Mimosa Mayhem!

Mimosas and Bloody Marys duke it out every weekend in bars, restaurants and homes across the world.  In our home, one of us prefers the sparkle of a Mimosa, while the other one prefers the tang of the spiciest Blood Mary he can find.  

Traditionally made with orange juice, we are advocating you mix up Mimosas by topping something sparkly with a different kind of juice.  We also want to pass along our advice for which bubbly to use.

The classic recipe for a Mimosa is equal parts sparkling wine and orange juice.  We advise pouring the bubbles into flute-champagne glasses about halfway up the glass.  Then top with the juice.  This allows the juice to swirl with the bubbles.  This ratio should be managed to taste.  If we're serving a dozen people, we're likely to be a little more conservative with the sparkling wine.  Some traditions call for a splash of Grand Marnier or other orange liqueur.  We occasionally do this, especially if we're substituting a juice other than orange.  It just offers a little more complex layer of flavor.

SPARKLES-
A delicious Mimosa can be made with any sparkling wine.  Our favorite is Cava- Cristalino, Korbel, or Freixenet; it has the buzz of strong bubbles, and adds a bit of tasty dry wine musk to the drink.  Adding high-end champagne makes little sense to us because you're diluting the flavor you're paying for.  And though Prosecco is an option, they can vary widely in sweetness and bubble factor.  If you spend more than around the $10 mark for sparkling wine for Mimosas, you're wasting your time. We've also mixed up the color of wine from time to time by adding a sparkling Shiraz or bubbly Rosé.

MIX UP THE JUICE-
In a pinch we will take the traditional route and use orange juice from a store-purchased container.  Though here are some suggestions for adding a little creative flair-

FRESH SQUEEZED ORANGE JUICE.  If you've only tried prepared juice from a carton, try using fresh squeezed.  The freshness of this blend really amps up the flavor.  It tends to be a little less sweet, and we find it allows the flavor of the sparkle to boost the citrus element.

SOME OTHER CITRUS JUICE.  Grapefruit or Blood Orange juice will change the color and taste of a traditional mimosa.  Both fruits tend to be less sweet than orange juice, so we'll often add a splash of orange liqueur after adding the juice to the bubbles. Or even make your own blend of fresh squeezed citrus juice, combining your favorite flavors and colors.

CRANBERRY JUICE.  It makes for such a beautiful look and the dry flavor of cranberry, offset with a splash of Grand Marnier, is pretty much heaven with a sparkly Cava.

PEAR NECTAR.  We find prepared pear nectar by Goya in our Latin food grocery aisle.  Replacing the orange juice with pear offers a more hearty mouthfill to a traditional Mimosa. We've also added a splash of Amaretto to enhance the nutty flavor of the pear.  This may be a drink someone else has named more creatively, but we just call them Pear Mimosas.

With any juice, now that you've gone this far.  Advertise the contents of your mimosa to your guests by garnishing the flute with a slice of fresh fruit reflected in your recipe.  A small slice of orange can be perfect for any flavor combination, if not grapefruit or pear.  

And remember- there are no rules when you customize a drink, and an amped up mimosa can be the perfect launch to a delicious brunch.  Try one of these less traditional options to mix up a batch this weekend!

I come from a land down under

For National IPA Day we bring you PARADOX BREWERY's SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE DOUBLE IPA.  As the beer style of Northeast IPA (NEIPA) cultivates the super juicy citrus flavor many of us have come to love, brewers are turning to hops grown in New Zealand and Australia. Southern hemisphere hops bring tropical and overwhelmingly bright, fruity characteristics to the party.

in this beer, PARADOX uses hops from the southern hemisphere plus oats to get their magical liquid gold. It is playing around with the ratios of hops as well as adding other ingredients that make the proprietary differences that change the notes from one craft brewer to the next. Paradox has captured the ideal formula to produce a quintessential Northeast IPA.

The pour gives a fluffy, foamy head.  Initially you are hit with the bitter citrus flavors that quickly change to more sweet mango notes.  It ends with a mellow mouth feel. It's sweeter than other NEIPAs, but that's not a bad thing. 

