Mocktail: Just Beet It

Guys, we're in the home stretch! I'm officially in my final month of pregnancy, and because baby is staying stubbornly head-up, I've got a C-section scheduled for the end of this month. Unless he decides to flip, I'm exactly three weeks away from parenthood! (And cocktails. But parenthood is the bigger deal.) The weirdest part is, I think we're ready. We've got all the baby stuff, the house is basically in order, and other than making some meals to freeze and getting the dog a much-needed haircut, my to-do list is pretty short. The biggest thing is finishing up my postdoc research, which I should probably be working on right now instead of making mocktails. Oops.

When I first announced my pregnancy, a lot of my cocktail-making friends told me that shrubs would be my go-to drink for the next few months. If you're not familiar with shrubs, check out my brief intro to them here. They're basically tangy mixtures of fruit, sugar, and vinegar that can really add a flavor kick to any drink. And since they're non-alcoholic, they're great for mocktails. I expected to be making a lot of them, but between being sent some great pre-made shrubs from Element [Shrub] and Shaker & Spoon and having lots of other mocktail ideas, I didn't really get around to experimenting much. But with my pregnancy almost done, I figured it was high time to get into the shrub game.



There are so many potential flavors for shrubs, I almost didn't know where to begin. But I've been wanting to do something with beets for a while, and a shrub is a perfect way to work them into a drink. Why beets? Besides their unusual but really delicious flavor - despite being root vegetables, they're quite sweet - they add an absolutely gorgeous color to drinks. (And cutting boards, and kitchen towels, and fingers....)

My go-to guide for shrub making is this article from Food52. It makes it really easy to design your own shrub recipe, which I think is the best way to go. There can be a lot of variation in flavor and sweetness between batches, and it's important to tailor your recipe to your ingredients and your taste. Last time I made shrubs, I did a "cold process" recipe where the fruit and sugar are combined in a bowl and left out for a couple of days to produce a syrup. This time, I went with the "hot process" on the stove because it was quicker. Basically, I simmered my sliced beets with water and sugar, added some vinegar, and strained the mixture into a jar. Really easy. Check out the recipe below for the exact proportions.

For my finished mocktail, I combined the beet shrub with honey syrup, lemon juice, fresh tarragon, and tonic water. It was so, so tasty - tangy, vegetal, and sweet, with the perfect bitterness from the tonic water at the end of each sip. Definitely the kind of drink that (almost) keeps you from missing cocktails!

Booze it up: I'd add some gin to this one!

Just Beet It

2 sprigs fresh tarragon
1 oz. honey syrup*
1 oz. lemon juice
2 oz. beet shrub (recipe below)
3 oz. tonic water

Combine tarragon and honey syrup in the bottom of a shaker and muddle gently. Add lemon juice and beet shrub. Fill the shaker with ice and shake until chilled. Strain into a rocks glass or Collins glass filled with ice and top with tonic water and another sprig of tarragon.

*For honey syrup, combine equal parts honey and water in a saucepan, bring to a low simmer, and stir until honey is dissolved. Let cool before using.

Beet Shrub

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

1 cup beets, peeled and diced

3/4 cup apple cider vinegar

Combine sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add the beets and continue to simmer for about 20 minutes, until the syrup is bright red and the beets are softened. Add half of the vinegar, stir, and taste - see how you like it and add the rest if desired. Bring briefly to a simmer and then strain. Let cool before using. Can be stored in the fridge for several weeks.

Bee's Knees + a Giveaway!

Guys, I am so excited. This week I am hosting my first ever giveaway on Garnish! The fine folks at Muddle & Stir and Black Cloud Bitters are offering one lucky reader a Black Cloud Bitters Sampler Pack. This pack comes with a 1-oz. bottles of each of Black Cloud's five artisan bitters: Charred Cedar, Saffron Mango, Garden Party, Black & Blue, and Prairie Rose. Scroll down for your chance to enter and win!

If you've been reading the blog the last few months, you know that I'm pretty obsessed with the five fantastic varieties of bitters in this pack. I used the Black & Blue in my Ginger Sage Smash, the Saffron Mango in the Bombay Sour, the Garden Party in the Green Thumb, and the Charred Cedar in the Hotel Belvedere. Today I'm making use of the Prairie Rose as a nice addition to a classic cocktail - the Bee's Knees.

