Barrow's Intense: 200 Pounds of Fresh Ginger a Batch, and the Backbone of Our 212

Most ginger liqueurs are built on extract. This one is built on ginger.

Over two hundred pounds of it per batch, washed, trimmed, chopped, macerated and pressed by hand.

Four Ingredients

Fresh ginger, neutral cane spirit, water, cane sugar. That is the entire recipe.

No preservatives, no artificial flavouring, nothing standing in for the root. It comes in at 22%.

It is also left unfiltered on purpose, which is why the bottle looks slightly cloudy and why you will sometimes see sediment sitting at the bottom. That is not a flaw. Filtering would strip out exactly the material that makes it taste like ginger rather than like a ginger-flavoured syrup.

Where the Name Comes From

Josh Morton worked the recipe out in his loft on Barrow Street, in the West Village. Production moved to Industry City on the Brooklyn waterfront once it outgrew the apartment, but the name stayed with the street.

The 212

Three things: Barrow's, Japanese gin, and our own yuzu sour mix, which has shiso in it.

The name works twice over. The build is two parts, one part, two parts: 2, 1, 2. And 212 is our area code; our number is 212-477-0100. The ratio landed there on its own, and the coincidence was good enough to name a drink after.

The gin gives it a herbal, citrus-leaning base. The yuzu sour brings a sharper, more floral acidity than lemon would, with the shiso running underneath it, somewhere between mint and basil. And the Barrow's is the heat, the thing that stops it being a pleasant, polite citrus drink and gives it a spine.

Ginger and yuzu are a natural pairing. Ginger and shiso is the more interesting one: both are aromatic in a way that could easily fight, and instead they stack.

It has become one of our most ordered cocktails, and the ginger is the reason.

Why We Keep It Behind the Bar

It is a Brooklyn product in a Japanese bar, which we like. Beyond the 212 it works across gin, whisky and rum drinks, and it takes soda well if you want something simple.

Try the 212 at Juraku

Izakaya Juraku, 121 Ludlow Street, Lower East Side.