Pumpkin spiced persimmon cocktails you must make this fall!

So a while back, I posted about the pumpkin spiced persimmon syrup that I made. The past few weeks I spent some time experimenting with cocktails, mostly classic recipes, but using my spicy, sweet, fruity syrup. Here are some of my favorites:

Ripening wild persimmons

Don't have wild, foraged persimmons? 

It's ok, I bet these drinks would taste awesome with store-bought fruit as well. 

Perfect for an after-work cocktail:

Spiced Persimmon Old Fashioned 

Spiced Persimmon Old Fashioned

For this drink, I used a local Texas mixed whiskey, Rebecca Creek. I think it's only available in Texas, maybe Oklahoma and Arkansas as well. 

It's a mixed whiskey, more than half corn, 21% rye, and wheat and barley in as well. I chose it, first because it's really really good, and second because I see Old Fashioned are made with either bourbon or rye, and this way I don't have to choose.

If you can't get your hands on a corn and rye whiskey, I'd use a bourbon, as I think the flavor will mix best with the spices and the persimmons.

Also, Rebecca Creek doesn't pay me or anything for the link, I just happen to like their product.

1. Mix 1 tbs spiced persimmon syrup with 1.5 oz whiskey. 
2. Add 2 dashes of Angostura bitters
3. Serve over ice. 
4. Optional: garnish with an orange slice, a cherry, or both

Pumpkin spiced wild persimmon syrup for cocktails, baking & dessert. Vegan, gluten-free, paleo optional and foraged.

We all know the old joke: "If you say Pumpkin Spice Latte" into a mirror

three times, a suburban girl in yoga pants will appear and tell you her three favorite things about fall.

Well, I don't wear yoga pants. But. . .it's not far off. I actually don't even DRINK coffee, except when it's a pumpkin spice latte during the fall.  I love that warm flavor of sugar, spice and everything nice. So I couldn't help but wonder what else I could use it with. Persimmons, another fall-only fruit, with a sweet/tart flavor, seemed like it would be the perfect pairing.

It came out really amazing. My husband took one taste and said, "It tastes like the holidays".

It's also really, really easy to mix up a batch, and can be used in cocktails, desserts, baking and more. The base recipe is vegan and gluten-free, and can be made with non-foraged (aka store-bought) persimmons, if you can't find wild ones by you. There's even a Paleo option!

Foraging: identifying and sustainably harvesting wild Virginian (American) persimmons

  

Identification difficulty: Beginner

So last September, I think on Labor Day weekend, I went out for a forage, and I found wild persimmons, Diospyros virginiana. They were hard as rocks, and quite unripe, so I looked them up and figured they'd be ready to go in November. So I waited, came back in November, and the trees were completely bare. 

This Labor Day weekend, I went out again, and found them to be just starting to ripen. So what the season for these guys is, I don't quite know yet. 

I do know that I got my first taste of wild Virginian (or American) persimmon, and it was amazing. They taste so much better than the cultivated varieties, which have always been bland and rather chalky to me. These are sweet, mellow and with subtle tropical flavors: guava, mango, peach and banana, maybe. They're hard to describe. 

These are actually somewhat underripe, and leave a tang on the tongue. I'll be harvesting more this coming weekend, and see if that astringency goes away. Still they are very very tasty. 

But if you're in North Texas, they are coming into season for you right now, so I'll show you what to look for.