"Looks like my summer vacation is over." - Roxas in Kingdom Hearts II

Inspiration

Roxas is Sora’s Nobody in the Kingdom Hearts series, which basically means he’s Sora—but without a heart, right? Well, not exactly. In a twist typical of Kingdom Hearts, Roxas does have a heart, but it belongs to someone else: Ventus, a character who looks strikingly similar—practically identical—to Roxas. So, if Roxas is a mix of Sora and Ventus, it only makes sense that a cocktail inspired by him would draw from both.

This Roxas cocktail uses coconut milk to temper the tannic properties of a green tea-infused gin. The infused gin is paired with vermouth and a light amaro. A bitter experience fitting for Roxas’ introspection of his humanity.

Workshopping

Put the Tea in the Coconut?

To tie together Roxas’ two progenitors, Sora and Ventus, I set off to create a cocktail that could combine coconut and tea together. I’ve done a bit more reading into fat-washing where you quite literally take something fatty or oily and combine it with a solvent like alcohol. The alcohol-soluble flavors present in the fat will absorb into the solvent while the fat remains separate and can be filtered out later. Certain protein-heavy things like egg white or milk can also play a role in reducing the presence of astringent and bitter tannins which are typically found in deeply steeped teas. I figured there might be an opportunity to play with coconut oil and coconut milk with tea-infused spirits to find a base for Roxas’s drink.

I started with a few iterations of plain green tea-infused spirits. My spirits of choice here were whiskey (Suntory Toki), gin (Aviation), and vodka (Ketel One). I combined two 5 oz pours of each spirit with a single green tea bag (about 2 grams of green tea) and let them steep for about two hours, long enough for each jar to look about the same color. A quick taste of each infusion showed a quick green tea sweetness at the front, corresponding flavors from the base spirits right after, and then a sharp tannic bitterness towards the end.

One jar of each infused spirit was combined with ½ oz of liquid coconut oil and the other jar with 1 oz of coconut milk. I let all the infusions sit for about an hour or so. The coconut oil jars I placed in the freezer after letting them infuse. I later strained them after the oil had resolidified on top. They came out slightly cloudier than they did previously. I had some interesting results with the coconut milk jars. 

Interestingly, only the green tea-infused whiskey curdled like I was expecting it to. My theory here is the added acidity imparted by the aging process on the whiskey was enough to curdle the added coconut milk. The infused vodka and gin however needed a little bit of extra acidity to break down the proteins in the coconut milk. I mixed up a 10% solution of citric acid and titrated until I had added about ⅛ tsp. While the oil-washed solutions had a mild cloudiness, the clarified coconut milk infusions were very clear.

At this point I gave everything a taste, paying particular attention to how the coconut oil-washed spirits compared to the coconut milk-clarified spirits. The coconut milk adds a bit of dilution, a touch of sweetness, and reduces the dryness of the green tea infusion subtly. The coconut oil wash was a bit too bitter to appreciate any noticeable change in flavor imparted by the oil. My favorite infusion was the coconut milk and green tea gin because of its floral and herbaceous characteristics. It was less astringent and oaky than the infused whiskey and had more character than the infused vodka.

To Make Green Tea Infused and Coconut Milk Washed Gin

• Infuse gin by adding green tea bags. I’d recommend one tea bag per 5 oz of gin.

• Let infuse for about 2 hours, then remove the tea bags. Give them a light squeeze to coerce the more tannic gin out.

• Add ⅛ tsp of 10% citric acid solution per 5 oz of infused gin. This helps with clarification.

• In another container, prepare an amount of coconut milk equal to ⅕ the volume of infused gin.

• Pour the infused gin into the coconut milk slowly, and give a brief stir until curds begin to form.

• After the mixture begins settling, allow the curds to sink to the bottom.

• Begin straining through a coffee filter into another container until what comes through the filter begins to run clear in a few minutes. Swap the filter to a different container, and then pour the first bits of filtered gin back overtop. We’re attempting to maximize our yield here by double-filtering the first few drops that came out cloudy.

• Allow the filter process to continue until no liquid remains in the filter. This will take a few hours to a day depending on the amount of liquid present. You should be able to recover about 70% of the liquid.

I am me! Nobody else!

There was still a bit of tannic bitterness imparted by the green tea infusions even in the most diluted case with coconut milk washing. I hit another turning point for Roxas’ drink so I checked in for a moment. Would leaving any remaining bitterness adequately represent Roxas? At least as he initially reacts to Sora, Roxas appears jealous and even a bit furious since he is Sora’s nobody. Roxas exists in reference to Sora, but not on his own. It doesn’t seem to me that Roxas hates Sora, but he does harbor some anger towards him and others. He just wants to be his own person and is bitter and downright angry at the world for it. Roxas’ drink in my opinion should lean into the bitterness as an ode to his desire for his own agency and how he copes with the lack thereof during the events of Kingdom Hearts. I really vibed with one of the infused gins, so I experimented with further building out Roxas towards a Negroni-style cocktail. For this, I’d lean into my preference for the infused gin and try balancing a combo of vermouths and bitter ingredients.

I started with three mixes of equal parts infused gin, blanc vermouth (Dolin), and either yellow chartreuse, Suze, or Amaro Nonino. Amaro Nonino was my favorite, as it was less pronounced than the expression of the chartreuse or the Suze. There’s a bit too much sweetness, so I split the blanc vermouth into equal parts dry (Noilly Prat) and blanc. I explored briefly to amplify the coconut milk’s residual flavors by adding some vanilla vodka, before scrapping the idea. I was settling upon a combo of infused gin, Amaro Nonino, and a split of dry and blanc vermouths but the slight bitterness from the tea infusion was now too muted to be appreciable. A re-adjustment with a teensy bit of Suze left me with a combo that felt so Roxas, that I legitimately shed a tear. Lightly bitter with grapefruity fruit notes that linger with a floral flavor of green tea. All I needed now was a garnish to hone in on what’s most important to Roxas himself.

Roxas’ Blue Crystal Orb

Roxas’ struggle leads him to participate in a competition during his time in Twilight town. He wins the tournament and is presented with a trophy adorned with four crystal orbs of red, yellow, green, and blue. He pops off all of the orbs and gives them to his Twilight Town friends Hayner, Pence, and Olette, keeping the blue one for himself. Later on, Sora obtains that same blue orb and sheds a tear. Perhaps it was Roxas’ tear? Either way, to top off Roxas’ cocktail I did my best to create a small blue crystal orb to use as a garnish.

I got a small pack of pre-cut coconut slices, not the shaved ones, the chunks! With a bit of effort, I carved out a few small balls of coconut and let them sit in water with blue food dye until they had taken on a blue color. This technique also works with dyed alcohol, for example with a blue curaçao. For the Roxas cocktail, I put a wooden pick through one of these orbs as garnish. Depending on the size of the orbs, putting a toothpick or skewer through them might break it open. Be gentle with it, and make more than you think you need just in case! For Roxas’ mocktail, don’t worry about a skewer!

Flavor Analysis

Opens with an herbal and mild sweetness followed by a bitter mid-palate. Ends with a slightly tannic green tea finish with lingering notes of grapefruit.