Welcome, Friends of Alchemy. Are you ready to help me find the best potion in Hogwarts and crown the Champion House? To start the competition we’ll see Gryffindor, and then we’ll see how they fare against Hufflepuff - each with a cocktail that embodies their founders and the values, traits and elements of their respective houses and their students.
In Gryffindor, courage reigns supreme, like the blazing fire that fuels their spirits. Hufflepuff, on the other hand, stands firm like the earth, embodying loyalty and kindness… and you’re not going to be just observing students, you can have a say in who wins! To do this, you can vote for your favorite house cocktail on YouTube and on Patreon, where each vote is worth 10 points. I’ll also send the Hufflepuff cup from the episode to one lucky Patron, regardless of which House wins.
I’ll be starting this Duel of Houses with the Gryffindor potion. Because of Gryffindor's fiery spirit, represented by a lion mascot, their scarlet and gold colors, and their bravery, my starting point was the cocktail with strong flavors that the muggles call the Penicillin, with spicy ginger, honey and the smoky float on top. It will be called the Godric’s Elixir, and a quick trip to Diagon Alley will be enough for all the supplies you’ll need.
The base will be something the spirit purebloods might call a mudblood whiskey. It’s aged for only 9 days using acceleration techniques, but as many Gryffindors have shown, it’s the boldness on the inside that matters - and Arbejd will give us enough flavor and smokiness we expect in this potion. Instead of honey-ginger syrup I’ll use a combination of homemade ginger liqueur, for the fiery kick, and cinnamon syrup with beetroot, for the scarlet color.
Lemon Super Juice and saline solution are almost magic ingredients as well, if you ask me. Here they’ll balance the sweetness and boost the flavors. And for a bold, flashy finish, candied ginger with a little true magic. I don’t want to make this episode too long, and I also have another cocktail idea for this ginger liqueur, so I’ll keep its recipe hidden in The Restricted Section of the library. There are commercially available options out there that are perfectly fine too, not only on Diagon Alley.
So let’s begin by getting a cauldron ready with a sous-vide cooker and make our Cinnamon & Beetroot Syrup. It’s magical Cocktail Time!
Cinnamon & Beetroot Syrup
● 150g Water
● 150g Sugar
● 3g Crushed Ceylon Cinnamon
● 2g Beetroot Powder
Start by combining the water and sugar in a sous vide bag, and add to that theceylon cinnamon - this variety is also safer to use than the hard-bark cassia cinnamon, so get the right stuff. Crush it with a mortar and pestle and add it to the bag, but keep the beetroot powder until afterwards because it could lose the color with the heat. Now let’s double seal the bag with a vacuum sealer, and maybe a little magic, just to be safe, then place it in our cauldron, and cook it for 1 hour at 88°C or 190°F.
Once that’s done, let the syrup cool before opening the bag and strain it through a cloth filter. Now it’s time to turn it red, and instead of “blood of the enemy, forcibly taken” I’ll mix in beetroot powder. I’ll add a link below, but if you still want to mimic blood, you can use pure beetroot juice as well. Once it’s nicely mixed, transfer it to a bottle, and don’t forget to add a label, so you don’t mix this up with Salamander blood. With that, we’re ready to make Godric’s Elixir, which will make you be of good courage.
Godric’s Elixir
● 52.5mL · 1.75oz EtOH Ardbejt Whiskey
● 22.5mL · 0.75oz Ginger Liqueur
● 22.5mL · 0.75oz Lemon Super Juice
● 22.5mL · 0.75oz Cinnamon & Beetroot Syrup
● 2 drops 20% Saline Solution
● Candied ginger wrapped in food-grade pyropaper
This will be a shaken potion, so grab a shaker and chill it, while a low tumbler glass is ready and waiting in the freezing dungeons. So pour in your ingredients, then add our cocktail to the ice and give it a good, hard shake to chill, dilute and aerate the drink. Using the accio spell, summon the chilled glass from the freezer, add a tempered ice cube, and double strain the cocktail over it. And for the final touch, to represent the fire that burns in the heart of a lion, a candied ginger wrapped in food-grade pyropaper.
