Man Go Violet Your Tastebuds: Violet, Mango, Carrot, Rum

This week we are going to present a series of drinks that combine unlikely ingredients together with surprising results. Using molecular gastronomy (food chemistry), we've chosen flavor pairings that complement each other well because they share common chemicals.For our first drink in the series we packed together a triple flavor combo: mango + carrots, mango + violet, and carrots + violet.

Man Go Violet Your Tastebuds1.5 oz Ron Zacapa rum1 oz Mango juice1 oz Carrot juice.5 Violet syrup.25 Lemon juiceShake over ice and double strain. Garnish with an orange peel.

Carrots, mangos, and violet taste good together because they all share a bunch of chemicals called ionones, which are "floral" aromatic fragrance compounds. The combination of alpha-ionene and beta-ionene smells like "violet", and is often used to make violet perfumes and artificial violet flavor (I'm looking at you, Monin violet syrup). Carrots are rich in various sorts of carotenes, which all contain beta-ionene, like violet. Joe knew from experience that mango juice and carrot juice are delicious together, but neither of us had ever thought to combine carrots or mangos with violet. This drink was exciting because we did just that!Personally, I found that the violet syrup we used gave the drink an unfortunate "candy" taste, but I don't blame the violet flavor, I blame the candy taste on the particular syrup we chose to use. One of these days I'd like to make some homemade violet syrup. We included lemon juice in this drink because it adds just enough sourness, but this drink is by nature a succulent one. The triple combo of ionene-based flavor pairings was a winner. Mangos, violet, and carrots all fit together nicely, united by the violet's floral sweetness. Sipping this drink is like experiencing a symphony of flavors, all playing together in perfect harmony.We've found a few great resources on the web that list interesting flavor pairings, so I thought it'd be worth dropping a few links here for other adventurous cocktail enthusiasts. Khymos has a great page explaining the idea behind choosing foods with a common chemical makeup, and even a blog where they try out a few. Egullet.org has a pretty sweet thread on their forums all about molecular pairings, so go check it out!