Rose Tree

LCPP - Part V

He took his vorpal sword in hand;

Long time the manxome foe he sought—

- Lewis Carroll

Perry McDaniel crafts the most exquisite puzzle boxes. Like a master chef, he orchestrates a meal in many courses and adds subtle flavors with the minutest adjustments in ingredients and seasonings. Over the years he has developed a fondness for pastries and produced many cake themed creations layered with delicious twists. He is even known, at times, as the “Puzzled Baker”. It should seem obvious that he would have been drawn to the little cake from Alice in Wonderland for his contribution to the Lewis Carroll Puzzle Project, and indeed he was, but something else caught his fancy in the end – the Rose Tree.

Rose Tree by Perry McDaniel

Perry explains the origins of what is now known as the Lewis Carroll Puzzle Project: “Rose Tree was only a very small part of a very large idea to bring together the design and building talents of 15 different puzzle artists under the umbrella of the Jabberwocky Project.  Themed on the Lewis Carroll books, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, the Jabberwocky project gave the task of producing 13 different themed puzzle boxes to fit inside a large Puzzle Chest (the Jabberwocky) all secured by a special brass puzzle lock. To begin, each of 13 puzzle makers chose a character or scene from the books and designed a box based on their selection.  After re-reading the two books, it was easy to identify many different possibilities for a curious collection of boxes, but alas, we were only allowed to select one each.  The race was on to lay claim to a character or scene.”

He further explains his own selection: “Initial sketches l made suggest my continued interest in dessert shapes and who doesn’t like cake?  I was also intrigued by the room full of doors at the bottom of the rabbit hole.  All those knobs and keyholes yet only one keyhole will work and ONLY if you are the right size and have the key at the right time.  It was a real sequential order conundrum for Alice.  But in the end, I favored a scene from the first book where Alice meets three gardeners (played by the 2, 5 and 7 of spades) who were frantically trying to paint a white rose tree red to avoid the ire (and the axe) of the Queen of Hearts.”

From Alice in Wonderland:

“A large rose-tree stood near the entrance of the garden: the roses growing on it were white, but there were three gardeners at it, busily painting them red. Alice thought this a very curious thing, and she went nearer to watch them, and just as she came up to them she heard one of them say, `Look out now, Five! Don't go splashing paint over me like that!'”

Beautiful marquetry by Quentin Smith

Again from Perry: “In the scene, the Queen’s procession passes the unfinished Rose Tree and were it not for Alice’s quickly hiding the gardeners, they would no doubt have met with an untimely end.  Where could they be?   And that was it.  I envisioned a box that captured the essence of a search by the Queen to find the three gardeners.” In Perry’s masterful style he has indeed created a puzzle hunt within the box, wherein a scene of the queen searching for her three gardeners plays out across the panels. The elegant detailing and precision needed to create this box speaks directly to Perry’s incredible skill and artistry. He crowned it all with a beautiful piece of marquetry, a rose medallion created by English inlay artist Quentin Smith. Rose Tree is truly beautiful, and one of McDaniel’s finest creations.

Rose Tree cocktail

Such an elegant box requires an elegant toast to match. Perry actually suggested that the Rose Tree cocktail include rose liqueur, which is of course exactly what it requires. There are rose liqueurs available which taste of sweetened air freshener, but I chose to go in a different direction for this Jabberwock cocktail variation. The gin and dry sherry remain. However the Caperitif vermouth is exchanged for a split of two different types of infused wine aperitifs, of a rosier disposition.

A drink with a rosy disposition

Italicus is a resurrected Italian aperitif known as a Rosolio di Torino which updates an old recipe from the fourteenth century and adds flavors of Bergamot orange to the mix. Rosolios were aromatized wines infused with citrus, aromatic herbs, and of course, roses. They were known as the drink of Kings, but I am taking some modern license to include Queens now as well. Italicus is lovely and sweet, so clearly needs something more bitter to balance it out here. Cocchi Americano is another Italian aromatized wine which has been made slightly bitter through infused herbs and roots – a process known as “amaricato”. It’s a wonderful substitute for vermouth in cocktails and there are also variations to the standard formula. The most notable is Cocchi Rosa, which uses a base of red wine and adds rose petals to the infusion. The two rose infused spirits work well together. A few dashes of rose bitters completes the drink. The final cocktail has a beautiful hue that sparkles like a gem, and tastes like one too. Cheers!

This pair is coming up roses

Rose Tree

1 oz gin

¾ oz fino sherry

½ oz Italicus

½ oz Cocchi Rosa

2 d Black Cloud Prairie Rose Bitters

To read about all of the puzzles see:

and check out the Perry McDaniel page too