With a flick of a wand… Indencio! The cocktail is ready, so for all the brave at heart let’s take a sip, then move on with a cocktail for those just and loyal, those patient Hufflepuffs. Velvety red syrup made a pinkish cocktail, but the orange ginger brings the Gryffindor look. It has a nice burnt, smoky aroma, which leads into a rich, full-bodied and balanced cocktail, with the spicy ginger and cinnamon being in the front, but not overpowering this easy-to-drink elixir.
It’s a great potion, but let’s now give the floor to humble and hardworking Hufflepuffs, represented by the badger mascot. They're known for their loyalty, kindness, and patience. Their element is earth, so it’s fitting that the head of their house is a professor of Herbology. So to honor that, I was looking to make a herbal, earthy cocktail, and something that would be perfect to serve in Helga Hufflepuff’s cup. I was lucky enough to get it from a cloaked stranger at the Hog's Head… that has never turned out bad, right?
If you’d like to have it in your collection, I’ve found a replica that you can get here, but it will have a small hole in it - probably from where the horcrux was - so I wouldn’t suggest you use it for drinking. But back to the cocktail, for that solid, subtly grassy base I’m going with blanco tequila, representing patience, since it requires years for agave to grow large enough before it’s harvested by hard-working jimadors.
The herbal heart of this cocktail will be Green Chartreuse, created by monks from the Carthusian order that’s almost as old as Hogwarts itself. And while Mandrakes are growing to full maturity, Professor Sprout created a clear basil cordial, for the citrus, sweetness and additional herbal notes in the cocktail. Saline solution is again a key ingredient, but here the finishing touch will be a mushroom perfume, made with porcini or penny bun mushrooms, picked from the Forbidden Forest of course.
I think Professor Sprout actually used the same recipe as I did, when making the Zero Waste Gin Basil Smash, so check that out for the instructions on how to make the basil cordial. Just make sure you label it carefully, so you don’t mix up basil cordial and basilisk venom, but I think it’s time for everyone to learn how to make Porcini Perfume - Of course make sure not to wander too far into the forbidden forest, especially not at night, and that you’ve studied the One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi from cover to cover.
Porcini Perfume
● 30mL · 1oz 40% ABV Vodka
● 1.2g Dehydrated Porcini Mushroom
Once you’ve found the perfect edible mushroom, dehydrate it and mix it with the vodka. You can use other spirits as well, but I think the mushroom will give us enough complexity and flavor. You should leave this to infuse for 6 days, or, if you have the Elder Wand, try tapping it 6 times and that might just have the same effect. Once this is done, strain the infused porcini vodka into a spray bottle, and with that we can now mix the potion that will best suit those that do what is nice. Let’s make Helga’s Cup.
Helga’s Cup
● 60mL · 2oz Mijenta Blanco Tequila
● 37.5mL · 1.25oz Clarified Basil Cordial
● 7.5mL · 0.25oz Green Chartreuse
● 4 drops 20% Saline Solution
● Porcini Perfume
This time I’ll first add ice to the cup itself to chill before we move on to the shaker. Same as for the last potion, add your ingredients except the Porcini Perfume into a chilled shaker filled with ice, and give the cocktail a good, hard shake. Remove the ice from the cup and double strain the cocktail, but this time into the cup of Helga Hufflepuff. For garnish let’s add a single basil leaf, then spray the whole cocktail with a few sprays of mushroom perfume… I could see Helga drinking this during a Yule Ball, cheers!
It’s pleasantly earthy and umami on the aroma, with the fresh basil complementing the body provided by the blanco tequila and the herbal chartreuse. A wonderful, spring herbal cocktail that is very enjoyable - like you’d expect from the company of a Hufflepuff. With that though we’ve made it to The Bottom of The Cup of this first Duel of Houses. Don’t forget to cast your vote, but spoiler alert, I’d give my vote to Hufflepuff.
That’s just one vote though, so let’s see who will go on to duel against the winner of Slytherin vs Ravenclaw, and if you’re looking for more Harry Potter inspired cocktails, how about learning how to make Butterbeer? Cheers!