My heart is usually broken on Valentine’s Day not because of the repeat romantic failures, but because I do know that good blood oranges one of my very favourite fruits due to its subtle perfumed aromatics and striking hue—will only be in high season for an additional few weeks. There are numerous other wonderful sorts of citrus at their best this point of year also, like satsuma, Meyer lemons and kumquats. Even the regular oranges, limes, lemons and grapefruit are tops at once.
Naturally, this suggests fresh winter citrus cocktails are in order! Below are 6 simple drink recipes to combine at home—including purchased juice and soda options so you’ll keep sipping while the simplest pamplemousse has vamoosed till next year.
Sweet Tart Margarita
The slightly pungent flavour of tamarind mixes well with orange aromatics during this slightly smoky mezcal Margarita riff. Be at liberty to regulate the quantity of tamarind and honey to fit your palate. You’ll also use a smokier mezcal.
2 oz Vamonos Riendo Mezcal Joven sat
2 oz tamarind concentrate (available at fine grocers, or online)
1 oz fresh orange juice (you can play here with different seasonal varieties – blood orange, satsuma, Valencia, clementine, tangerine, tangelo, etc.)
1 oz honey syrup (1:1 simple syrup with honey rather than sugar)
Add all ingredients to an ice-filled shaker, shake and strain straight up into a cocktail glass. Garnish with kumquat wheel (optional).
Roku Winter Sour
This recipe mixes yuzu—a hybrid fruit that’s cultivated in China, Japan and Korea that has the tartness of lemons and limes, but the essence of a Mandarin orange along with another fall/winter fruit, pomegranate. The season for locating fresh yuzu within the states is tragically short, and expensive, but one can find the bottled juice at certain grocers or online.
2 oz Roku Gin (a Japanese gin with yuzu)
.75 oz Pomegranate Syrup*
.75 ozFresh Yuzu juice (can sub juice if necessary)
1 albumen, optional
Garnish: grated cinnamon stick
Shake all the ingredients if you are using albumen for a couple of seconds without ice to emulsify, then add ice and shake again for about 20 seconds. Otherwise, shake all ingredients with ice. Strain straight up into a coupe glass. Grate cinnamon over top.
Lucky Louis
Teeny kumquats look so cute, but it is often hard to understand what to try to with them. Try them during this drink named for the sole survivor of the devastating 1902 eruption of Mt. Pelée within the town of Saint-Pierre on Martinique, near the house of Rhum JM. Though its namesake is sort of serious, the drink is delightful.
2 oz Rhum J.M Blanc
.75 oz Ginger/Anise Syrup*
.5 oz juice of lime
6 kumquat halves
Muddle the kumquats during a shaker tin. Add the remaining ingredients. Shake with ice and pour (don’t strain) into a rocks glass.
You Can’t Spell Grapefruit Without Grape
Mincey-Parker is that the founding father of A Sip of Paradise Garden, a community garden for people within the hospitality industry. Additionally, to reserving plots to grow with crops of growers’ choosing, she offers programming like yoga, culinary demos, etc.
This drink takes the standard Pisco Sour to a brand new level!
2 oz Caravedo Pisco Quebranta
.50 oz Fresh juice of lime
.75 oz Simple Syrup
2 slices grapefruit
5 slices cucumber
1 albumen or 1 oz aquafaba
Garnish: sprig of fresh dill
Muddle the fruit within the tin, then combine all the ingredients, add ice and shake hard.
Menta Marg
Ehrmann produces Fresh Victor, a line of fresh fruit crush mixers for cocktails and other drinks. The mixers will last a couple of days once opened, and make refreshing drinks—with or without alcohol—easier to form, plus it comes in great flavours, with handy recipe ideas on the location listed with all.
3 oz Fresh Victor Three Citrus & Mint
1.5 oz tequila blanco
Optional: sweet and salty mint rim* (instructions follow)
Combine ingredients in an ice-filled shaker. Shake until well-chilled and strain into a rimmed (optional) rocks glaze fresh ice.
* Combine mint tea leaves (open a bag of mint tea) in equal quantities with superfine sugar and fine sea salt. Rub outside of the glass rim with a lime or lemon wedge and appear a plate of the mixture.
Gold Moon Highball
To take the guesswork out of cocktail making, Cocktail Courier offers kits (think meal kits, but boozy) with measured ingredients for straightforward preparation. To celebrate the Lunar year of the Ox, they need teamed up with 88rising and Johnnie Walker Black Label for a delicious highball that matches the marginally smoky blended Scotch with Lapsang Souchong Tea and clementine soda, and also the kit also comes with a commemorative sweatshirt! Order yours here for $74.99 while supplies last.
Or make it this way:
1.5 oz Johnnie Walker Black Label whisky
Make your own by making 1:1 simple syrup with 2 emptied bags of tea, then cool and strain
Clementine soda (such as San Pellegrino) to top
Garnish: candied ginger on pick (optional)
Add whisky and syrup to a glass crammed with ice. Stir, top with soda if using.