The Bee's Knees is a prohibition-era cocktail with a very simple recipe - gin, lemon, and honey. It's like lovely, boozy lemonade. The Death & Co cocktail book, which does a great job of sprucing up the classics, adds lavender bitters to their recipe, and I thought the Prairie Rose bitters would be even better. Made with rose petals, rose hips, and other berries and botanicals, these floral bitters are perfect in this cocktail. If you don't have a bottle, don't despair - head below for your chance to win all five of Black Cloud's wonderful bitters!

History: The Bee's Knees is prohibition-era cocktail, named after a slang term meaning "the best." Calling something the "bee's knees" actually goes back to the 1800's, when the phrase was used to refer to something small and insignificant. But in the 1920's, there was a bit of a fad going on in which something great would be described as an [animal]'s [body part]: "the snake's hip," "the ant's pants," or "the eel's ankle." Another one that survives today is "the cat's pajamas." Even though it once referred to something insignificant, "the bee's knees" was quickly absorbed into this fad.

The earliest the Bee's Knees appears in print is in the 1934 edition of William "Cocktail" Boothby's The World's Drinks and How to Mix 'Em; that version is 1/2 jigger of gin and 1 spoon apiece of lemon, orange, and honey. But most people credit Frank Meier, a bartender at the Ritz in Paris, with creating the cocktail. He included it in his 1936 book The Artistry of Mixing Drinks. Meier was hands-down one of the coolest bartenders I've ever heard of. He tended bar during the Nazi occupation of Paris and used his position to help the resistance by passing along messages and forging passports for Jewish citizens. He was even involved in a plot to assassinate Hitler. I don't know about you, but I'd watch the heck out of a movie about Frank Meier.

Frank Meier

The use of honey instead of sugar or simple syrup in the Bee's Knees is unusual, and it's often speculated that this was a response to one of the less glamorous aspects of prohibition - the ubiquity of bad-tasting bathtub gin. The strong taste of the honey may have been included in this cocktail to help cover up the flavor. However, if Meier created the cocktail in Paris, getting good gin wouldn't have been a problem, and this explanation becomes a bit questionable. Maybe he just realized that the honey tasted really darn good.

The recipe for the Bee's Knees is below! But first, sign up for your chance to win a sampler pack of Black Cloud Bitters from Muddle & Stir! The giveaway will run until midnight EST on Sunday, February 26th, and I'll contact the winner on Monday. You can get additional entries by tweeting about the giveaway as often as once a day!

Black Cloud Bitters Giveaway

Bee's Knees

2 oz. gin
3/4 oz. lemon juice
3/4 oz. honey simple syrup*
1 dash Black Cloud Prairie Rose Bitters (optional)

Combine gin, lemon juice, honey syrup, and bitters (if desired) in a shaker with ice. Shake until well chilled and strain into a coupe. Garnish with dried roses, fresh lavender, or a brandied cherry.

*For honey simple syrup, combine equal parts honey and water in a small saucepan and heat, stirring, until honey is dissolved. Let cool before use.

Recipe adapted from Death & Co: Modern Classic Cocktails and The PDT Cocktail Book.

Historical information on the Bee's Knees came largely from Paste Magazine and JustCocktails.org.

Mixology Monday: Bombay Sour

This month's theme for Mixology Monday is quite close to my heart: brunch cocktails!! Gary at Doc Elliot's Mixology has chosen the theme "Bacon, Eggs, and Booze" this month, and I couldn't be more on board. I love brunch. It's easily my favorite meal. And as Gary reminds us, "A brunch without booze is just a sad, late breakfast." We all enjoy our Mimosas and Bloody Marys at brunch time, but there's a lot more to brunch cocktails than that, and I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone whips up for some late-morning imbibing.

The timing of this challenge was quite fortuitous, because I already had a couple of cocktail recipes I was playing with that would be very brunch-appropriate. One involves some coffee-infused rye, which I managed to over-infuse into the realm of unpalatable bitterness, so that one is still in the pipeline. But this one is utter perfection, and I'm pretty excited to share it. It works for brunch because it basically contains a healthy breakfast: yogurt, mangos, and honey.

