This season’s trendiest cocktail ingredient is corn

If you’re out and about in trendy cocktail bars this winter, you might stumble across an unexpected ingredient on your cocktail menu: corn. Long a staple of cuisines across the Americas, this beloved food item is now making its way into creative and intriguing cocktails.

We spoke to Suzy Critchlow, bar manager of award-winning Washington DC restaurant Pascual, about their take on a corn cocktail and ways to incorporate the trend into your own home bartending.

Working with corn

Pascual’s corn cocktail for this season is a variation on the sweet and creamy classic Piña Colada, which uses a striking purple corn drink called Chicha Morada. “It is a beverage that originated in the Andean mountains of Peru where purple corn is abundant,” Critchlow explained. “Traditionally made by boiling dried purple corn with pineapple & spices,” it is typically a non-alcoholic drink, and is enjoyed either made from scratch or using powders or concentrates for a quicker option.

Critchlow was inspired to combine the Chicha Morada into a coconut cream. “We were doing a popup with a Peruvian restaurant (Maty’s in Miami), and I wanted to put together a cocktail that combined Mexican and Peruvian flavors — thus the Mexican rum (Charanda) and chicha morada,” she said. “We already were making a cocktail with coconut cream, so coconut milk was abundant in house. So I decided to substitute water for coconut cream.”

The combination of corn and coconut turned out to be fortuitous, giving the pairing more depth.  “The corn gives the coconut cream another dimension,” Critchlow said. “Corn is already sweet, but also has this nutty flavor to it. So it works nicely!”

The result is a sweet, fruity drink with the creaminess of coconut and a striking pink color, making the most of both the flavor and the appearance of the purple corn. In addition to corn, it has flavors of cinnamon, pineapple, coconut, and lime.

Critchlow said customers have been loving the drink, which was a big hit with the visitors: “Plus it’s bright pink from the purple corn. It was one of those drinks that people see passing by on the way to another table, and then they need to order it for themselves.”

The flavors of corn and how it works with other ingredients

Corn is known for its sweet taste, but it also has a buttery, round, savory note that can play well with various ingredients. While traditional U.S. corn dishes include items like creamed corn or corn chowder, which leans toward the thicker and creamier, corn is used in crispy or sharp forms elsewhere in the world. Mexico famously has a huge range of corn dishes, from salads to elote, and is often paired with tangy flavors like lime and chili.

You can take inspiration from these dishes and preparations when looking at how to work with corn in drinks. The smokiness of mezcal would be a natural fit, as would the spicy rye whiskey notes. And there’s practically nothing that won’t go well with vodka.

Critchlow has previously used corn in a variation on the Rob Roy: “It was called the Cob Roy and had corn-infused water as dilution,” she said. And she has plans for the future, too: “Definitely planning on playing with masa in the near future at Pascual.”

There are also ways to make corn’s flavor work with sweet or savory preparations, depending on what other ingredients you use and how you emphasize the corn notes. Below are examples of two drinks using corn, one sweet and one savory, to inspire you.

Arguably, one of the challenges of working with corn is not figuring out how to work with its flavors but rather finding out how best to extract those flavors to work in a cocktail. You need to find a way to take the flavor of corn and turn it into a smooth liquid that doesn’t have too much texture or lumpiness—so forget just sticking some corn in a blender and scraping it into your drink! That won’t give an elegant or pleasing drink result.

But Critchlow said there are tons of other ways to get corn flavor into a cocktail-ready form: “There are so many ways to incorporate corn flavors into your drinks: corn juice, dried corn, masa, fresh corn, corn liquors (Nixta), so the possibilities are endless. Have fun! Keep experimenting and getting to know how flavors work together.”

Working with corn liquors

One of the most popular forms of corn for cocktails that Critchlow mentioned is Nixta, an extremely popular corn liquor from Mexico that can be found in the U.S. as well. It has a nutty, robust flavor that strongly carries the flavors of corn and is popularly used for takes on classic drinks like the Old Fashioned or the Margarita.

