This course was originally going to be chorizo cream spheres in cider, a second recipe from “My Molecular Cuisine Kit”. I had the foresight to try this recipe out ahead of time and the results were disgusting; the cream mixture got very thick when spherified and it was the texture of wet cat food. Ugh.

I had already purchased bottles of Val de France sparkling apple juice so I decided to re-tool the recipe, and mint spheres sounded like they would go well with the cider.

I started with a simple syrup of mint leaves but the flavor wasn’t strong enough so I added some mint tea. Then the color was too brown so I added some green food dye to boost the color. I mixed 500ml of the mint syrup and 5.2g sodium alginate with an immersion blender, poured into 1/2 sphere silicone molds and froze for 2 hours.

Once frozen, the 1/2 spheres were dropped into a calcium bath (36oz water mixed with 5g calcium chloride). As they melted, they morphed into perfectly round spheres, like magic. And looked a lot like olives. The spheres were then rinsed in clean water and dropped into shots of apple juice.

The drink had a refreshing burst of sweet mint set against the carbonated, slightly sour cider.

See Molecular Gastronomy Party for the complete menu.