The inspiration for this cocktail was Black Cloud's Saffron Mango Bitters. The flavor made me think of a mango lassi, so I decided to include some yogurt in this recipe. I've been wanting to use yogurt in a cocktail for a long time, ever since this article from Liquor.com made it look so ridiculously good. And after trying it, I think it's definitely going to end up in more drinks in the future. It adds a thick, silky texture to your cocktail, along with a slight tang. It's really lovely.

Before we get to the recipe: my fellow home mixologists who are reading this might be interested in a cocktail contest that's being hosted by Durham Distillery. This North Carolina distillery produces Conniption gin and a number of liqueurs. Enter your cocktail recipe using their products or any gin or comparable liqueur to win $150 worth of prizes! It's open to everyone, not just bartenders. So get mixing!

Bombay Sour

1 1/2 oz. aged rum
1/2 oz. lemon juice
1/2 oz. honey simple syrup*
1/2 tbsp. Greek yogurt
3 large pieces of mango
2 droppers Black Cloud Saffron Mango bitters

Place mango and honey simple syrup in the bottom of a shaker and muddle well until the mango has released its juice. Add rum, lemon juice, Greek yogurt, bitters, and ice. Shake well to incorporate the yogurt into the cocktail. Strain into a rocks glass and fill with crushed ice. Garnish with saffron threads.

*For honey simple syrup, combine equal parts honey and water in a saucepan and simmer, stirring occasionally, until honey is dissolved. Let cool entirely before using.

Gin Hound

I promise this will be my last Death & Co recipe for at least a few posts! Obviously there are tons of impeccable recipes in that book, and a few more are definitely going to show up here, but I'll try not to overdo it. When I first got the book, I tried out many of the more summery recipes, and I wanted to share a few before it got too cold. Today it warmed up a bit in Boston just in time for the Gin Hound.

One of the ingredients in the Gin Hound - and one that shows up in a few other Death & Co recipes as well - is celery. My knee-jerk reaction to celery is that I don't particularly like it. The only time I'd really like to be gnawing on a raw piece of celery is when I finish my Bloody Mary before brunch arrives. No amount of ranch dressing or peanut butter and raisins is really going to make me excited about eating celery. But it occurred to me that I do like it when it's used in a supporting role. I love it in tuna salad, and of course it's one third of the Cajun Holy Trinity. So maybe me and celery are cool under the right circumstances.

So what about in a cocktail? I've enjoyed using celery bitters, particularly in the Means of Preservation. So when I saw this riff on the Gimlet made with celery juice in the Death & Co cocktail book, I thought it was definitely worth a try.

The result was a pleasant surprise. The celery in this cocktail isn't as in-your-face as you might expect; it works so well that it would probably take you a while to guess what you were tasting. It's not that the flavor doesn't come through, it's just that it's used in a way I'm entirely unused to. With the gin, lime, and honey, it provides a vegetal flavor that isn't really savory - think of cocktails that use cucumber or basil and how well they blend with gin and lime. Surprisingly, celery is in the same category.

Speaking of the changing seasons, head over to Hooch to read a guest blog I wrote rounding up eight of my favorite fall cocktails!

History: The Gin Hound was invented by Joaquín Simó at Death & Co in 2009.

Gin Hound

2 oz. gin (Tanqueray recommended)
1/2 oz. lime juice
1/2 oz. celery juice*
1/2 oz. honey syrup**

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake until chilled. Strain into a coupe glass and garnish with some celery leaves, if desired.

*There are several ways you can make your celery juice. If you have a juicer, you're set. If not, you can puree several stalks of celery in a food processor or blender and then strain the pulp through a fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth. You can also use a grater and strain the grated celery the same way.

**For honey syrup, combine two parts honey and one part water in a saucepan and simmer, stirring, until honey is dissolved. Let cool completely before using. Note that in other recipes on this site, I've used a 1:1 ratio of honey and water, but Death & Co calls for 2:1.

Recipe from The Death & Co Cocktail Book.

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.

