Principessa di Sole

There's nothing I love better than cracking open a new cocktail recipe book. More often than not, the entire side and/or top of the book quickly becomes bristly with little post-it tabs marking the drinks I'd like to try. It's true that there are many, many great recipes available on the internet, but there's something special about having the physical books. They're like tomes of potions or magic spells waiting to be mixed up.

If I had my way, I would own pretty much every cocktail recipe book ever published. But since I have a small budget and an even smaller apartment, I've kept my collection to a single shelf. And recently, I was overjoyed to add Maggie Hoffman's Batch Cocktails to it. It's a book of large-format drinks that you can make ahead to serve at parties or get-togethers. I was expecting a lot of citrusy punches full of fruits and syrups, and there are plenty of these, but I was very impressed by how many spirit-forward options Maggie includes as well. It makes sense - once citrus fruit is juiced, the liquid begins to change in acidity and bitterness, so you can't make citrusy cocktails as far in advance as more spiritous drinks, which you can literally age for months. The book is a really balanced collection of recipes (including non-alcoholic options), and I honestly wish it had the proportions for single drinks as well as the large batches, because I definitely want to make some of these just for me, and I'd rather not have to do math.

I freely confess that while the Principessa di Sole did sound delicious, I chose to make it primarily because of its vibrant color and lovely garnish. But I was blown away by this drink. Made with Amaro Montenegro*, white rum, raspberry syrup, citrus juices, and sparkling wine, it is absolutely, utterly delicious. It balances boozy, bitter, citrusy, sweet, and fizzy in just the right way. I will 100% be bringing a pitcher of it to my next party. But in case you don't have any upcoming social engagements, I've also figured out the recipe for a single a drink and included it below. You might wish you'd made yourself a pitcher.

*Alas, we have not talked about Amaro Montenegro much yet, and I usually like to officially introduce an ingredient before I use it so prominently in a cocktail. I discuss it a little in my post on Amari. It's one of the most popular amari out there and definitely one I recommend, but you could try substituting Averna or Cynar here.

History: The Principessa di Sole was created by Elliot Clark of Bon Voyage in San Francisco.

Principessa di Sole

For one cocktail:

1 1/2 oz. Amaro Montenegro
1/2 oz. white rum
1-2 dashes Peychaud's bitters
1/2 oz. raspberry syrup**
1/2 oz. lemon juice
1/4 oz. lime juice
2 oz. sparkling wine

Combine everything except sparkling wine in a shaker with ice and shake until chilled. Strain into a rocks glass filled with ice and top with the sparkling wine. Garnish with a mint sprig, a raspberry, and a lime wheel.

For 10 servings:

1 3/4 cups plus 2 tbsp. Amaro Montenegro
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp. white rum
2 tsp. Peychaud's bitters
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp. chilled raspberry syrup
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp. lemon juice
5 tbsp. lime juice
2 1/2 cups chilled sparkling wine
10 mint sprigs
10 raspberries
10 lime wheels

At least 2 hours and up to 24 hours before serving, make the batch. Pour Amaro Montenegro, white rum, bitters, and chilled raspberry syrup into a 2-quart pitcher and stir to mix. Seal well, covering with plastic wrap if needed, and refrigerate.

Up to 2 hours before serving, prepare lemon and lime juice and stir into the pitcher mix. Reseal and return to the refrigerator if not serving immediately.

To serve, stir well. Gently pour in chilled sparkling wine, then stir mixture gently once more. Pour into ice-filled rocks glasses or punch cups. Garnish each glass with a mint sprig, a fresh raspberry, and a lime wheel. (Alternatively, serve in a punch bowl with all the garnishes thrown in - Maggie doesn't recommend this in the recipe but there's a picture of it and it's a beautiful presentation.)

**For raspberry syrup, combine 1 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water in a saucepan over medium heat and stir constantly, until sugar is dissolved. Add raspberries and stir. Cook for about 2 minutes, using the back of the spoon to mash the raspberries against the side of the pan. Remove from heat and let steep, covered, for 30 minutes. Strain through a fine-mesh strainer into a resealable container and refrigerate until chilled or up to 1 week.

Recipe from Batch Cocktails. I was gifted an advance copy of the book.

