How to Make the Drinks Angostura Fizz and Apocat and the Stories Behind Them

Every drink tells a story, and some mixed drinks are merely legend. The tales behind drinks are as much fun as drinking them, particularly upon hearing the arc of how they came to be. Researching Angostura Fizz and Apocat proved no exception.

Angostura Fizz is a long drink from Trinidad. Angostura is primarily found in cocktail recipes for its aroma, but mainly in very small quantities. The aromatic bitters were discovered in the town of Angostura on the Orinko by an adventurous German from Heidelberg. Dr. J. Siegert first fought at Waterloo against Napoleon, later in South America with the Libertine Simon Bolivar against the Spanish and landed finally in Venezuela after a period as a surgeon in Guayana. On the search for a remedy for malaria, he came across the Angostura tree and its bitter bark. Angostura bitters are still produced in Trinidad today under the company name of the inventor. The recipe for Angostura Fizz probably originates from Trinidad. To make the drink:

Ice cubes

5cl (3 tablespoons) lemon juice

1cl (2 teaspoons) sugar syrup

2cl (1 ½ tablespoons) Angostura

1 egg white

Soda water to fill glass

You'll want to fill the shaker with ice cubes, add lemon juice, sugar syrup, Angostura and egg white and shake well until the egg white is foamy. Strain the mixture into a long drink glass, top up with chilled soda water and serve with a straw. Angostura Fizz is a drink designed for hot days. It is to be had in the afternoon and evenings.

Apocat on the other hand is an avocado drink from Indonesia. Avocado pear trees have been growing for over 50 million years on the American continent. It is clear that their fruit which is rich in oil and protein was one of the first foods of the people in Central America. We know from the Aztecs that they consumed the flesh of the fruit tasting of nuts with particular relish, which do not really belong to the pear family but rather that of the berry family. They called the fruit ahuacatl, the Spanish then called it aguacate, the French avocet and from that root came the word we are familiar with to describe this avocado. The cultivated forms of the Persea Americana spread from Central America over the tropics and partly to the subtropical regions of the whole world. The best fruits grow on Sumatra in Indonesia. To make Apocat:

1 ripe avocado pear

2cl (1 ½ tablespoons) rum

1cl (2 teaspoons) cream of coconut

Chilled milk

3 to 4 ice cubes is ideal

You're going to want to extract the flesh from the avocado and puree it in your mixer with rum and cream of coconut. Pour the thick puree into a large tumbler, top up with chilled milk and stir with a long handled spoon and serve with ice cubes. Apocat is great at any time of the day to drink.