Generally speaking, a little goes a long way when it comes to Nixta, as its flavor is so pronounced. Unless you’re a real corn enthusiast, you’ll likely want to start using Nixta in small amounts, such as adding half an ounce to a whiskey Old Fashioned to give it a corn kick.

Using fresh corn

One option for working with fresh corn is to add it to the bottom of a shaker, along with some flavoring (a little salt, lime juice, and cilantro sounds delicious to me) and a slug of simple syrup, then muddling extremely well. You’ll need to really mash the corn down well, so be prepared to work hard at it and do your best to pound the mixture as well as you can. Once you’ve added your spirit (I’d recommend mezcal), you can shake it with ice, then strain the mixture very well into a glass.

I’d even consider straining the drink once using cheesecloth, then straining again using a cocktail strainer to try and get the drink as smooth as you can.

Create your own infusions

Infusing is an easy way to take flavor from almost any ingredient and add it to alcohol. The only downside is that it takes time. For this method, take your fresh or dried corn, wash it so it’s clean, and then put it in a sealable container like a mason jar. Pour over your spirit of choice — many people like to use vodka for infusions, and a corn-based vodka would be a fun choice, but you could also try tequila, whiskey, or even gin — and then seal the lid. Give it a really good shake.

Now keep the jar somewhere cool and dark like a pantry for a couple of weeks. Give it a shake occasionally, and make sure none of the corn is poking out above the level of the spirit, as that can lead to spoiling. You can taste-test it as you go along until you’re happy with the flavor.

Once you’re satisfied, strain the infusion using cheesecloth (you might need to do this several times to remove all of the material) and discard the corn. Now, you can use your corn-infused liquor in any cocktail of your choosing.

Incorporating corn via fat-washing

A variation on infusion is a technique called fat washing that is particularly well suited to working with corn. This is the technique used by the Residents Café and Bar in Washington DC for their corn cocktail, the Corn Fashioned, which is featured below. It begins with butter, which is seasoned with both charred corn and salt. This butter is then added to a spirit — or, in the case of the Corn Fashioned, a combination of ingredients of bourbon, tequila, and Nixta — and left at room temperature for a few hours for the flavors to meld.

Then, you chill the mixture so that the fat forms a solid mass on the top, which you can then scoop out a discard. Strain the liquor, and you’ll find it has a rich, buttery texture with a hint of smoky corn flavor.

Corn cocktail recipes

Ready to incorporate corn into your cocktails? Here are some recipes to get you started.

Chicha Morada Colada

(Recipe from Pascual, Washington D.C.)

Ingredients:

• 1.5 oz Uruapan Charanda Blanco
• 1.5 oz Chicha Morada Coconut Cream
• 1 oz pineapple juice
• 0.75 oz lime juice

Method:

• Shake all ingredients and strain into a hurricane glass.
• Add crushed or pebble ice and top with a few dashes of Angostura bitters.
• Garnish with pineapple and cherry flag.

Chicha Morada & Passionfruit Coconut Cream

Ingredients:

• 1 bag of dried purple corn
• 1 (96 oz) can of coconut milk
• 1 quart of cut pineapple
• 3 cinnamon sticks
• 64 oz white sugar
• 1 x 32 oz container of frozen passionfruit puree

Method:

1. Thaw passionfruit puree.
2. Add coconut milk, pineapple, cinnamon sticks, and purple corn to a stock pot.
3. Simmer for 45 minutes.
4. Strain and add white sugar, stirring to dissolve. A
5. dd thawed passionfruit purée.

Corn Fashion

(Recipe from Residents Café and Bar, Washington D.C.)

Ingredients:

• Angostura Bitters
• 0.75 oz Buffalo Trace Bourbon
• 0.75 oz Corazon Tequila Reposado
• 1.5 oz Nixta Corn Liqueur
• Siete Misterios Mezcal (float, added before serving)
• Lightly burned corn husk and a mini corn dusted with Tajín for garnish

Method:

1. Mix the bourbon, tequila, and Nixta Corn Liqueur.
2. Then, fat-wash this combination with butter seasoned with charred corn and salt.
3. Finish the drink with a splash of Mezcal and a mini corn garnish dusted with tajin.