Last Laugh

Happy New Year! How did you ring in 2019? I hope there was lots of champagne involved. New Year's is my favorite excuse for sparkling cocktails. I'm always looking for new ones to try. One thing I've seen on Instagram lately is sparkling versions of classics like the Aviation or the Cosmopolitan. Which got my wondering if adding a little champagne to a Last Word would work. Lo and behold, not only does it work, someone else already thought of it, and the drink is called the Last Laugh (because the bubbles tickle, obviously).

The Last Word, in case you don't remember, is a beloved drink made with equal parts gin, Green Chartreuse, maraschino liqueur, and lime juice. It's a combination that yields a truly unique flavor. I love to introduce people to this drink if they've never had one before. I have yet for someone to tell me they don't like it. And while a couple of the ingredients are a bit obscure for the average home bar, the equal-parts recipe makes it extremely easy to make once you have them.

In general I don't advise just adding champagne to any cocktail and assuming it will taste right, but in this case that's exactly what you do, and it tastes fantastic. It's the perfect way to make this crowd-pleasing cocktail even more festive.

History: The Last Laugh was created by bartender Abigail Gullo of SoBou and then Compère Lapin in New Orleans.

Last Laugh

3/4 oz. gin
3/4 oz. Green Chartreuse
3/4 oz. Luxardo maraschino liqueur
3/4 oz. lime juice
Sparkling wine, to top

Combine all ingredients except sparkling wine in a shaker with ice and shake until chilled. Strain into a champagne flute or large coupe and top with champagne. Garnish with a brandied cherry, as I did, or a lime twist, as Gullo recommends.

Recipe adapted from Punch.

Bottle Buy: Luxardo Bitter Bianco

Hello again! I haven't posted in a couple of weeks, though I've been quite active on Instagram - if I want to just snap a single photo of a drink it often ends up there instead of on here.  I've also had the opportunity to partner with some additional brands like The Elan Collective and Coco Sky on recent (and upcoming!) recipes. So be sure to check it out if you want some additional drinks and pictures!

Today I want to introduce one of my new favorite bottles: Luxardo Bitter Bianco. This herbal liqueur is a bitter like Campari, Aperol, or Suze. In fact, the popularity of swapping Suze for Campari to make White Negronis seems to have been one factor that influenced Luxardo's creation of the colorless Bitter Bianco. It's made with a number of different botanicals, including wormwood, quinine, rhubarb, cardamom, bitter orange, and three mystery herbs. While it is definitely a bitter liqueur, it has notes of bright citrus and a good bit of sweetness to it.

Versatility is usually one of my main criteria when I add a new bottle to my bar, but with this one I had a single drink in mind. I absolutely love a Negroni made with Luxardo Bitter Bianco. Called a Negroni Bianco, it's usually made with blanc or dry vermouth to keep it entirely colorless (while one made with Suze is called a White Negroni, even though it's actually yellow). I've got recipes for both of these in the Negroni Round-Up I posted not long ago. I honestly prefer the Negroni Bianco to a traditional Negroni, and if you're a Negroni newbie I think it's a perfect gateway cocktail. It's definitely less polarizing than the classic, while still keeping with the spirit of the drink.

But my love for the Negroni Bianco doesn't mean that Bitter Bianco isn't versatile. It's similar enough to Campari in spirit that you can safely try substituting it anywhere its bright red friend is called for. It's more approachable and less bitter than Campari, which might even make it more versatile. I haven't played with mine nearly enough because I can't stop making the same few delicious recipes with it.

Luxardo Bitter Bianco

Price: $25-30
Alcohol Content: 30%
Popular Cocktails: Negroni Bianco

Since I love the Negroni Bianco, I wanted to use the Luxardo in another riff on the Negroni, the Negroni Sbagliato. Translating roughly to "mistaken Negroni," this drink was supposedly invented when a bartender poured prosecco into a Negroni instead of gin. It doesn't exactly seem like an easy mistake to make, but we can suspend belief in favor of a good story.

The Negroni Sbagliato is usually made with equal parts sweet vermouth, Campari, and prosecco. Before I looked up the recipe, however, I had it in my head that it must be equal parts gin, Campari, and prosecco, and I was excited to take advantage of the Luxardo's lack of color to let the gorgeous purple of Empress Gin shine through. When I realized my mistake I decided to go ahead with my recipe anyway. And it's quite good - a lovely, bitter, sparkling aperitif. You can substitute a non-purple gin, or go with a more classic Sbagliato using dry or blanc vermouth instead.

