All posts tagged: citrus

Cocktail of the week no.11: the Sidecar

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Winter is finally on its way out in London, or at least it’s now alternating between bone-chilling cold and warm sunshine. I think the season of cognac and whisky cocktails is on the wane, and I’m looking forward to Negronis and daiquiris and all manner of summery drinks. Maybe I’m a bit too strict with my seasons here, but I can’t help associating those spirits with hunkering down and warming up. I’m so looking forward to the point where I’ll want to cool down instead. But before spring really hits, here’s a lovely Sidecar to celebrate the last of winter citrus and the fiery burn of brandy. I love this cocktail – it’s the perfect smoothing out of two intense flavours together, the Cointreau forming a bridge between them. Such a lovely way to say goodbye to the cold weather – something I sincerely hope I’m about to do! Ingredients: 2 oz cognac 1 oz Cointreau 1 oz lemon juice Optionally, rub a wedge of lemon around the rim of your cocktail glass and press …

Seasonal citrus again: blood orange and rosemary mocktail

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Still on a blood orange kick over here – I cannot get enough of this winter citrus, and as I’m starting to feel the first stirrings of spring, I’m trying to use it as much as I can. This time I used it to make a mocktail – not everyone wants to drink all the time. (Is mocktail the worst word ever? Virgin cocktail does not sound much better.) I wanted something fresh but herbal, and I used a recipe I found on this blog, which is an awesome resource I’d never come across before. As well as juicing about a million blood oranges for this, I also made a rather exciting rosemary simple syrup. The two combined to make a lovely sweet/sour refreshing drink, topped off with soda water. As the recipe originally states, you can easily add vodka (or gin) to this to make an actual drink. To make the simple syrup: Boil one cup of water and one cup of sugar in a small saucepan. Add in about four sprigs of rosemary and …

Seasonal cocktail: blood orange and bourbon

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It’s blood orange season, finally! You can tell because they’re all over Instagram. Naturally I wanted to make something with these photogenic fruits, and came across this beautiful drink in an old post at Love and Lemons. I definitely can’t photograph it as well as the original, partly due to lack of skillz and partly due to SAD-inducing lack of decent daylight, but hopefully you get the idea of how pretty it is. (Should I rearrange my life to make cocktails in the early morning and catch the light? Probably wouldn’t go down well at work.) I love that citrus is in season in winter. It’s always just what I need in miserable January. This is not just a good-looking drink, it’s a fresh yet wintery concoction, easy on the liquor, with a bit of sparkling water to lighten it up.  Super tasty, super refreshing, could drink about 10. But won’t. I changed the proportions a bit, and made it with equal parts bourbon and blood orange juice, and added just a splash of water. You could alter …