Tag: cocktails for spring

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Original Recipe: Ted’s Tequila Cocktail

My friend Ted hit a birthday milestone earlier this year.  I was invited to contribute to the celebration by designing a signature cocktail that the fantastic bar team at Del Mar would serve the guests at his party.  The only guideline I was given was to use tequila.  This turned out to be harder than I thought.  I haven’t worked a lot with tequila outside of making margaritas (though my Desert Orange and Smoked Pearl recipes use mezcal).  And I wanted to live up to the circumstances – an important occasion attended by a lot of people.  The recipe had to be good and have wide appeal.  Needless to say, there was a lot of trial and error before settling on a final recipe.  But I think I succeeded, and now I’m sharing it with you – Ted’s Tequila Cocktail:

Ted's Tequila Cocktail

The concept I had in mind was to make a drink that marked a transition from spring to summer, which seemed both literally and metaphorically apt.  For spring I chose the floral and herbal flavors of St.-Germain and yellow Chartreuse; for summer, pineapple and jalapeño.  I also added a little lemon juice to amp up the tanginess a little and balance against the sweetness of the spring flavors.

It worked!  In fact, this is one of my favorite concoctions to date.  It’s a perfect balance of sweet, tangy and spicy, and very easy to drink.  It went over very well at the birthday party, and it has been a crowd-pleaser in subsequent events, too.  Be prepared to serve multiple rounds if you’re making this one for guests!

A word on spice.  You can modulate how spicy the drink is by being mindful of the number of seeds in the jalapeño pepper.  As I detail in the recipe, this drink should be shaken with one slice of jalapeño pepper and garnished with another slice.  More seeds (in either place, but especially in the shaker) means more spice.  You can minimize the spice by using slices of pepper that contain no seeds.

Here is the recipe:

Ted's Tequila Cocktail recipe
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Ted's Tequila Cocktail

This cocktail celebrates spring with some herbal and floral flavors provided by yellow Chartreuse and St.-Germain, warms you up with a bit of jalapeño, and previews summer with pineapple juice and citrus.
Prep Time5 minutes
Total Time5 minutes
Course: Drinks
Cuisine: Sour
Keyword: Pineapple tequila recipe
Servings: 1 cocktail
Calories: 182kcal
Author: Geoffrey Wyatt

Ingredients

  • 1 oz. tequila I used Espolòn
  • 1/2 oz. yellow Chartreuse
  • 1/2 oz. St.-Germain
  • 1/2 oz. pineapple juice
  • 1/2 oz. freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1 pineapple chunk
  • 1 jalapeño

Instructions

  • Combine the tequila, Chartreuse, St.-Germain, juices and a slice of jalapeño pepper in a shaking tin with ice.  Note that more seeds in the jalapeño pepper means more spice.  Shake vigorously.
  • Strain into a rocks glass over ice.
  • Garnish with a chunk of pineapple and a slice of jalapeño pepper.

Enjoy!

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Classic Recipe with a Twist: Cherry Blossom Negroni

Cherry-blossom season is basically over in the District.  But cherry-blossom drinking need not be.  So far I’ve offered you two cherry-blossom cocktails.  The Sakura Sparkler is a refreshing non-alcoholic cocktail made with Seedlip.  In that recipe, I also showed you how to make your own cherry-blossom ice cubes.  Bookmark that, because we’ll use it again here.  I also brought you another original recipe – the Cherry Blossom Cocktail – which was made with Cerasum cherry-blossom liqueur by D.C.’s own Don Ciccio & Figli.  Now I bring you one last recipe for this cherry-blossom season:  the Cherry Blossom Negroni.

Cherry Blossom Negroni

The Negroni needs no introduction.  It is made with equal parts gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth.  One of the classic cocktails, the Negroni has one of those colorful and contested histories.  The leading versions agree that the drink is named after a Count Negroni of Italy.  But they disagree as to when the drink was invented, and by which Count.  And other historical research casts doubt on whether the inventor was really a Count at all.

What is certain is that the drink is a legacy of which any family should be proud.  The same is true of Don Ciccio & Figli, that District-based distiller that traces its roots to a family liqueur-making business back (also to Italy) in 1883, somewhere in between the competing dates (1857 or 1919) on which the competing Counts Negroni might have first invented their eponymous drink.  In one of its latest offerings, Don Ciccio has brought forth Cerasum, a cherry-blossom-based liqueur that stands in very nicely for the Campari that usually serves as the Negroni’s signature ingredient.