Sbagliato Errato

1 oz. gin (Empress)
1 oz. Luxardo Bitter Bianco
2 oz. prosecco

Combine gin and Luxardo in a mixing glass with ice and stir until chilled. Strain into a champagne flute and top with prosecco. I garnished mine with dried orchid petals.

Bottle Swap: Suze

Today is the second installment of my latest bottle swap with Adam of Mr. Muddle! A few weeks ago, we each made a cocktail with Banane du Bresil, which surprised me by being ridiculously tasty and extremely versatile. Today, the bottle we're working with is Suze - definitely more of an acquired taste than a crowd pleaser, but an ingredient I'm pretty excited to be adding to my bar.

Suze is a bitter French aperitif flavored with gentian root. It was first sold in 1889 by French distiller Fernand Moureaux. Some say he created the recipe with his partner, Henri Porte, and named it after his sister-in-law, Suzanne Jaspert. Other accounts allege that he purchased the formula in 1885 from a Swiss herbalist named Hans Kappeler, and that Kappeler inspired the name by saying that his aperitif would flow in France just like the river Suze. This turned out to be pretty accurate. Suze became incredibly popular in France, and was a fixture of cafe culture. Porte's design for the tall, distinctive bottle and its vivid yellow color made it instantly recognizable. It was even immortalized (albeit extremely abstractly) in Picasso's 1912 painting Verre et bouteille de Suze ("Glass and Bottle of Suze").

Though it has remained popular abroad, Suze was not even available in the United States until 2012, when Domaine Select began importing it. Since then, craft cocktail bars and home bartenders have been reintroduced to Suze, and are including it in all sorts of different recipes.

Suze's label refers to it as "Saveur d'autrefois," meaning "the flavor of yesteryear" or "the flavor of another time." This really sums up what I love about Suze, and about most other spirits and liqueurs that have been in production for a similarly long amount of time - when you drink it, you really are tasting the same thing that someone might have sipped in Paris in 1900, or that Picasso drank while he painted the bottle in 1912. It's a very romantic notion.

Suze is an excellent ingredient for adding to cocktails, but it can definitely be tricky to work with. Its flavor is bitter and vegetal, with hints of citrus. Its taste is as distinctive as its bright yellow color. The closest thing I can compare it to is Campari, though I would consider Suze more floral and earthy, and therefore more of an acquired taste. It adds some sweetness to your drink, but not without a big wallop of a bitter finish. As such, I tend to use it in fairly small amounts when I want it to play well with other ingredients. But it can also be enjoyed on its own on the rocks, or with soda or tonic.

Suze

Alcohol content: 20%
Price: $30
Popular Cocktails: White Negroni

Suze plays particularly well with fizz, and it's been way too long since I made a sparkling cocktail, so I knew where I wanted to go with this one. Suze and champagne is just ridiculously elegant and oh-so-French. Gin blended well with Suze's herbal notes, and I decided to amplify the floral, sunny flavors with a honey chamomile syrup and a bit of lemon juice. This cocktail tastes like wandering through French fields surrounded by wildflowers and buzzing bees. It's herbaceous and bitter, bright and fizzy. La saveur d'autrefois.

Be sure to check out what Adam has done with his half of the bottle over at Mr. Muddle! It's an equal-parts cocktail with mezcal and creme de menthe called Power of the Glow.

Apiary

1 1/2 oz. gin (GrandTen Wire Works)
1/2 oz. Suze
1/2 oz. lemon juice
1/2 oz. honey chamomile syrup*
3-4 oz. sparkling wine

Combine gin, Suze, lemon juice, and honey chamomile syrup in a shaker with ice and shake until chilled. Strain into a champagne flute and top with sparkling wine. Garnish with an edible flower.

*For honey chamomile syrup, heat 1/2 cup of brewed chamomile tea in a saucepan until it simmers. Add 1/2 cup honey and stir to dissolve. Remove from heat and let cool before using.

Suze history mostly from Frenchly.com.

Recipe Round-Up: Champagne Cocktails

It's no secret that I love champagne cocktails. Coincidentally, I'm also a huge fan of New Year's Eve, and the two go together really well. This year we're having some friends over to our place instead of going out, so I'll be the one mixing the drinks. Here's a roundup of my favorite sparkling cocktails, any of which would be perfect for ringing in the new year!

1. Champagne Cocktail - It doesn't get easier or more classic than this. I love to enhance the original recipe (bitters, sugar cube, lemon twist, bubbly) with orange bitters and an orange twist.

