Red Velvet Underground Assume Nothing Drink Recipe

By Katie Briggs

“Assume Nothing!” A mantra for The Crown as we worked towards opening our doors in March of 2019, the phrase became a Menu section, encouraging our visitors to drop their preconceptions and be open to new and delicious experiences. And now it’s the title of a drink recipe series, for you to recreate at home. Here’s to a year of assuming nothing!

Red Velvet Underground 

Summer months are my favorite. Theres something about the bright sun, the earthy smell of the warm days and the smell of flowers blooming in the air. The white noise of the fan running in my apartment is something so nostalgic to me. It brings me back to summer vacation as a kid. No responsibilities, just hanging out at home in front of said fan, or trying to find the next thing to do to cool off. Having essential and spontaneous coming of age experiences with friends that you will remember forever. Although I did not drink much coffee at a young age, that earthy summer smell revisits me every year and that is the feeling I wanted to bring to this drink. With bright juicy blood orange, earthy beets and soft lavender, this is a combination of some of the things I loved most about summer growing up. An iced or hot cappuccino sized drink that will activate your senses and your summer nostalgia. 

Recipe 

I start with making a blood orange simple syrup with equal parts sugar and water. Once the sugar is melted down in the water, I cut two blood oranges in half, zest them into the mixture, then squeeze the juice from them and throw the whole oranges into the syrup to boil for about 5 minutes. I add 10g of lavender to the syrup about 1 minute before it’s done boiling. I then strain the syrup so there are no small bits in it and set it aside to cool.  

• 1 Quart water 
• 1 Quart sugar 
• 2 Blood oranges 
• 10g Dried lavender 

I then make beet juice to add to the syrup. Adding fresh beet juice instead of making a beet syrup helps bring out the flavor in the final product. I simply juice about 3 large beets, which yields around 360g of juice, and add it to the blood orange syrup. The final drink also gets 5g of chocolate added to the syrup. 

Check out the Assume Nothing series, and if you are in the Bay Area, stop by The Crown to taste the seasonal signature beverage.