Saruman’s fighting Uruk-Hai. Berserkers. A larger, stronger, more intelligent species of hybrid ork with no weakness, for they could exist the sunlight unlike their brethren who shied away from the day. In the Peter Jackson movie they’re magical and spawned in these weird, slimy mud cocoons. Their true origin, however, in the Lord of the Rings novels, is a bit murky due to Tolkien’s wishy washy ways in dealing with the more devilish/licentious sectors of the canon. The Uruk-Hai were born of ork and goblin “men,” in other words an ork and a man or woman had some sort of twisted ups and downs in the sheets. Yeah. Gross.

Behind the bar Uruk-Hai is our house made Oro Blanco creme de pamplemousse crossed 1:1 with Cocchi Americano. Yeah. Daddy took some of the flesh and zest from some of those delicious “White Gold” puppies and left them in the booze closet for a time, fingers crossed as usual.

They’re a hybrid like most citrus. White grapefruit crossed with pomelo. Quite sweet and less bitter, the juice is utterly fantastic in cocktails and it’s worth buying a few during winter citrus season and plugging them into the classics such as a Paloma or my personal fave, a Salty Dog. Or hey! Impress your friends and make yourself a hummingbird.

The formula is quite simple here.

1 bottle dry white wine (I’m pretty sure I used Sancerre)

Flesh and Zest from one Oro Blanco

A couple slices of dried orange

4 crushed cardamom pods

1 cup vodka or pisco

.5 cup of sugar (optional)

I kept the sugar out of it this time around and it sat for about a month. I strained it twice. Once through a chinois for the big chunks and then painstakingly through coffee filters. This is partially why I no longer add sugar–adding sugar makes your coffee filter straining take ten times as long.

That’s about it. It follows the recipe I use for regular old creme de pamplemousse.