2. Champagne Julep - This sparkling riff on a Mint Julep makes for a beautiful presentation, especially when served in a julep tin or cup with a metal straw.

3. Air Mail - Honey simple syrup adds beautiful richness and flavor to this sparkling Daiquiri riff. It's an impressive drink and a great crowd-pleaser. Definitely one of my all-time favorites.

4. Italian 57 - If you're up for something a little more complicated but well worth the effort, the Italian 57 is sure to surprise and delight your guests. Amaretto, a bit of gin, lemon, blood orange, orange marmalade, rosemary, and sparkling rose make for an incredibly aromatic and deliciously tart cocktail. Plus, I mean... look at it!

5. French 75 - Possibly the most classic champagne cocktail out there, the French 75 is a perfect go-to when you want to dress up your bottle of bubbly. There is much debate over whether the gin or Cognac version is best - I'm firmly in the Cognac camp with this one, but try them both and decide for yourself!

6. Old Cuban - This is another drink on my list of definite crowd-pleasers, which makes sense as it's actually quite similar to the Air Mail. You can't go wrong with aged rum, simple syrup, lime, muddled mint, and champagne.

7. Curative - This is one of my own recipes from last New Year's, a sparkling riff on the Penicillin. Scotch and champagne work surprisingly well together with a bit of honey-ginger syrup, and crystallized ginger makes a perfect garnish.

8. Strawberry Sparkler - I developed this one for South of Plum, working with the Air Mail and the Old Cuban as inspiration. It's basically a sparkling strawberry daiquiri. With it's lovely flavor and pretty pink hue, it's a great choice for guests.

9. Last Cocktail - This one requires a bit of extra prep, but it's completely worth it. A rosemary-pear puree along with a rosemary and clove garnish make an otherwise summery drink - gin, lemon, champagne - very appropriate for a wintry New Year's.

10. Seelbach - This is a whiskey-drinker's champagne cocktail. Don't let its rosy hue fool you: with bourbon, Cointreau, and lots of bitters, it's very boozy and not too sweet.

What will you be drinking this New Year's Eve?

Mixology Monday: You Say Tomato

After a summer away, Mixology Monday is back! This month's host is Mr. Muddle, and the theme is vinegar. I'm pretty excited about it. I've only used vinegar in my cocktails twice: for the Bufala Negra and the Strawberry Balsamic Smash, both of which use a bit of balsamic vinegar. But if you're into cocktails, you probably know that the most common use of vinegar in cocktail recipes is the shrub.

Shrubs, also called drinking vinegars, are mixtures of fruit, sugar, and vinegar that are usually consumed with club soda or included in a cocktail. Shrubs were popular in colonial times, when the vinegar was used as a preservative for fruits and berries. Like just about every other old-timey cocktail ingredient, they're making a comeback in modern mixology. And with good reason. There are few ingredients as positively flavorful as a shrub.

I've only attempted to make a shrub once before, a black peppercorn and cranberry shrub following this recipe from With Food & Love. It did not come out well - it was way too vinegary and was basically undrinkable. I definitely should have added the vinegar bit by bit and tasted it until it was perfect. That scared me off of making my own shrubs for a while, but now I have the perfect excuse to try again.

As I was trying to decide what kind of shrub to make, my eyes fell on the cucumbers and tomatoes I had just harvested from my garden. I remembered a wonderful cocktail I had at Eastern Standard made with tomato shrub and cava, and figured...why not?

I followed the instructions for a cold-process shrub from this Food52 article that MrMuddle kindly provided. It takes a couple of days, but it's a pretty hands-off process, and very easy. You can make a shrub. Trust me.

I did find Food52's suggestion of one cup of sugar for half a pound of tomato to be too sweet. I'd possibly even use half the sugar. I didn't use as much vinegar as they recommended, either. If there's one thing I'm learning about shrubs, it's that you've got to taste as you go and ad-lib a lot. But I am so glad Mixology Monday convinced me to give them another chance - I love the finished product. It's delicious.

As for those cucumbers... stay tuned!

Tomato Shrub

8-10 oz. tomato, chopped
1/2 cup to 1 cup sugar
~6 tbsp. apple cider vinegar

Combine tomato and sugar in a bowl and stir to combine. (I mashed it, and I think this resulted in too much particulate matter floating in the shrub.) Cover the bowl with a dish towel and let sit on the counter for two days, stirring once a day. The tomatoes will release a lot of liquid. After 48 hours, strain the syrup into a measuring cup. I had about 1 cup of syrup, so if you've got more or less than that, adjust your vinegar accordingly. Stir in the vinegar one tablespoon at a time, tasting as you go. Consider setting aside half of your syrup before you add the vinegar, so you can even it out if you add too much.

