My sister, Rebecca (who also blogs here), will be taking the reigns on Fridays for a while and I am SO excited about it! Armed with her trusty iPhone and lots of Happy Hour experience, I know she will be bringing some great stuff to Set the Table! This elegant drink called The Rose is everything a summer drink should be.
I think I have a pink drink problem.
Since taking over Cocktail Friday, I’ve done a Cherry Vodka, a Rhubarb Martini, and today I'm introducing you to another pink drink called the Rose. You may already know about the Rose - especially if you were hanging around with our hometown hero, Scotty Fitzgerald, in Paris in the 1920’s. But, just in case you weren't, here's a nice writeup about the Rose by mixologist David Wondrich over at Esquire:
Light, dry, suave, enigmatic -- Johnny Mitta, barman at Paris's Chatham Hotel, knew what he was doing when he put this one together, back around 1920. The cherry-pit notes of the kirschwasser blend perfectly with the nuttiness of the vermouth, and the touch of syrup colors it the palest Art Deco pink. By 1925, when all those Yank literary types were flooding the city, Mitta's creation was all the rage. Signature cocktail of the Lost Generation? Perhaps a little on the, ah, gentle side for a Hemingway or a Fitzgerald, but you know what that means. Doubles.
Light and dry is exactly right. This isn’t a sweet drink. The raspberry syrup works more like food coloring and, if there was a fruity taste, I couldn’t detect it.
The Rose
Ingredients
- 2 ounces French vermouth
- 1 ounce Kirschwasser
- 1 teaspoon raspberry syrup
Instructions
- Combine with ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake for about 15 seconds and strain into chilled glass. Garnished with a maraschino cherry (traditional) or fresh raspberry.