Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Now with more cocktails!

Cocktail, anyway.

It was one of those serendipitous occasions. There I was, on Facebook, and there was the post from my friend Lucy, describing the drink she was having at the Atlanta airport.

"One of the more peculiar cocktails I've drunk", she wrote, "bourbon, vanilla syrup, fresh raspberries (so far, so good) topped up with Stella. Atlanta airport is a strange place."

Well, when I read that I sat up a little straighter in my chair. Raspberries? Vanilla?? Bourbon??? Bourbon is a booze I'm trying to learn to like, and I figured that pairing it with raspberries and vanilla couldn't hurt. Stella, Lucy tells me, is a beer that in the UK is associated with "drunken lads getting violent." I suggested that swapping the Stella for prosecco would be more civilized and more delicious, and she agreed.

But when, after writing up my freshemen's final for tomorrow, I wanted a celebratory drink tonight, I found that we had no prosecco. Robert suggested leaving it out, and thus a new drink was born.

We call it the Ginger ATL. It's sweet, smokey, and slightly tart, and you should try it straight away.

Here it is, posing with our vampiric basil plant (seriously, this plant wilts in the sun, and perks up in the shade. So weird). But really! Look at the gorgeous raspberry color of the drink!



If you'd like to make it at home, here's how. Makes 2 drinks.

5 oz bourbon
1.5 oz simple syrup, infused with vanilla (we used my homemade vanilla extract for this, which is extra strong and extracted into vodka. We used about 1tsp of vanilla, but you may need to add considerably more if you're using a regular store vanilla.)
2 T rasberries
1/2 lemon

Put the raspberries in the bourbon and muddle them, but don't totally destroy them. Add the vanilla infused syrup, and add it.

Stir.

Pour over ice.

Squeeze some lemon juice into each drink, serve, and be happy.