Recipe adapted from Food52.

I don't remember the exact ingredients of the tomato shrub cocktail I had at Eastern Standard, but I liked the idea of mixing this shrub with some sparkling wine, so I decided to use it as my inspiration. I added gin, which went nicely with the shrub, and some grapefruit bitters to tone down the sweetness.

You Say Tomato

1 oz. gin
1 oz. tomato shrub
3 oz. prosecco
2 dashes grapefruit bitters

Combine gin, shrub, and bitters in a shaker with ice and shake until chilled. Strain into a champagne glass or coupe. Top with prosecco. Garnish with cherry tomatoes.

Miel et Lavande

I love the smell of lavender, and I was surprised to see how well it grows in yards around my neighborhood. Even after being buried under winter snow, it bounces right up every spring bigger than ever and blooming with fragrant flowers. So this year I added lavender to the list of herbs I wanted to grow on my balcony. Sure enough, it's been thriving, and providing us with beautiful and sweet-smelling flowers. So of course I knew I had to make a cocktail with them.

I thought gin, lemon, and a honey simple syrup would pair best with fresh lavender, topped off with sparkling wine to make a fizzy drink for sipping on summer evenings. I went with lavender bitters and a garnish of fresh lavender to give a subtle flavor. If you don't have the bitters but still want to incorporate lavender into a cocktail, two other ways are infusing your spirits or making a lavender simple syrup. But I've been itching to use my little bottle of Scrappy's, and I like the depth the bitters add to the drink. This is definitely one of my favorite recipes I've developed, and I hope you like it too!

Miel et Lavande

1 1/2 oz. gin
3/4 oz. lemon juice
3/4 oz. honey simple syrup*
2 dashes lavender bitters
3 oz. sparkling wine

Combine gin, lemon juice, honey simple syrup, and lavender bitters in a shaker with ice. Shake until well chilled. Strain into a rocks glass filled with ice. Top with sparkling wine and stir gently. Garnish with a sprig of fresh lavender.

*To make honey simple syrup, combine equal parts honey and water in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Stir until the honey is dissolved. Let cool completely before using.

Charred Lemon Gin Sparkler

There seems to be two schools of thought when it comes to naming cocktails. There are the descriptive sort of names that give some information on the ingredients (i.e. Cucumber Basil Gimlet, Warm Vanilla, Olive-Rosemary Martini), and then there are those that are a bit more cute and clever (say, Sherlock & Watson, Witty Comeback, 23 Skidoo). I'm definitely a fan of the latter sort. They're much more fun.

That said, the Charred Lemon Gin Sparkler really benefits from its very descriptive name, because it lets you know right off the bat that this cocktail involves charred lemons. This was definitely a new one for me, and I immediately saw the appeal. Burning something can bring out a lot of unique flavor. Browned butter, flamed lemon peels, the caramelized top of a creme brûlée... I could see charred lemon juice being a very good thing.

And it was. This is an excellent cocktail. I love rosemary in cocktails because it's so amazingly aromatic. Even a rosemary garnish has a huge impact on the smell and taste of a cocktail. Muddling a little in yields a really delicious herbal flavor. This recipe uses it well. It's just sweet enough, letting the herbal and citrus notes shine through. Charring the lemons really does do something for their flavor; it's richer and more mellow, as the recipe promised. The result tastes extremely sophisticated.

The original recipe for this cocktail makes 12 servings; it would be a great option for big-batch cocktail for a party.

Charred Lemon Gin Sparkler

1 1/4 oz. gin
1/2 oz. charred lemon juice*
1/4 oz. simple syrup
1 sprig rosemary
1 oz. sparkling wine

Combine rosemary and simple syrup in the bottom of a shaker and muddle. Add gin and charred lemon juice. Fill the shaker with ice and shake until chilled. Double-strain into a rocks glass filled with ice. Top with sparkling wine and garnish with a sprig of rosemary.

*For charred lemon juice, cut a lemon in half and place it cut-side down on a hot skillet for about two minutes. Then juice it as usual.


Recipe adapted from Serious Eats.

