Wake County Cooler

Poole's: Recipes and Stories from a Modern Diner

If you like sweet tea with lemon, you might like this cocktail.

You can find this recipe here: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/wake-county-cooler

Captions

[00:04]: hi guys and welcome to cooking the books
[00:07]: with Heather today we're going to
[00:09]: continue our cocktail series and we're
[00:11]: working from the pools diner cookbook
[00:13]: and we're going to make the Wake County
[00:16]: cooler in case you didn't know we're in
[00:19]: Raleigh North Carolina which is in Wake
[00:21]: County and that's also where pols diner
[00:25]: is so that's the name I suppose but the
[00:29]: first thing we need to do is make some
[00:31]: black tea vodka the recipe calls for a
[00:35]: whole bottle of Tito's vodka we're gonna
[00:38]: be making about a half recipe my husband
[00:40]: is weary of making it without having had
[00:43]: it making a whole bottle and maybe not
[00:45]: using it so all we really need to do
[00:49]: right now is add this tea to the vodka
[00:52]: I've cut this down by about half then
[00:57]: this is the only loose black tea that I
[01:00]: could find it's an English breakfast tea
[01:02]: a blend of black teas I'm sure it will
[01:04]: be fine but we're just going to put the
[01:06]: loose tea in the bottle with the vodka
[01:09]: and then I'm going to shake it up to
[01:10]: make sure it gets all incorporated so it
[01:14]: steeps there we go just gonna yeah
[01:26]: that's it for now we have to wait three
[01:28]: hours before we strain this so we'll be
[01:32]: back in about three hours my alarm just
[01:37]: went off so the T has been steeping in
[01:41]: the vodka for three hours now and now
[01:45]: we're just gonna strain it in through a
[01:48]: fine mesh strainer I've got it over just
[01:52]: this mixing bowl because that will hold
[01:54]: it and then I'm gonna rinse out the
[01:56]: bottle just to make sure I get all of
[01:58]: the tea out of it before I pour it back
[01:60]: in to store it in the refrigerator for
[02:02]: up to six months so hopefully this will
[02:04]: be fine enough to strain out all of the
[02:07]: tea
[02:15]: all right so now I'm going to go away
[02:19]: for a minute to get all of this tea out
[02:21]: of here so I can store it Tenace bottle
[02:23]: in the refrigerator although since I
[02:26]: don't have quite as much I don't really
[02:28]: need to penguin I'm gonna respond up so
[02:34]: I'm just gonna pour this back in the
[02:35]: bottle I didn't see too much sediment
[02:45]: left in in what had been strained so
[02:49]: that's pretty good but now we're just
[02:51]: going to put the whole cocktail together
[02:53]: it's pretty simple other than that I'm
[02:55]: gonna be making a double batch so my
[02:57]: husband and I can each have one I'm
[03:00]: gonna make it in my shaker and let's see
[03:04]: I've got my recipe here so I don't mess
[03:07]: it up I mean he does some lemon juice
[03:11]: that's the first thing I need and so I
[03:16]: don't spill Oh spill my lemon juice all
[03:20]: over the place that's got a little spoon
[03:26]: if I was smart I would have just put it
[03:29]: in a measuring cup but hasn't my spout
[03:32]: like that one all right there's that and
[03:41]: then we have some simple syrup this is
[03:44]: just a mixture of equal parts sugar and
[03:48]: water heat it up until it is all
[03:52]: dissolved and then cool it down and
[03:56]: store it in the refrigerator for a while
[03:57]: it'll last a lot on my refrigerator
[04:04]: and oh I am missing one ingredient I'll
[04:08]: get that in just a minute
[04:09]: but then we just have the black tea
[04:12]: vodka that we just made
[04:28]: all right and we're gonna shake this
[04:32]: over ice until it is chill I did of
[04:38]: course get a little bit messy here I
[04:58]: think that's well chilled it's hurting
[05:01]: my hands the metal is so cold and then
[05:07]: I'm going to strain it over these again
[05:10]: large ice cubes she just says glass
[05:13]: highball glass filled with an ice-filled
[05:18]: highball glass and so I'm gonna try to
[05:22]: do this pretty even and then the
[05:45]: ingredient I forgot about I have some I
[05:51]: have some cold club soda
[05:54]: it just says soda and I'm assuming she
[05:58]: means club soda I'm gonna have my
[06:02]: assistant open this for me
[06:04]: so all right
[06:07]: club soda doesn't have any sweetener in
[06:09]: it it's basically just carbonated water
[06:11]: and she says to top it to the rim with
[06:17]: club soda
[06:21]: I think that's good for us and garnish
[06:28]: with a lemon wedge and that's it well
[06:38]: let's know how it tastes
[06:47]: on this episode you watch me make a wait
[06:50]: County cooler out of the pool Steiner
[06:52]: cookbook and we are sweet tee' fans but
[07:00]: I have to say that for my husband this
[07:04]: did not taste like southern sweet tea he
[07:08]: said it tasted like Yankee sweet tea he
[07:12]: is not a fan of lemon in his sweet tea
[07:14]: and and that certainly did not help so
[07:18]: there's a lot of women in this it
[07:20]: definitely tastes kind of like um it all
[07:25]: Arnold Palmer lemonade flus sweet tea
[07:28]: but you know alcoholic so with the lemon
[07:32]: in it he really did not like it we tried
[07:35]: it without the lemon and it was very
[07:39]: tannic this was like the next day so it
[07:41]: been there refrigerator for an extra day
[07:43]: it was very tannic needed a lot of the
[07:47]: simple syrup to sweeten it up to make it
[07:50]: more palatable and I think we did end up
[07:52]: adding some lemon juice at that point
[07:54]: but less than the recipe called for kind
[07:57]: of glad we didn't make a whole bottle of
[07:58]: the black tea vodka but um it was I mean
[08:03]: I really did enjoy the drink for me I
[08:08]: like it with lemon so it was good it was
[08:11]: a nice light refreshing drink that you
[08:13]: could drink in the summer if you don't
[08:16]: like lemon in your tea you might want to
[08:19]: dial that back a little bit yeah
[08:23]: I did enjoy it and it was not that
[08:25]: difficult just had to wait a little
[08:28]: while for the tea to steep into vodka
[08:30]: but other than I was pretty pretty
[08:33]: normal for a drink put some things
[08:37]: together and shake it anyway if you
[08:40]: enjoyed watching me make this then
[08:42]: please give me a thumbs up and come back
[08:44]: next week to watch me make something
[08:45]: else
[08:51]: got that close the thing I can hear it
[08:59]: and it's driving me crazy so