You wake up late, dry-mouthed and puffy-eyed from last night’s partying. You sort through your hangover remedy options: electrolytes, kombucha, pear juice, raw egg, exercise — or that age-old cure: hair of the dog.
Don’t laugh. According to Kat Valentina, co-founder, medicinal mixologist and CEO of Lake Tahoe Distilling and partner company Elemental Spirits, a little gin mixed with peppermint leaves, dried lemon verbena and milk thistle tincture can help with liver detoxification and your hangover.
But how are you going to prepare, let alone find these herbs? Fear not. Lake Tahoe Distilling and Elemental Spirits offer a proprietary blend of bitter detox herbs and aromatic herbs such as lavender, holy basil, rosemary, celery leaf, Ceylon cinnamon, chili, sage, cacao and more. Add in their plant medicine-influenced, organic, non-GMO gins, rums and whiskeys for extra herbal support.
Chocolate whiskey?
On a sunny Wednesday in September, I visited The Tiki Bar at Beach Retreat & Lodge, one of Lake Tahoe Distilling’s customers, in South Lake Tahoe. There, Jeff VanHee, co-founder, head distiller and COO, greeted me with a bottle of amber-hued cacao whiskey and Elemental Spirits line of bitters: several small blue bottles containing botanicals macerated in alcohol.
VanHee poured me a shot of the cacao whiskey. The blend of raw cacao, toasted chia seeds and whiskey was smooth and subtly chocolaty. He added a few drops of Qi-Li (a blend of red wine, chili, raw cacao, star anise and bitterings) and the toasted chocolate flavor popped.
More than a hangover remedy
In addition to relieving hangovers, Valentina said, the botanicals can support a variety of health conditions. For example, the Qi-Li can increase circulation, relieve pain, boost cardiovascular health and help with Type 2 diabetes and weight loss. That’s why the co-founders call cocktails made from their products medicinal mixology.
Valentina and VanHee met at a distilling conference in San Diego. Valentina has a background in planetary herbology, Chinese medicine and bartending. VanHee studied fermentation at UC Davis. When he’s not distilling, he runs a construction company. The two founded Lake Tahoe Distilling in 2018. Most of their botanicals grow in northern California; the juniper berries for the gin grow around the Tahoe region.
Lake Tahoe Distilling plans to open a tasting room in South Lake Tahoe in spring 2023. | laketahoedistilling.com, 4elementalspirits.com
Drunk in Society: hangover remedy
From Kat Valentina
2 oz. gin
½ oz. mint honey*
dried lemon verbena
4 drops of milk thistle tincture
Shake with ice and pour. Sprinkle dried lemon verbena on the cocktail.
*MINT HONEY
Using spearmint and/or peppermint, add a mix of 2:1 mint/water to a saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer slightly and as the infusion cools, add honey to create a 1:3 composition of honey/liquid. Once cooled, strain and use.
