The Lovebird Cocktail
by Ritual & Craft
I am so excited to bring you this beautiful Valentine’s Day cocktail in partnership with my favorite booze delivery service, Drizly.
Drizly has a whole host of ideas for how to get a lovey-dovey buzz on next week, and I am happy to add my own suggestion when it comes to getting your romantic vibe on. Don’t we all feel just a little more romantic after a beautiful, creative cocktail? Pretty much, yes. Yes we do!
This love day cocktail was inspired by three important things.
- Chambord – a beautiful raspberry liquor
- Homemade raspberry rosemary shrub
- Dented Brick‘s new Carl Akeley “Tea” Gin (local to Salt Lake City)
- If you can’t get Dented Brick’s Akeley Gin, I recommend St. George Terrior Gin.
Chambord is a sweet combination of red and black raspberries, vanilla, and XO cognac. Is is incredibly smooth and subtle, and adds just a hint of sweetness to cocktails, without being saccharine. You probably know it best when used in top-shelf margaritas, but it really is a versatile liquor that you can use with many different spirits. In fact, this entire cocktail would also be great with bourbon or rye.
This cocktail has a few steps between the shrub and the garnish — but once those are complete, the cocktail is SUPER easy to make.
So stick with me through these steps, and you won’t be sorry!
SHRUB:
If you aren’t familiar with shrub, the best way to describe them is that they are sipping vinegars. Mostly, they are created with fruit, sugar, and vinegar, but you can also make them with vegetables and other savory bases. I have been working from Michael Dietsch’s book on Shrub, which has been awesome. This recipe comes from a twist I did on the Raspberry Thyme recipe he has.
They are great in cocktails, but can also be using to drink in soda or tonic, as well as in fun things like salad dressings. I am just getting into making my own shrub and they are super easy, and a really great way to turn your cocktail up a notch, flavor wise. (Also, I love all things vinegar).
The hardest part about making shrub is THE WAITING! It takes about 7 – 10 days for a shrub to be ready to drink. So, plan ahead! (If you don’t have time to make the shrub, you can substitute with an easy raspberry rosemary simple syrup.)
Raspberry Rosemary Shrub
FIRST: In a bowl, combine 2 cups fresh raspberries and 1 cup sugar
Stir the berries into the sugar, combining
Pour into a sealed jar and let sit in the refrigerator for 2 days
SECOND: In another jar, add 1 cup apple cider vinegar
Place 5 – 6 fresh rosemary sprigs into the vinegar
Seal jar and place in a cool dry place for 2 days
After 2 days, you combine the two.
THIRD: Pour the raspberry mixture through a
fine mesh strainer, removing all of the seeds.
After the raspberry mixture is through the strainer,
rinse and then pour the vinegar through the
same strainer into the raspberry mixture.
You can toss the leftover raspberry seed goop (yes, I call it goop),
and the rosemary sprigs.
FOURTH: Put the raspberry/vinegar mixture into a new jar and seal.
Leave in the fridge for 7 days before drinking.
Now, let’s talk about this cocktail’s garnish. It would have been very obvious to garnish this cocktail with raspberries or a sprig of rosemary. But I really wanted to highlight the vinegar component of the shrub and do something different. So, I roasted some grapes with balsamic glaze and they were perfect! They complimented the entire cocktail so wonderfully and made for a really lovely, semi sweet bite to eat!
Roasted Grapes Garnish:
Place 15 or so grapes on a backing sheet
Drizle with balsamic glaze (this works better than just plan balsamic vinegar.
You can fine balsamic glaze usually right next to the vinegar at your grocer).
Cook at 450 for about 12- 15 minutes (keep an eye on them)
Once your shrub and garnish are ready to go, this cocktail is EASY AS PIE!
For the cocktail:
2 oz Akeley Gin
1 oz Chambord Liquor
.5 oz Raspberry Rosemary Shrub
Shake over ice and pour into a coupe
(it helps if you have really pretty vintage pink coupes…but not required! Wink.)
Top with Prosecco or Champagne
Garnish with roasted balsamic grapes
Enjoy with your beloved OR by yourself with the best frozen pizza
(or maybe some cheese to go with those grapes)
and some Netflix!
And, but sure to visit the Drizly website for awesome cocktail ideas, amazing ingredients delivered to your door, and a great cocktail blogger community of experts (which I am SO excited to now be a part of!)
I’ll be making this cocktail for my super hunky, wonderful, brilliant husband – just to say thanks for being my person. I love you. XO
ritualandcraft.com 