What we're sipping this week - the Aged to Perfection
Hi! We've been back from Norway for a couple weeks - where we were visiting my (Emily's) family - and we're finally getting settled back into the swing of things related to the "oh I have to go to work instead of hanging out on the beach eating ice cream and fishing for crabs" realization. The first full day we were in Norway was my birthday, and also my godfather's, who I call uncle Erik, 60th birthday. He had organized himself a '70s themed birthday party and rented out the whole nightclub in Sandefjord that he, my mom, and all their best friends had gone to during their teen years. Yup, the same old nightclub is still going strong, and it seemed like a pretty classy place all things considered. (High fives mom and uncle Erik!) It was all '70s music and everyone danced until 2 am. Except for Joel and me because we were severely jet lagged so we ducked out at 10 to go to sleep (Espen, cleverly, had gone to bed around 6. Being a toddler must be awesome.).
To make up for our party lame-ness (which in our opinions wasn't so very lame because we pretty much always go to bed at 10, so we felt like we had stayed up late even if we hadn't been jet-lagged), we invited everyone for a little cocktail party later in the week for which I made a special cocktail we named "aged to perfection."
The basic cocktail was sort-of inspired by a Clover Club, which is a classic gin cocktail with raspberries. Raspberries and Campari make a surprisingly gorgeous match - in color and flavor - so I threw in a bit of Campari to cut the sweetness and add a little rich complexity. It's a stunner of a cocktail, if I do say so myself, and one worth making whenever you have a handful of raspberries you want to put to use.
Just as an FYI, cocktails with things muddled in them (or with egg-whites) generally call for double straining, which means you strain them through your regular cocktail strainer and also a fine mesh cone strainer. If you don't have one of the cone strainers specifically designed for cocktail straining, never fear, you can use any medium-fine mesh strainer or a tea strainer, as long as it's small enough that it will strain into your glass and not all over the counter.
Aged to Perfection
- 5 raspberries
- 1 1/2 oz Vikre Boreal Juniper Gin
- 3/4 oz lemon juice
- 3/4 oz simple syrup
- 1/2 oz Campari
- Muddle the raspberries in the bottom of a cocktail shaker. Add the remaining ingredients and fill the shaker halfway full with ice. Shake until well chilled, then double strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a raspberry or a sprig of mint, if you wish.