Gold Rush

The Gold Rush is a pretty simple cocktail. It has three ingredients: bourbon, honey simple syrup, and lemon juice. Yet Jim Meehan says in The PDT Cocktail Book that drinking one at Milk & Honey in New York fundamentally changed the way he viewed cocktails. I can only assume his revelation was related to the simplicity of the formula. It's basically a whiskey sour, but the honey makes a big difference in flavor - one of the reasons that honey simple syrup is a staple in my home bar. I wouldn't say the Gold Rush has fundamentally changed the way I view cocktails, but it's a nice reminder that you don't need a bottle of Green Chartreuse to make something truly tasty, and that small tweaks can make a big difference. There's a similar cocktail that replaces the bourbon with gin, called a Bee's Knees; given how much I like gin, that's definitely on my list.

History: The Gold Rush was invented by T. J. Siegal of Milk & Honey around 2000.

Gold Rush

2 oz. bourbon
1 oz. honey simple syrup*
3/4 oz. lemon juice

Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake until well chilled. Strain into a rocks glass over one large cube of ice. No garnish.

*For honey simple syrup: combine equal parts honey and water in a saucepan and heat until honey is dissolved. Let cool before using.

Recipe from The PDT Cocktail Book.

Battle of Trafalgar

It wasn't that long ago that my bar consisted of nothing but rye, vodka, gin, dry vermouth, and a couple of tooth-achingly sweet liqueurs. The fabulous bars in Boston slowly introduced me to the world of craft cocktails, but I didn't think I'd ever be able to replicate most of them at home without spending a fortune on liquor. Now I know that this isn't the case; while you'll probably never be able to make everything a great bar can make, you can equip yourself with a lot of really versatile spirits that will give you tons of options.

As I wrote when I introduced Batavia Arrack, the cocktail that changed my mind was the Battle of Trafalgar. This recipe, invented by Aaron Butler at Russell House Tavern in Harvard Square, was so unique and delicious to me and GG that we decided we wanted to be able to make it at home. I searched online for the recipe, assuming I wouldn't find it, but there it was on Cocktail Virgin Slut, straight from Butler himself. Lime juice and honey simple syrup, check. I knew of Pimm's No. 1, and I was excited to see it playing such a central role in a cocktail not involving fizz and fruit. St. Germain was another familiar ingredient, and though I'm not sure we owned a bottle, I had definitely been wanting one. And then there was the Batavia Arrack, entirely foreign at the time but now a familiar sight on our bar. Buying all three was pricey, but they lasted a really long time, and we made a lot more than just Battle of Trafalgars with them.

What is it about this cocktail that was so good that it induced two cheapskates to spend so much on liquor? We just love the flavor. It's deep and sophisticated, with hints of bitter orange and spice and honey-sweet citrus. I think it's a truly brilliant example of cocktail craftmanship.

History: As I said, this cocktail was invented by Aaron Butler at Russell House Tavern. The name refers to a famous naval battle fought by the British against the French and Spanish during the Napoleonic Wars in 1805. It was a great victory for the British, led by Admiral Lord Nelson, whose statue now stands in Trafalgar Square in London. Unfortunately Nelson took a bullet wound during the action and died not long after.

Butler was an English History major, so he was familiar with all this when he named the cocktail. The Pimm's No. 1 is a very British liqueur, and the lime and Batavia Arrack evoke thoughts of the Royal Navy. I can't really explain why, but I've always thought the name was a perfect fit. It tastes like a cocktail Lord Nelson might have enjoyed after a victory.

Battle of Trafalgar

1 1/2 oz. Pimm's No. 1

3/4 oz. St. Germain

3/4 oz. Batavia Arrack

1/2 oz. honey simple syrup*

1/2 oz. lime juice

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake until chilled. Strain into a rocks glass. Twist an orange peel over the cocktail and rub it along the sides of the glass, then discard. Toast Lord Nelson and enjoy.

*Honey simple syrup: combine equal parts water and honey and heat on the stove or in the microwave until honey is dissolved. Let cool before use.

Recipe from Cocktail Virgin Slut, courtesy of Aaron Butler.

Eveleigh Lemonade

Sometimes you can imagine exactly how a cocktail will taste just by looking at the recipe. That's how I felt with this one, and I knew it had to be good. Chamomile-infused tequila is utterly perfect with lemon and honey, yielding a refreshing twist on spiked lemonade. Since the scent and taste of chamomile usually reminds me of cold winter evenings, this makes a nice end-of-summer cocktail to help ease the way to autumn flavors.

