Midnight Rambler's Wild New Cocktail Menu Is Inspired by the Pagan Rites of Spring

Midnight Rambler's new menu is inspired by the Pagan Rites of Spring and boasts nine intriguing cocktails, each with painstaking ingredients.

By Susie Oszustowicz

May 10, 2018

"Eostre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring, was celebrated with the birch tree," Midnight Rambler says of this esoteric new cocktail. Courtesy Midnight Rambler

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Midnight Rambler is at the forefront of envelope-pushing cocktails in Dallas. Thanks to Cuffs & Buttons, a company established by cocktail industry phenoms Chad Solomon and Christy Pope, the drinks on each new menu are so unusual that you need a cheat sheet to know the lengths gone to in order to make them mind-blowingly complex and simple, all at the same time.

The spring 2018 menu, Pagan Ritual, is inspired by the pagan rites of spring and boasts nine intriguing cocktails, each with painstakingly crafted ingredients. According to the press release about the new menu, "Themes of fertility, renewal and the balance of light and dark inform the new cocktails, with flavor and aroma coming on like trance-inducing Dionysian rhythms. In addition to herbal liqueurs, gin, aquavit, grape brandy and mezcal, the menu is infused with floral and herbal elements."

The one we're most excited about? Sippin' Sap All Day, a cocktail inspired by the goddess of spring, celebrated by tapping birch trees for sap. The cocktail has a slight sweetness from the rye whiskey offset by the spice of the Pippali tincture "made by pan-toasting pippali long pepper and infusing it into neutral spirit via a sous vide."

Bottom line: We know it's delicious, even if the explanation is all Greek to us.

Sippin' Sap All Day ($12): Balcones TX Rye Whiskey, birch extract, Crown maple syrup, Pippali tincture, Angostura Bitters

Midnight Rambler, 1530 Main St. (Downtown)

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