The Benefit: A Sake Cocktail
The Benefit is a beautiful pink sake cocktail with lemongrass, ginger, grapefruit, and more.
Calories: 275kcal
Ingredients
- 6 stalks fresh lemongrass
- 3- inch piece fresh ginger
- ¼ cup (50 grams) sugar
- 1 cup (240 ml) vodka
- 4 cups (950 ml) premium sake
- 1 ½ cups (355 ml) freshly squeezed pink or ruby red grapefruit juice
- ½ cup (120 ml) freshly squeezed Meyer lemon juice
Instructions
- Trim bottom end and woody top half of each lemongrass stalk, reserving tops to use as garnish. Roughly chop remaining segments and add to a mini food processor.
- Roughly chop ginger (no need to peel) and add to food processor along with sugar.
- Pulse until ingredients are very finely chopped.
- Transfer lemongrass mixture to a 4-cup glass measuring cup, quart-sized mason jar, or nonreactive bowl.
- Pour in the vodka and stir.
- Let sit for at least 15 minutes at room temperature — up to a week in the fridge.
- Strain vodka into a pitcher through a fine-mesh sieve, pressing down a bit to extract flavor from the solids.
- Pour in sake, grapefruit juice, and Meyer lemon juice and give it a stir.
- Add two cups of ice.
- To serve, pour into glasses filled partway with ice. To garnish, trim woody bits from tops of reserved lemongrass stalks and slice to form a fanlike shape.
Notes
- Lemongrass has a beautiful, complex flavor profile that brings bright, botanical vibes to this cocktail. Choose firm, fragrant stalks. Since you'll be straining out the solids, you can include the tough outer layers and upper portions of the stalks — just trim the bases and reserve the tips to use as garnish.
- Fresh ginger packs a ton of flavor and a bit of heat. There's no need to peel it for this recipe, since you'll strain it out.
- Use a top-shelf vodka. I tend to stock Grey Goose, which has a lovely, toasty vibe and creamy finish. Belvedere is another great choice. I'm not really on the Tito's bandwagon, but if you are, that would be a fine option, too. (Or make this cocktail with gin if you prefer.)
- Sake is a Japanese rice wine. I tend to use a good-quality Junmai or Junmai Gingo sake that I enjoy drinking. (Junmai means there's no no distilled alcohol added, and gingo has to do with the percentage that the rice is polished before brewing.) Here I've pictured a cute little can that also includes the word genshu, which means it wasn't diluted after brewing and therefore has a slightly higher alcohol percentage (18% vs. about 15%).
- Be sure to use freshly squeezed grapefruit juice and Meyer lemon juice, which combine to provide a gorgeous spectrum of citrus flavors. If you can't find Meyer lemons, regular lemon juice is a fine substitution. Meyer lemons are a little bit sweeter and more floral, but both versions of this cocktail are nice.
- You can get a head start (and amp up the flavor profile) by muddling the ginger, lemongrass, and sugar and steeping it in the vodka up to a week in advance. Just cover it tightly and keep it in the fridge. Citrus juice will be at its absolute best for about three hours after squeezing, so I don't recommend proceeding with the rest of the prep until then.
Single serving instructions
If you’d prefer to make just one drink, here’s how. Muddle together in the bottom of a cocktail shaker 1 ½ teaspoons sugar, 2 tablespoons finely chopped lemongrass, and 1 teaspoon grated ginger. Pour in one ounce (30 ml) vodka and let sit for at least 15 minutes. Add ½ cup sake, 1 ½ ounces (45 ml) grapefruit juice, 1 tablespoon (15 ml) Meyer lemon juice, and plenty of ice. Shake well, until very cold. Double-strain into an ice-filled glass, garnish with lemongrass, and serve. Adapted from Bojon Gourmet.Nutrition
Calories: 275kcal