I did find that the honey didn't mix in quite well enough, leaving the cocktail a little more sour than I would have liked. Adding more was hopeless since the drink was so cold by then, so I mixed in a tiny bit of simple syrup. What I'd recommend is using honey simple syrup (equal parts honey and water) instead of straight honey, and maybe amping up the amount to as much as 1/2 ounce. Try it and see what you like.

Also, the recipe calls for Cocci Americano, which is a white Italian aperitif wine. It is often used instead of Lillet in the Vesper Martini. Here, I did the opposite, substituting Lillet since I don't have a bottle of Cocci Americano.

History: According to this article, the Eveleigh Lemonade was invented by Dave Kupchinski, bar manager of Eveleigh in Los Angeles, for an edition of the Sporting Life sponsored by Combier. It's still on the menu at Eveleigh.

Eveleigh Lemonade

1 oz. chamomile-infused tequila*
1/2 oz. Cocci Americano (I used Lillet)
1/2 oz. triple sec
3/4 oz. lemon juice
1/4 oz. honey (or honey simple syrup to taste)

Combine all ingredients in a shaker and shake with ice until well-chilled. Strain into an old fashioned glass filled with ice. Garnish with a lemon wheel.

*For chamomile-infused tequila: Imbibe provides instructions for infusing an entire bottle of tequila, but I wasn't really planning on making that many cocktails, so I took about three ounces of tequila blanco and mixed in a small handful of chamomile and half the zest of a small lemon. I let it sit overnight, but I think more like three hours would be better. If you don't have chamomile, just use a chamomile tea bag.

Recipe adapted from Imbibe.

Boston Tea Party

The roundup post for Mixology Monday 100 is up! This month's theme was a tribute to Paul Clarke of The Cocktail Chronicles, centered around simplicity, elegance, and timelessness. As a result, it's a fantastic list of recipes, and best of all, they're very accessible - I've got the ingredients to make most of them already. Check it out!

My own Mixology Monday submission was the Old Cuban, an existing recipe that I really like. But today I do have an original cocktail that I think is pretty darn good. The idea for it came from one served at Miel in Boston's Intercontinental hotel. It's a really lovely French restaurant right on the Fort Point Channel, but for some reason it seems to be perpetually empty. This was good news for us a couple of years ago when we were trying to make a reservation for a large group during graduation season in Boston - good luck finding a table in May and June. But Miel turned out to be positively lovely, and they served one cocktail using tea-infused vodka that I really liked and wanted to replicate at home. Thus the Boston Tea Party was born.

As I've said before, I'm not big into vodka because I find it pretty tasteless, but that exactly quality makes it a great spirit to use for infusions. I haven't tried very many yet, but this tea-infused vodka is easy and really good. Just leave a teabag in some vodka for a while. How long depends on how much vodka and how strong you want the flavor. I infused about a cup of vodka yesterday, and left the teabag in for roughly six hours. I've done it overnight as well. I always use decaf tea since I'll probably want to be drinking this in the evening.

With tea-infused vodka, honey simple syrup, lemon juice, and a splash of ginger ale or ginger beer, this cocktail tastes exactly like sweet tea. Drinking it reminded me of the big batches of the stuff my grandmother used to make and store in jars in the fridge. It's crazy how dead-on the flavor is. It's an incredibly refreshing cocktail, perfect for the end of summer.

Boston Tea Party

2 oz. tea-infused vodka*
3/4 oz. lemon juice
3/4 oz. honey simple syrup**
1 oz. ginger ale or ginger beer

Combine infused vodka, lemon juice, and honey simple syrup in a shaker. Add ice and shake until chilled. Strain into a rocks glass filled with ice and top with ginger ale or ginger beer (lemon-lime soda works nicely too). Garnish with a lemon wheel.

*For tea-infused vodka: pour desired amount of vodka into a cup measure or glass. Add a teabag. Let sit until dark brown in color, four hours to overnight.

**For honey simple syrup: combine equal parts honey and water in a saucepan. Bring to a low simmer and stir until honey is dissolved. Let cool before using.

