All over the world, people are increasingly looking for non-alcoholic alternatives that are not forced compromises to wines, but healthy accompaniments to the most exciting restaurant dishes.
In recent years, fermented beverages have been in the spotlight. These drinks are now often chosen even by people who would otherwise consume alcohol. The growing interest in these innovative beverages can be traced back to their positive effect on the digestive system, and the richness of flavour, aroma and refreshing feeling a sip of a fermented drink can bring to the table.
From the beginning, SALT’s menu has featured a wide variety of non-alcoholic beverages, fermented or prepared by other exciting methods: guests can order wine and non-alcoholic juice pairings to accompany their tasting menu, providing the same quality culinary experience.
In the SALT kitchen, Maya Makádi and Lili Kendik are responsible for the non-alcoholic drinks, and developing the juice pairings is just as exciting and creative a process as planning our menu. A period of brainstorming is followed by experimentation and then continuous tasting with the help of the restaurant team: recipes are refined until they taste exactly how our experts want them to taste.
The goal is to design new beverages that provide a complex tasting experience with food, but are also 100% delicious and enjoyable in their own right, that are good to drink, and that also have the potential to subtly change the palate. If our guests stand up from the table having experienced enjoyable new flavours, ingredients and techniques, that means our juices were a success.
When creating the drink menu, there are several aspects that the girls take into account: the closeness to nature that is fundamental to SALT’s philosophy, sustainability, the traditions of Hungarian peasant cuisine and soft drink-making habits of different nations, as well as current trends. They also work closely with the kitchen team to create drinks that match the menu from season to season, menu to menu.
Our approach to sustainability can be witnessed in the zero waste philosophy applied when handling leftover materials and by-products, and in the use of the same techniques we use in the kitchen – the amazaké and rice cake are made from koji rice, for example.
Like our kitchen, our juice section also uses a variety of herbs, wild plants, seasonal vegetables and fruits, aiming to bring exciting, lesser-known, local ingredients closer to our guests. The last drink of the dining experience served right before leaving is a great example of that – the dandelion root ‘coffee’ is very similar to chicory, however only a small number of people is familiar with it, therefore it’s an exciting novelty with a familiar flare.
Maya and Lili also have their fingers on the pulse of international trends. This year, techniques adapted from cocktail making, fermentation, oleo (citrus oil extracted with sugar and used for the lemon verbena kombucha) and de-alcoholization are the most typical techniques used in innovative juice-making.
The current juice pairing features a number of exciting twists. Like ginger beer, herbal beer is a refreshing drink with a lively herbal flavour, made with a process similar to ginger beer’s, with an infusion of herbs instead of ginger tea and fermented with ginger bug.
Jun, a fermented drink made with raw honey instead of sugar is also incredibly exciting. A less acidic sibling of kombucha, this drink has a deep honey flavour and the chrysanthemum tea-based juice is also spiced up with pollen.
Juices can be ordered as a tasting set, but also individually.
For first-timers, kombucha, tibicos, quince tepache or herbal beer might be a good introduction, while for more advanced juice-enjoyers, we recommend Lili and Maya’s favourites.
Lili is most proud of the lemon verbena kombucha with oleo saccharum, while Maya recommends the red spritzer with cherry juice, sorbus juice and a fermented Ghanaian drink made from field corn called asaana.
The fact that even such humble ingredients show their sophisticated flare in SALT is perhaps the best reason to try these amazing juices.
