's named after a cocktail -- why not use it in one?

That totally worked. A dash of lime, a hint of mint, in a slightly sweet and sour environment. As a mixer in a cocktail, there's a world of potential there.

So the moral of the story is, if you enjoy experimenting with mixology, it's well worthwhile to keep a stock of balsamics in your cabinet. Good cocktails should often have a sour note to them -- not overwhelmingly, but a balanced cocktail should (IMO) be a bit sour, a bit sweet, and a bit bitter. Too often, folks limit that "sour" to lime and lemon juices, but you can do so much more.

Vanilla balsamic belongs in this drink; Blood Orange in that one; Espresso here; Jalepeno Lime there. There are so many options to add subtle notes that enhance your drink. It's really fun -- I recommend giving it a try! (Just keep in mind that it can be strong: you typically want up to a maximum of a tsp in my experience, not the tablespoon you would sometimes use of a citrus juice.)

Bonus: cocktails aren't the only thing you can put balsamic into. Almost as often as I do that, I put it into seltzer.

I've been drinking plain seltzer my entire life. (My heritage is, after all, New York Jewish.) But it gets boring, so I was very taken when, about five years ago, our local bar-supply store taught me that you can use bitters in seltzer to give them some flavor. But that's still a little one-note.

For real complexity, start with a pint glass with about a tablespoon of a flavored balsamic; add to that some shakes of a complementary bitter to taste. (I like a lot of bitter; most people will want just a dash.) Pour the seltzer on top -- slowly, since it will sometimes foam a lot.

It takes some experimentation, but when you get it right, you wind up with a "soda" that is low calorie, with a flavor that is subtle but interesting and fun. (I use our SodaStream a lot more since figuring this one out.) So if you're looking to play, I recommend picking up some small bottles of interesting-sounding balsamics and bitters, and messing around with them.