#42

When we first bought our apartment, one of the things I was the most excited about was the balcony. After living in a place with no natural light where every plant I tried to cultivate withered and died, I couldn't wait to grow some herbs and veggies outside. The first warm weekend of the spring, I went out and bought all kinds of herbs and seeds. It started reasonably enough: five little pots of herbs and a rectangular planter of tomato seedlings. When nothing died, I transplanted the herbs into bigger pots and planted some more seeds. Those sprouted, and my tomatoes made fruit. So I added zucchini, eggplant, and some more herbs.

Now I basically have a jungle on my balcony. It has definitely gotten out of hand. Buying pots got expensive, so I started swiping plastic pots out of neighbors' trash cans. It literally takes gallons to water everything. I may have a problem. But I love going right outside for fresh herbs, and it's so exciting seeing new veggies appear. Next year I might try building some planter boxes so the jumble of pots isn't so chaotic.

When I participated in my first Mixology Monday, I invented a cocktail I called the Perfect 10 that included Bittermen's Boston Bittahs, which have flavors of citrus and chamomile. I commented that the best garnish for the cocktail would have been chamomile flowers but, and I quote, "who has those just lying around?"

I'll tell you who: crazy potted plant lady. Days after I wrote that post, I bought some chamomile seeds, and I now have a steady supply of chamomile flowers! I made this recipe specifically for a chance to use them, but boy am I glad I tried it. It is just lovely. A basic gin martini recipe is made unforgettable by the addition of a bit of honey simple syrup and a dash of Boston Bittahs. It's just a little sweet, with beautiful notes of honey and chamomile. It's one of the best new recipes I've tried in a while.

If you don't have a bottle of Boston Bittahs, I think this could be a nice recipe to showcase other flavors as well. For example, orange bitters plus an orange twist.

History: The #42 was invented at the Hungry Mother in Cambridge, MA, which is now closed. But I think the same folks opened State Park, which is a great place.

#42

2.5 oz. gin (Greylock recommended, I used Wire Works)
1/4 oz. dry vermouth
1/4 oz. honey simple syrup*
1 dash Bittermen's Boston Bittahs

Combine ingredients in a shaker. Add ice and shake until well chilled. Strain into a coupe glass. Twist a lemon peel over the cocktail and rub along the sides. Garnish with the lemon twist or discard and garnish with chamomile flowers.

*Honey simple syrup = equal parts honey and water. Heat in a saucepan or in the microwave until honey is dissolved. Let cool before using. Store in the refrigerator.

Recipe adapted from the Hungry Mother via Bittermen's.

Earthbound

This is another one of my favorite cocktails, and probably my favorite tequila cocktail. It tastes like a more sophisticated Margarita. The honey simple syrup gives it depth, and the Aperol adds a bitterness that really compliments the tequila. There's not much else to say, except: try it!

History: You don't have to go back too far for this one; it was invented at The Independent in Somerville, MA.

Earthbound

1 1/2 oz. tequila blanco
1 oz. Aperol
3/4 oz. honey simple syrup
3/4 oz. lime juice

Combine all ingredients with ice in a shaker. Shake until chilled. Strain into a coupe glass and garnish with a grapefruit twist.

Recipe from Cocktail Virgin Slut

Air Mail

Do I dare call the Air Mail my favorite cocktail? I don't think I've ever encountered another drink so perfectly to my taste. I love sparkling wine cocktails, but I find most of them too simple. The Air Mail, however, is complex: sweet, citrusy, and bubbly, the perfect balance of textures and flavors. The first time I tried one was at Island Creek Oyster Bar in Boston, which is one of a trio of incredible bars in Kenmore Square managed by Jackson Cannon.

History: The first mention of this cocktail appears in Esquire’s 1941 Handbook for Hosts, and that's about all I can find. You can think of it as a version of a Daiquiri (rum, lime juice, simple syrup) or maybe a French 75 (gin, lemon juice, simple syrup, sparkling wine). Either way, it's delicious.

Air Mail

1 1/2 oz. rum
3/4 oz. lime juice

3/4 oz. honey simple syrup*

Prosecco

Garnish with a lemon twist or, if you’re feeling fancy, a mint leaf with a few drops of Angostura bitters on top.

*To make honey simple syrup, simmer equal parts honey and water in a saucepan until honey is dissolved. Let cool before using.

Recipe adapted from Imbibe.