Champagne Julep

This weekend is the Kentucky Derby, and everybody is going to be drinking Mint Juleps. The Mint Julep isn't really one of my go-to cocktails; I personally prefer the Whiskey Smash, which makes the important addition of lemon juice to an otherwise very sweet cocktail. But you can't drink a Whiskey Smash while watching the Kentucky Derby - it's got to be a julep. So if, like me, the traditional Mint Julep isn't your favorite, I humbly suggest this variation: the Champagne Julep. It has all the flavor of a Mint Julep drawn out on a beautiful canvas of sparkling wine. It's the perfect twist on the traditional Kentucky Derby beverage.

History: I don't have any information on this one! I got the recipe from Punch, but they don't credit it to anyone. It may be their own invention. There's another Champagne Julep recipe floating around that uses sherry, and it's referred to as a "1940s Champagne Julep," so it seems the concept goes back at least that far.

Champagne Julep

1/2 oz. Cognac
3 oz. champagne or other sparkling wine
1/2 oz. simple syrup
1 dash Angostura bitters
6-7 mint leaves

In a julep tin or rocks glass, combine mint leaves and simple syrup and muddle. Add Cognac, bitters, and champagne. Fill with crushed ice and stir gently. Mound more crushed ice on top. Garnish with a sprig of mint and a lemon peel.

Recipe from Punch.

23 Skidoo

Ok, let's get right to it. How cute is this clothespin garnish? The first time I ever saw a cocktail with one was on Travelling Bartenders' Instagram feed. I'm not sure if they came up with it, but ever since I've seen it popping up in a number of different places. Not only is it completely adorable, it's also pretty handy if you don't want your garnish floating in your drink. It works great with aromatic herbs like thyme and rosemary.

Since I was dying to use my mini clothespins, the 23 Skidoo seemed like a perfect place to start. This is an elegant, sweet, aromatic cocktail - almost too sweet for my taste, but I like the way the flavors of the St. Germain and thyme syrup work together. It's not the first time I've used thyme as a garnish, but it is the first time I've actually put it into a cocktail. It seems like a natural pairing with gin and sparkling wine.

History: The 23 Skidoo comes from Eleven Madison Park in Manhattan. The name refers to a slang phrase from the early 1900's that refers to leaving somewhere quickly. It may appropriately have originated quite close to Eleven Madison Park, at the Flatiron Building on 23rd Street. Supposedly the unique shape of the building caused wind to swirl around its base, and men would gather there to watch ladies' skirts get blown up. Constables would have to force the men to leave the area, and this became known as "giving them the 23 skidoo."

23 Skidoo

1 oz. gin
1/2 oz. St. Germain
1/4 oz. thyme syrup*
1/4 oz. lemon juice
3 oz. sparkling wine

Combine gin, St. Germain, thyme syrup, and lemon juice in a shaker with ice. Shake until chilled. Strain into a coupe or champagne flute and top with sparkling wine. Garnish with a sprig of thyme.

*For thyme syrup, combine 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water in a saucepan and bring to a simmer, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat. Add 1 tbsp. thyme leaves and let steep for 1 hour. Strain and let cool before using.

Recipe from Serious Eats.

Prince of Wales

Guess what? It's been exactly a year since I started this blog. The time really flew by. It's been a lot of fun making all these cocktails and sharing them with all of you. I've learned so much and discovered lots of new favorites. I hope you have, too!

What better to celebrate a year of blogging than a champagne cocktail? And not just any champagne cocktail - one fit for a prince. Or rather, invented by one. The Prince of Wales isn't as well-known as many of its sparkling counterparts, but it's a more than worthy addition to your celebratory repertoire. It's got an elegant, classic flavor. The rye tastes rich with the champagne, the hint of pineapple blending it all together perfectly and elevating the final product beyond the realm of the ordinary. As Paul Clarke of The Cocktail Chronicles writes, "It's a decadent recipe to read, and the drink is obviously the work of someone who takes their refreshment very seriously, and has plenty of time and resources to do so. A prince, in other words."

History: The Prince of Wales cocktail is so named because it was a favorite of King Edward VII when he was still just Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales. And, as his mother was Queen Victoria, until recently England's longest-reigning monarch, he was the Prince of Wales for quite a while - 60 years, longer than anyone else. (Interestingly, the current Prince of Wales, Prince Charles, has held the title of "heir apparent" longer than Edward did, for reasons I'm not going to get into here.) He reigned as King from 1901-1910. His son was George V, and his grandsons were Kings Edward VIII and George VI, whose story was recently depicted in The King's Speech (in case, like me, you get your British monarchs confused unless you have Hollywood movies to orient you).

