In this poetic post, I show you a wine cocktail recipe that I created for the birthday of the greatest Slovenian poet, France Prešeren, who was born December 3rd, 1800. You’ll also learn how to add a subtle chocolate taste with the chocolate paint in a drink. This is an easy trick that you can use to impress your friends and family at your next cocktail party. France Prešeren was a poet known who loved wine (a little too much) so I used that as the base of this cocktail. He was also known for handing out dried figs to children so they started calling him Dr. Fig. And the chocolate? Well, who doesn’t love chocolate? And a dash of homemade orange bitters gives it just a hint of citrus, which works with all of the ingredients. So here is my wine cocktail recipe with chocolate paint and a simple, dried fig liqueur.
Dr. Fig
• 75 ml (2 ½ oz) Rhine Riesling wine
• 15 ml (½ oz) fig liqueur
• 1 dash orange bitters
Stir and strain in a wine glass garnished with chocolate paint.
Homemade fig liqueur
• 200 g dried figs water
• 100 g sugar
• 200 ml (6 ¾ oz) vodka
Reconstitute 200 g of dried figs, in boiling hot water for 10 minutes, off the heat. Then drain the figs but keep the water for the dilution of our liqueur. Quarter the figs and place them in sous vide bag. Add 100 g of sugar, 200 ml (6 ¾ oz) vodka, and 140 grams of fig water. Carefully seal the bag and create a vacuum and place it in the sous vide water bath, set to 60°C or 140°F for 5 hours. Then take out the bag and leave it to cool to room temperature (or even better, leave it in the fridge for additional 12 hours). Cut open the bad and filter through a cheesecloth before bottling. The figs can be used for a jam.
Chocolate paint
• piece of chocolate, at least 70% cocoa
Place a small amount of chocolate in a bowl and heat it on indirect heat to avoid burning (eg. place in another bowl, partly filled with hot water). Once it’s soft and melted, get a brush and paint a stripe of chocolate inside the glass. Place the glass in the freezer so the chocolate melts slowly while drinking the cocktail.