The Cherry Blossom Negroni is a worthy cousin of the original.  The classic bitter taste of the Negroni is still there, but softened slightly, with subtle floral and cherry flavors that give the drink a smoother, almost velvety finish.  Here’s the recipe:

Cherry Blossom Negroni recipe
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Cherry Blossom Negroni

Try this twist on the classic Negroni recipe, substituting Cerasum, a cherry-blossom liqueur by D.C.'s own Don Ciccio and Figli, for the traditional Campari.  It's a velvety-smooth cocktail perfect for enjoying cherry-blossom season!
Prep Time5 minutes
Total Time5 minutes
Course: Drinks
Cuisine: Spirit-Forward
Keyword: cherry blossom Negroni
Servings: 1 cocktail
Calories: 190kcal
Author: Geoffrey Wyatt

Ingredients

Cocktail

  • 1 oz. gin I used Botanist
  • 1 oz. vermouth I used Cocchi di Torino
  • 1 oz. Cerasum

Ice cubes

  • cherry blossoms

Instructions

Ice cubes

  • In advance of making the drink, fill large ice cube tray with water. Add 1 to 3 cherry blossoms per cube. If working with dried cherry blossoms, be sure to rinse the salt off the flowers before adding. Try to orient the flowers in the cube so they will appear near the surface when the ice freezes. Leave in the freezer until completely frozen.

Cocktail

  • Combine the gin, vermouth, and Cerasum in a mixing glass with ice and stir.
  • Strain into a rocks glass.
  • Add cherry-blossom ice cube.

Enjoy!

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Original Recipe: Cherry Blossom Cocktail

As you have probably been able to gather from my posts of cocktail events in March and April and of my non-alcoholic Sakura Sparkler recipe, I’ve got a thing for cherry blossoms.  As I’ve noted, cherry blossoms are not only beautiful but also edible, meaning you can use them in your cocktails.  In this post I have another such recipe for you.  And this one uses cherry blossoms in three different ways.  For lack of a more imaginative description, I’m calling it the Cherry Blossom Cocktail:

Cherry Blossom Cocktail

There are other ingredients, but let’s start with our three cherry-blossom constituents.  The first is the cherry-blossom garnish, visible in the picture and plucked from a local tree (if you don’t have your own tree, ask a neighbor – most won’t deny you a lone blossom).  The second is Sakura Cherry Blossom Honey Syrup, which I used in my Sakura Sparkler recipe and is available on Amazon.  And the third is Cerasum, a new aperitivo from D.C.’s own Don Ciccio & Figli.  Don Ciccio explains that Cerasum is made from three different kinds of cherries, sakura blossoms, and “10 selected roots and herbs,” pursuant to a recipe dating back to 1906.  What it is is delicious – not sweet like many cherry-flavored liqueurs but tart, adding a distinctive flavor to the drink.

These cherry-blossom influences are accompanied by gin and freshly squeezed lemon juice.  They combine to produce a bright and tangy cocktail with cherry, citrus and light floral and herbal flavors.  It’s just the cocktail for enjoying the cherry blossoms on a nice spring day.

Here is the recipe:

Cherry Blossom Cocktail recipe
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Cherry Blossom Cocktail

Celebrate cherry-blossom season with this cocktail, which mixes gin with flavors of cherries and cherry blossoms.
Prep Time5 minutes
Total Time5 minutes
Course: Drinks
Cuisine: Sour
Keyword: cherry blossom cocktail
Servings: 1 cocktail
Calories: 226kcal
Author: Geoffrey Wyatt

Ingredients

  • 1 oz. gin I used Botanist
  • 1/2 oz. Cerasum
  • 1 oz. Sakura Cherry Blossom Honey Syrup
  • 1/2 oz. freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1 cherry
  • 1 cherry blossom

Instructions

  • Combine the gin, Cerasum, cherry blossom honey syrup and lemon juice with ice in a shaking tin.
  • Shake vigorously and strain into a coupe.
  • Garnish with a cherry and a cherry blossom.

Enjoy!

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Dry Recipe: Sakura Sparkler

As foretold in my March cocktail events round-up, cherry blossom season is upon us.  This year, celebrate not merely by getting outside to see them, but by adding them to your drinks.  I’ve already offered you a recipe that uses an edible flower as garnish in the Blood Orange Daiquiri.  And cherry blossoms (or sakura) are also edible and thus fair garnish game.  You can even find cherry blossom comestibles on Amazon if you don’t have a tree of your own at hand.  We’ll get to that, but first let me introduce you to what we will be making:  a refreshing, non-alcoholic, sparkling beverage called the Sakura Sparkler:

Sakura Sparkler

Like my previous non-alcoholic cocktails (see the Mexican Candy Soda and the Actually Dry Martini), this one is made with Seedlip’s Garden 108.

The cherry-blossom component comes in two parts.  First, the drink itself includes a Sakura Cherry Blossom Honey Syrup, which provides a sweet floral flavor that goes well with the Garden 108 and is balanced against freshly squeezed lemon juice.

Second, I took some dried cherry blossoms and made ice cubes out of them.  Dried cherry blossoms are available on Amazon; so are large ice cube trays.  Making cherry-blossom ice cubes is simple.  If you’re working with the dried variety, rinse them thoroughly to remove the salt.  (If you’ve got fresh cherry blossoms, you probably still want to wash them.)  Next, fill the tray with water and drop a couple cherry blossoms in each cube.  If you’re working with dried cherry blossoms, you might want to gently unfold them in the water, and I pushed mine toward the bottom of the tray so they would be more visible from the surface of the ice when frozen.  Finally, place them in the freezer and allow to freeze.