King Edward VII

Edward had quite the reputation as a playboy and bon vivant. He had several mistresses and was known to frequent a brothel in Paris that had a custom bathtub that could be filled with champagne. We know from the 1901 book The Private Life of King Edward VII, an anonymously-written biography of the king, that he enjoyed drinking champagne as well as possibly bathing in it. The book contains a detailed section on the monarch's drinking habits, including tidbits like "the Prince is not in any sense a beer drinker" and the fact that he kept a small flask of brandy on the side table in his entrance hall at Marlborough House because once a friend of his fell ill there and "no brandy was at hand to restore the sufferer, and the illness proved fatal." Of the Prince of Wales cocktail, the biographer says:

He is also credited with having composed an excellent "cocktail." It consists of a little rye whisky, crushed ice, a small square of pineapple, a dash of Angostura bitters, a piece of lemon peel, a few drops of Maraschino, a little champagne, and powdered sugar to taste. This "short drink" is often asked for at the clubs he frequents.

The recipe was given modern proportions by David Wondrich in his book Imbibe!. Though the 1901 recipe post-dates Jerry Thomas' Bon Vivant's Companion, the Prince was probably drinking his concoction around the same time Thomas was tending bar, maybe even in Thomas' bar at one point - a popular story claims that Thomas served the Prince his first Mint Julep in New York during his 1860 visit.

Prince of Wales

1 1/2 oz. rye
1/4 tsp. maraschino liqueur
1 tsp. sugar or simple syrup
1 dash Angostura bitters
1 chunk fresh pineapple
1 oz. sparkling wine

If using sugar, combine with bitters at the bottom of a shaker and add a dash of water. Stir to dissolve. Otherwise, just combine your simple syrup and bitters. Add rye, maraschino, and the chunk of pineapple. Fill the shaker with ice and shake nice and hard ("brutally," Wondrich says) to crush the pineapple. Strain into a goblet or coupe glass. Add sparkling wine and garnish with a lemon twist.

Recipe from Imbibe! by David Wondrich via The Cocktail Chronicles.

Italian 57

Has there ever been a cocktail as pretty as the Italian 57? I had so much fun taking pictures of it. I couldn't seem to get a bad shot. And it tastes just as bright and beautiful and eclectic as it looks.

It was the photo of the Italian 57 on Imbibe's website that first made me put it on my list, quite some time ago. I'm not sure I would have gone for a cocktail with amaretto as its main ingredient if I hadn't seen the beautiful pink hue and fun garnish. It looks like it has since been removed; I had to hunt it down on Pinterest so that I could properly replicate the look of the blood orange and rosemary.

Everything about the Italian 57 is lovely. It's very aromatic, with the beautiful scent of amaretto and rosemary filling your nose with every sip. First you taste sweet almond and blood orange, and then you're hit by the sharp tartness of the lemon and marmalade. It's a remarkably crafted cocktail with a very unique flavor. The one thing I don't understand is the gin. Is 1/4 oz. really adding much to the finished product? I suppose I'll have to make one without it, or maybe with more of it, to figure out how it fits in.

I did increase the amount of sparkling rosé in the recipe, from 1/4 oz. to 3/4 oz. Without it, the flavor was so incredibly sweet and tart that it was almost overwhelming. I found that a bit more rosé helped to space it all out on your tongue.

History: The Italian 57 was the winner of the 2011 Disaronno Mixing Star Competition. It was developed by Chicago bartender Debbi Peek.

Italian 57

1 oz. amaretto (Disaronno recommended)
1/4 oz. gin
1 oz. lemon juice
1/2 oz. blood orange juice
1 barspoon orange marmalade
10 fresh rosemary needles
3/4 oz. sparkling rosé (Martini & Rossi recommended)

In the bottom of a shaker, muddle orange juice, blood orange juice, marmalade, and rosemary. Add gin and amaretto. Fill with ice and shake until chilled. Double-strain into a cocktail or coupe glass and top with the sparkling rosé. Garnish with a blood orange wheel and a sprig of rosemary.

Recipe adapted from Imbibe.

