Tag Archives: cocktails & drinks

Drink of the Week: Aperol Spritz

Posted on September 28, 2012 | 2 comments

Let’s celebrate! Blake and I have a had a wonderful trip to Africa, complete with an incredible safari. Time to toast 15 years of marriage and a great fundraising effort ($6,895 raised for Renfrew Educational Services so far) with an Aperol Spritz.

It’s a beautiful colour and tastes great.

Aperol is an “it” aperitif, a sweet-bitter orange Italian liqueur popular as the “poor man’s” version of Campari (it tastes similar but contains half the alcohol content, at 11 percent). A great way to drink it is in a spritz, using Prosecco (the poor man’s Champagne) as the base. (Notice a trend here? Yup, Africa is expensive.)

Don’t you just want to dive right in?

This drink certainly feels, well, extravagant, and it tastes good too. It’s a perfect end to an amazing holiday. As they say in Swahili, maisha marefu (cheers)!

Aperol Spritz

  • 1.5 oz Aperol
  • 2 oz Prosecco
  • Ice cubes
  • Splash soda water
  • Orange wheel garnish

Build in a wine glass over ice and garnish with an orange wheel.

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Drink of the Week: Dawa Cocktail

Posted on September 14, 2012 | 5 comments

An African holiday calls for a cocktail from the continent. A classic cocktail most people have heard of is the Dawa. The word dawa is Swahili for medicine and after sampling the drink — a strong mixture of vodka, lime juice and honey — I can see it’s been appropriately named.

Dawa means “medicine” in Swahili.

The Dawa first made a name for itself in Kenya, where it’s as popular in Nairobi  as it is on safari as a sundowner cocktail. Since Tanzania borders Kenya, the drink is equally popular there.

Perfect to sip on safari: cold, refreshing and strong.

I love the libation’s simplicity: muddled lime, honey and brown sugar meets crushed ice and cold vodka. It’s simultaneously sweet, tart and strong. And did I mention refreshing? Dawa, indeed.

Dawa Cocktail

  • 2 oz vodka (I used Zubrowka)
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • 1 tsp brown sugar
  • 1 lime, quartered then cut into chunks, plus lime wheel garnish
  • Crushed ice

Into a rocks glass place lime chunks, honey and sugar. Muddle just enough to release the lime juice and mix with the honey and sugar, but not so much as to mash the pith (that will release a bitter flavour). Add some crushed ice, then the vodka and stir to combine ingredients and bring up the lime from the bottom of the glass. Add more ice until the glass is full, then garnish with a lime wheel.

Honey and brown sugar add just the right balance of sweet.

 

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Drink of the Week: Fruit Forward

Posted on September 7, 2012 | Leave a comment

One of my favourite things about the end of summer is the fresh fruit. Peaches, nectarines, raspberries and blueberries are spilling over the B.C.-Alberta border in great quantity and my appetite for them knows no limit. I’m eating them plain, with yogurt, in cereal, in salads and now, thanks to Absolut Grapevine, I’m drinking them too.

It’s easy to drink fresh raspberries and blueberries: add booze and muddle.

Thirsty Traveler and mixologist Kevin Brauch created some summer cocktail recipes incorporating several different spirits, from Absolut vodka to Malibu rum. The folks at LexPR (bless them!) then shipped me a bottle of Absolut Grapevine (smells and tastes like white grapes, with alcohol) and a recipe list with simple instructions: Enjoy.

They somehow knew that my son would clog the upstairs toilet with a pair of Sesame Street gonch, and my daughter would accidentally knock over a house plant onto the area rug … leading poor Mommy to opine: “Oh, Absolut Grapevine, where have you been all my summer?” Sadly, unopened, in my liquor cabinet. Until now.

As soon as the kids were in bed I mixed up a Fruit Forward cocktail because we had fresh blueberries and raspberries on hand, plus half a bottle of white wine. This drink is a “MacGyver recipe” born out of a “memorable camping trip,” says Brauch. Remind me to go camping with Brauch, who evidently packs in vodka, fresh berries, simple syrup and white wine.

Pretty, and pretty tasty.

The cocktail is like a boozy sangria (note: 2 parts vodka, 1 part wine), with the bonus of  extra fruit as you sip your way down the glass. It’s especially enjoyed during late summer weekends, or on school nights when your kids have trashed the house. Drink, mix another, repeat. And remember: Enjoy!

Grapevine vodka meets wine and berries. A good thing.

Fruit Forward

  • 2 oz Absolut vodka (I used Grapevine, with dazzling results)
  • Handful of fresh seasonal fruit of your choice (I used raspberries and blueberries)
  • 1/4 oz fresh lemon juice
  • 1/4 oz simple syrup
  • Jacob’s Creek Moscato white wine (I used Summerhill organic Chardonnay, 2009)

In a cocktail shaker glass, muddle fruit with lemon juice and simple syrup. Add vodka, pour all over ice, shake vigorously, strain into a chilled Collins glass filled with ice, and top with the wine. Garnish with a fresh mint sprig.

–Recipe by Kevin Brauch

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