The Fennel Fantasy

Crafted at The Imperial Life in Asheville, N.C.

The Imperial Life is an intimate cocktail bar and lounge in Asheville, N.C. To accompany the pre-Prohibition-era, barrel-aged and house-crafted cocktails on our drink menu, we created a beer cocktail that is both refreshing and complex: a “turbo shandy” featuring our house-made celery-fennel soda and Asheville-based French Broad Brewing’s Gateway Kölsch.

The beer is refreshingly crisp with light, sweet, malty notes that perfectly complement the soda’s herbal brightness. The Cynar’s bitterness gives the cocktail depth and highlights the fresh citrus characteristics.

1 oz Luksusowa Vodka
1⁄2 oz Cynar
3⁄4 oz fresh lemon juice
3 oz celery-fennel soda
8 oz French Broad’s Gateway Kölsch (or another Kölsch, like Harpoon Summer Beer or Ballast Point’s Pale Ale)

Combine vodka, Cynar, lemon juice and soda in a pokal glass, add ice and stir gently. Top slowly with Kölsch using a spoon to integrate beer into the cocktail. Garnish with lemon slices.

Celery-fennel soda instructions:
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
3 tbsp fresh ground celery seed
1 tsp fresh ground fennel seed

Combine sugar and water in saucepan and stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Add celery and fennel seed and turn off heat. Cover and steep for one hour. Strain through a fine mesh strainer, let cool and refrigerate. To use, combine 1/2 oz syrup with 6 oz soda water and stir. ■