Curative

It's New Year's Eve! This has always been one of my favorite holidays. Everyone gets dressed up, drinks champagne, and toasts to new beginnings. I've never been big on formal resolutions, but I do see the new year as an opportunity to start fresh. I feel like you can tell that other people do, too. Everybody is a bit nicer around this time, a bit more determined to be better in one way or another.

I aspire to one day host an annual New Year's Eve party. Like a big formal affair, with lots of confetti and champagne cocktails where everybody dresses up. But ever since I became old enough to do so, I've never had the opportunity - as most of our friends are either graduate students or medical residents, they're out of town or working on New Year's. I'm sure one day my glamorous dreams will come true, but until then I'll enjoy quiet evenings with family and close friends. And, of course, champagne cocktails.

I have expounded at length on my love of champagne and all cocktails that use it, so I won't go into it yet again. But I love how many great recipes pop up around New Year's. I'm happy to share an original recipe today. I was going to make Ginger Sparklers with honey-ginger syrup when I came across the Auld Lang Syne over at Bit by a Fox. It's a sparkling wine cocktail that includes my current favorite Scotch, Highland Park 12-year. For some reason, adding Scotch to champagne never occurred to me. I thought about adding it to this one, and realized that I was inching towards a sparkling version of a Penicillin, a "new classic" that mixes ginger-honey syrup with lemon juice and Scotch. It seemed like a pretty good idea.

But what to call it? Naming a cocktail can be tricky if you want to pick something new. Since this is a riff on the Penicillin, I really wanted to call it a Panacea, but apparently I'm not the only one who had that brilliant idea. I also toyed with the idea of naming it after Alexander Fleming, the scientist who discovered Penicillin, but it turns out Fred Yarm of Cocktail Virgin Slut already did that, and for a very similar recipe, too. As I'd never seen it before, I'd like to believe that great minds think alike.

Keeping with the antibiotic theme (and since Ciprofloxacin just doesn't have that nice ring to it), I'm calling this the Curative cocktail. It's rich and bubbly, with hints of ginger spice. The candied ginger makes a lovely garnish, and if you drop it in your drink the sugar slowly dissolves, kind of like the sugar cube in a champagne cocktail. I think it's one of my better inventions.

Cheers, and happy New Year!

Curative

1/2 oz. blended Scotch whiskey (I used Monkey Shoulder)
3/4 oz. honey-ginger syrup*
sparkling wine

Combine Scotch and syrup in a shaker. Add ice and shake until chilled. Strain into a champagne flute. Top with champagne or other sparkling wine. Garnish with a piece of crystallized ginger.

*For honey-ginger syrup: combine 1/2 cup honey, 1/2 cup water in a saucepan. Add a 3-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced. Let the mixture come to a simmer so that honey is dissolved. Turn off the heat and let it sit for at least 10 minutes. Strain out ginger and let cool before use.

The Last Cocktail

I bookmarked this recipe a while ago, and I decided to finally make it as part of my search for good holiday cocktails. Rosemary, pear, and cloves form an unconventional wintery trio in what would otherwise sound like a very summery cocktail: gin, lemon, sparkling wine. The result is a fantastic drink with notes of herbs, citrus, fruit, and spice blending together with just the right amount of fizz. It's well worth the extra prep time that the rosemary-pear puree requires.

I tried both of my gins with this one, St. George Terroir and GrandTen's Wire Works. I liked Wire Works better; it brought out the taste of the pear more. The St. George yielded a much more herbal cocktail which, while still really good, was less balanced.

Whip up a tray of these for your next holiday party - you won't be sorry!

History: This recipe originally comes from Alchemy in a Glass by Greg Seider. It was the most popular cocktail on the menu at Prima in New York. This version was adapted by Imbibe.

The Last Cocktail

1 oz. gin
1 oz. lemon juice
2 oz. rosemary-pear puree*
1 1/2 oz. sparkling wine
Cloves and a rosemary sprig, to garnish

Combine gin, lemon juice, and puree in a shaker with ice. Shake until chilled. Double-strain into two rocks glasses (can be a bit tedious depending on the thickness of your pear puree). Add sparkling wine and stir briefly. Fill with ice. Garnish with a rosemary sprig and sprinkle with ground cloves.

*For rosemary-pear puree: Combine 5 oz. agave nectar with four sprigs of rosemary in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer and then remove from heat. Cover and let sit for 30 minutes. Combine with 20 oz. of pear puree (I used fresh pears pureed in a food processor).

Recipe adapted from Imbibe.