Friday, September 28, 2012

Pumpkin Martinis - Garnish Ideas

Pumpkin Martini with Tapioca Pearls
The best pumpkin martinis in the world, need world class garnish.   I've struggled to come up with garnish that complements the coveted pumpkin martini both visually and taste-wise.  I've seen the tapioca pearls in some Halloween drinks and they can be quite dramatic, but I'd never had so much as a bubble tea and had no idea what to expect.  So I headed off to our local Uwajimaya Asian grocery store and picked up some tapioca pearls to test out.  I picked up three varieties, "black", "black sugar", and a mixed color.   There wasn't a lot of descriptive text on the packaging, it was mostly what you see is what you get.  I like the black in contrast to the pumpkin liqueur and while I haven't tasted all of them yet, I think the two black types may be very similar, they are in appearance after being boiled.

They are very simple to prepare, they just need boiling for 5-10 minutes and they are ready to go.   They have the consistency of gummy worms but not much flavor.  They do tend to pick up the flavor of whatever they are in, so I'm testing soaking them in pumpkin liqueur to see how they taste.

Pumpkin Martini with Tapioca Pearls
They are very Halloween, but I think this martini needs a proper Halloween name. Hmmm?

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