Drinks

Cold glass, slow hands.

Three bottles, four rituals and three recipes. Nothing here needs a bar programme or a shaker — most of it needs only a fridge, a good glass and a few minutes you were going to spend anyway.

The rituals

01

Cold, but not frozen

Every bottle is live: the fermentation is stopped, not killed. Below 4 °C the aromatics lock shut and you taste only acidity. Fridge door for an hour, not the freezer for twenty minutes.

02

Open slowly

Turn the cap a quarter and wait for the hiss to settle before opening fully. Small-batch carbonation is uneven from bottle to bottle, and a fast open costs you a third of the bubble.

03

Pour high, drink low

A pour from twenty centimetres opens the perfume. After that, keep the glass low and wide so the aroma stays in the bowl rather than escaping past your ear.

04

Finish it the same evening

Refrigerated, an opened bottle keeps three days — but the carbonation goes long before the flavour does. Split a bottle between two glasses rather than saving half.

How to serve each bottle

Embra PERZIK bottle with hand-painted label

PERZIK

Peach, Thyme, Citrus

Temperature
6–8 °C
Glass
Small tulip glass
Garnish
Thyme sprig

Pour cold into a wide glass. Best with soft cheese, late afternoon light.

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Embra PEER bottle with hand-painted label

PEER

Pear, Kombu, Ginger, Black pepper

Temperature
8–10 °C
Glass
Straight-sided tumbler
Garnish
Ginger coin

Serve chilled with ice. A natural partner to roast vegetables and long dinners.

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Embra AARDBEI bottle with hand-painted label

AARDBEI

Strawberry, Tomato, Honeycomb, Vanilla

Temperature
10 °C
Glass
Wide-mouthed wine glass
Garnish
Honeycomb shard

Very cold, in a small glass. Excellent as an aperitif before anything grilled.

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Three recipes, no alcohol

Each of these was written behind an actual bar in Rotterdam-West and then simplified until it worked in a kitchen. Measure the first one, then stop measuring.

Built on PERZIK

Harbour Spritz

2 minutes · One tall glass

  1. 0160 ml chilled Perzik
  2. 0220 ml verjus
  3. 03Top with sparkling water
  4. 04Long ice, wide glass, thyme sprig

The verjus keeps the peach dry. Build it in the glass — shaking flattens the carbonation and the thyme goes bitter.

Built on PEER

Kombu Highball

3 minutes · One highball

  1. 0190 ml Peer over one large cube
  2. 021 bar spoon ginger syrup
  3. 03Crack black pepper over the top
  4. 04Stir slowly for twenty seconds

One big cube, never crushed ice. The drink is already saline from the kombu; dilution is the enemy here.

Built on AARDBEI

Maas Negroni

4 minutes · One small tumbler

  1. 0160 ml Aardbei
  2. 0220 ml bitter non-alcoholic aperitif
  3. 0310 ml honeycomb cordial
  4. 04Stir down, vanilla pod, no ice

Chill the glass in the freezer instead of adding ice. Aardbei is dense enough that water blunts it within a minute.

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