How Are These Drinks Different? Take a Guess

Shake things up for the holiday with some fun, Passover-themed drinks.

“Sometimes a drink tells a story, and sometimes it’s a reimagining of something familiar to get you to experience it anew.” – Rabbi Avi Finegold

“Sometimes a drink tells a story, and sometimes it’s a reimagining of something familiar to get you to experience it anew,” Rabbi Avi Finegold, the creator of the Jewish Cocktail Lab, told the Journal. 

Finegold wanted to see if he could take the familiar elements of charoset – apples, nuts, wine and cinnamon – and use them to make a drink. The result: The Charoset Cocktail, which combines apple cider, amaretto, Manischewitz wine and a cinnamon tincture.

“Part of what I like about creating cocktails is the opportunity to get people to think about something creatively while enjoying a drink,” Finegold said. 

Avi Finegold’s Charoset Cocktail

4 oz apple cider
1.5 oz amaretto
1 bar spoon Manischewitz wine
2 dashes cinnamon tincture (cinnamon sticks macerated in Neutral Grain Spirit)

Combine amaretto, apple cider, cinnamon tincture and Manischewitz in a shaker.

Then, do a whip shake. To do this, add one ice cube to the shaker. Shake until you no longer hear the ice cube; you want it to fully dissolve. Pour it into a glass and enjoy!

Matthew Biancaniello’s Breeder’s Cup is known as “Passover in a Glass.”

Biancaniello created the recipe for a client, who loves beet horseradish and asked if he could make a cocktail with it that wasn’t a Bloody Mary.

When Evan Kleiman of KCRW’s ‘Good Food’ program tasted the drink, he dubbed it “Passover in a Glass,” due to the horseradish.

The recipe is featured in the Jewish Family Service LA Young Leaders’ cookbook, “Jewish Family Recipes.”

Breeder’s Cup (aka Passover In A Glass) by Matthew Biancaniello

2 oz gin
3/4 oz fresh lime juice
3/4 oz agave syrup (store bought or make it yourself)
3 cucumber slices, 1/8 inch thick
1 bar spoon of beet horseradish
Blue borage flowers for garnish

Muddle lime juice, agave syrup, cucumbers and horseradish into an old-fashioned glass. Add gin and ice to a shaker. Shake and strain into the glass with ice. Garnish with borage flowers on top.

To make the agave syrup, take a 1:1 ratio of agave nectar to water. Place together and stir at room temperature with a spoon until fully dissolved.

Remember the four cups of grape juice you had as a child? Rabbi Leibel Khazanovich’s Kadeish Club is a delicious grape juice cocktail that will help you reminisce.

Khazanovich, aka The Barshtender, is a Kosher mixologist in Miami, who brings an elevated bar experience to events, as well as mixology workshops.

Kadeish Club

2oz Dead Drop Light Rum (KFP)
.75oz lime juice
1oz grape juice reduction*
1 egg white

Combine rum, lime juice, grape juice reduction, and egg white in a shaker. Do a dry shake. 

Add ice and shake again. Strain into desired glass.

*To make the grape juice reduction, add grape juice to a saucepan and reduce down to 1/4 of original volume.

For a list of all Kosher for Passover liquors, visit Barshtender.com/pesach.

One of the rituals served at Passover is the custom of drinking four cups of wine, consumed in a specific order as the story of Exodus is told. For observant Jews, the wine served should be kosher. Although a kosher wine uses the same grapes as other wines, the wine making is handled by sabbath-observant Jews.

“The most important aspect of the Passover seder is the celebration of our redemption from slavery in Egypt,” Gabriel Geller, wine expert and director of PR at Royal Wine Corp, told the Journal. The largest producer, importer and exporter of kosher wines, Royal Wine Corp offers a delicious selection of kosher for Passover wines from around the world.

“We celebrate freedom,” Geller said. “So feel free to choose your wines for Passover, based on what you and your guests enjoy, be it a dry, refreshing rosé such as the Herzog Lineage Rosé, a bold and layered Volcano Cabernet Sauvignon from Carmel winery or a rich, creamy Chardonnay, such as the Weinstock Cellar Select.”

L’Chaim!