Wasabi functions as a bold cocktail ingredient, delivering spicy heat, fresh green aroma, and a slightly earthy vegetal note. The Tommy Wasabi margarita riff incorporates wasabi paste added directly before shaking to bridge Asian and Mexican flavor profiles. The Handroll bottled cocktail layers complex infusions: vodka treated like a dashi via sous vide with freeze-dried ginger and steeped over bonito flakes; wasabi peels sous vided with cocoa butter into a sorghum spirit; rice shochu, mirin, and white soy add rice, sweetness, and salinity. In carbonated drinks, minimal wasabi yields the best results.
"It's not meant to be subtle. It's a robust flavor that should be embraced." That's what renowned bartender Masahiro Urushido ( Katana Kitten) told me about wasabi, prominently featured in a Margarita riff called the Tommy Wasabi, which he was serving during a guest stint at Manhattan's spice-forward cocktail den Mace. Yep, that green stuff on the side of your sushi platter (which is the rhizome or underground stem of a wasabi plant, ground into a paste) is an excellent addition to mixed drinks.
"We start with a base of vodka, which is treated like a dashi, first infused via sous vide with freeze-dried ginger and then steeped while warm over bonito flake," Adler says. "The wasabi peels are sous vide alongside cocoa butter into a sorghum-based spirit called Soka. We also add rice shochu for the rice element of the sushi, a little mirin for a touch of body and sweetness, and white soy for salinity."
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