Mine came out looking like this:

Cherry Blossom Cubes

Put these all together and you have a refreshing, alcohol-free drink perfect for welcoming spring.  Here is the recipe:

Sakura Sparkler recipe
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Sakura Sparkler

Enjoy the Sakura Sparkler, a Seedlip-based cocktail perfect for spring, featuring cherry-blossom honey syrup and cherry-blossom ice cubes.
Prep Time10 minutes
Total Time10 minutes
Course: Drinks
Cuisine: Mocktail
Servings: 1 cocktail
Calories: 70kcal
Author: Geoffrey Wyatt

Ingredients

Cocktail

  • 1 1/2 oz. Seedlip Garden 108
  • 3/4 oz. Sakura Cherry Blossom Honey Syrup
  • 3/4 oz. Freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • soda water

Ice cubes

  • cherry blossoms

Instructions

Ice cubes

  • In advance of making the drink, fill large ice cube tray with water.  Add 1 to 3 cherry blossoms per cube.  If working with dried cherry blossoms, be sure to rinse the salt off the flowers before adding.  Try to orient the flowers in the cube so they will appear near the surface when the ice freezes.  Leave in the freezer until completely frozen.

Cocktail

  • Combine the Seedlip, syrup and lemon juice in a shaking tin with ice.  Shake vigorously and strain into rocks glass.
  • Add cherry-blossom ice cube.
  • Top with soda water and stir gently to combine with the other ingredients.

Enjoy!

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Original Recipe: Blood Orange Daiquiri

In the last few posts, I’ve focused on blood orange.  First I offered the Desert Orange, a “margarita for winter” of sorts.  Next I featured the Blood Moon Cocktail, a light and somewhat spicy drink for enjoying astronomical events or really any occasion.  And in my post previewing March cocktail events in the District, I promised a recipe featuring an edible hibiscus garnish.  This is that post.  To help put you in the mood for spring I offer you a blood orange daiquiri:

Blood Orange Daiquiri

The daiquiri has a special significance for me.  It was nearly a decade ago at the Columbia Room – when it was still just a backroom in the old Passenger – that Derek Brown first taught me (and a roomful of other guests) how to make one according to the traditional recipe:  2 ounces of aged rum, and 3/4 ounces each of simple syrup and lime juice.

It was life-altering.  I had taken a bartending class in college, where we learned that daquiris were frozen drinks made with rail rum and sour syrup.  The traditional recipe was so much better, and it re-awakened my interest in mixing drinks.

So I thought it fitting to celebrate the arrival of spring with a fresh take on the classic that marked a spring of sorts in my drink-crafting hobby.  I started with aged rum (Appleton 12-year) and used freshly squeezed blood orange juice in place of the usual lime.  Blood orange juice is sweeter than lime juice of course, so I dialed back the sugar.  (In this case, the syrup was hibiscus flower syrup, about which more in a minute.)  I also added Campari and Calvit’s Tomatillo-Tamarind-Hibiscus shrub.

The garnish has two parts.  The base is a blood orange wheel, placed horizontally on top of the crushed ice that fills the glass.  On top, I placed an edible hibiscus flower from Wild Hibiscus Flower Co., which offers the flowers in syrup (which, as I noted above, I used as a substitute for simple syrup).  Although it isn’t depicted above, I also added a paper straw.  (The garnish looks great but isn’t easy to sip around.)

I had a lot of fun with this drink.  As daiquiris tend to do for me, this one went down fast.  Let me know what you think!

Here’s the recipe:

Blood Orange Daiquiri recipe
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Blood Orange Daiquiri

Urge spring forward with this blood orange daiquiri, featuring rum, Campari, blood orange and hibiscus, and garnished with a hibiscus flower that anticipates the coming season.
Prep Time6 minutes
Total Time6 minutes
Course: Drinks
Cuisine: Sour
Servings: 1 cocktail
Calories: 225kcal
Author: Geoffrey Wyatt

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 oz. aged rum
  • 1/2 oz. Campari
  • 1 oz. freshly squeezed blood orange juice
  • 1/4 oz. Calvit's Tomatillo-Tamarind-Hibiscus Drinking Shrub
  • 1/4 oz. Wild Hibiscus Flower Co. syrup
  • 1 dash Fee Brothers Aztec Chocolate Bitters
  • 1 dash Bittermens Hellfire Habanero Cocktail Shrub
  • blood orange wheel
  • Wild Hibiscus Flower Co. edible hibiscus flower

Instructions

  • Combine the rum, Campari, juice, shrubs, syrup and bitters in a shaking tin and set aside.
  • Fill a rocks glass with crushed ice.
  • Add ice to the shaking tin, shake contents vigorously and strain into the rocks glass.
  • Garnish by laying a blood orange wheel horizontally atop the drink and placing an edible hibiscus flower on top of the wheel.
  • Add a paper straw, trimmed as necessary.