NEIPAs made with southern hemisphere hops tend to bring the citrus tang, but PARADOX has crafted a particularly excellent example of that variety.  Another perfect summer beer for your weekend!  

HAPPY NATIONAL IPA to all!

Homemade Luxardo cherries will change your life

There are a few ways you can amp up your cocktail cred, and this one tops our list. Making your own Maraschino cherries to dunk in nearly any cocktail you can think of brings instant posh to your drinks.  Its super simple, and they can last for months in a sealed jar in your fridge.  Forget the neon red, mealy cherries you see in American grocery stores, this effort pays off big time.

The shot above is from the current jar that lives in our fridge.  Photobombing the cherries is one cinnamon stick, and half a vanilla bean. We've given this crop a home for four months and the taste of these jewels continues to get better with age.  

The other good news is that your investment in Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur can be the secret to many delicious drinks. It can be pricey, but a few ounces of it in a cocktail can also raise your cocktail game.  I've used brandy as a substitute for this recipe, but the Luxardo-which is made from cherry pits- truly focusses the flavor.

Here is the recipe we use for Homemade Luxardo Cherries:

LUXARDO CHERRIES

2 lbs fresh cherries, stemmed and pitted* (sour cherries preferred)
1 c white sugar
1 cinnamon stick
Half a vanilla bean, split open
1 c water
2 c Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur
Juice from 1 lemon

Combine sugar, cinnamon stick, vanilla bean, lemon juice and water in a larger non-ionized pot. Bring to a simmer over low-medium heat, stirring until the sugar is dissolved.  Cover and cook for 5 minutes.
Stir in cherries and return to a simmer for 3 minutes.
Remove from heat and add the liqueur. (We've seen recipes that remove the cinnamon stick and vanilla bean at this point, but our experience is that they continue to enhance the cherries as they marinate in the fridge.)
Ladel the mixture into a quart-sized sealable jar.  (We use a very clean mason jar with a fresh lid and ring.)
Let it cool before placing in the fridge.

You want to let this age a bit before using.  The longer the better, but I've lost patience about three days after brewing these and I was very happy with that amount of brine time.  As I said above, the current jar in our fridge has only improved with age over the last four months.  My guess is this batch will last us a couple more months when we'll have to make a new one.

This labor of love will result in months of delicious cherry flavor and grown-up bling in your drinks.  Nothing better than throwing a couple into a Manhattan, followed by a teaspoon of its briny liqueur.  Try it!

*We have had great success using commercially available bottled sour cherries, with no added sugar.  The last 32 oz jar I found in a Polish market.  I drained the brine from the bottle and added the cherries to sugar mix above.  I continued with the recipe and would absolutely do so again.

Your favorite white wine you haven't tried, yet...

This Spring I was introduced to a wine I had never experienced.  Though I've traveled through most wine regions in Italy I had never experienced the sunshine of a tasty LUGANA.  Sandwiched between the Lombardy and Veneto, but more importantly on the southern shore of Lake Garda between Verona and Brescia, this very small region is producing a very small harvest of utterly delicious and unique white wine.

The wine comes from the unique Turbiana grape. For decades Italian wine makers have labeled it as a relative to more mass produced fruit, but DNA testing has now proved it has it's own family tree.  The earth in the region is packed with clay, and the constant lake breeze makes this grape very unique.

The flavor is packed with fruit- peaches, apricots, pears and even a little grapefruit.  The texture of the wine is like soft velvet, almost peach fuzz.  For an American palette I would say it offers more fruit and body than a rich New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, but less heft and more fruit than a California Chardonnay.  The finish is fairly brief, but very clean and moderately dry.  

Every bottle I've tasted has been so delicious I really wanted to enjoy it without food, which is not usually my MO. However, I caved and assembled a simple Italian antipasto platter and loved the combination of lighter cheeses- burrata and fresh pecorino; prosciutto and capocollo; and blackberries and pears with this unique sip.  I also plan to pair it with a variety of preparations of seafood and fish.  

This wine was a wonderful surprise to me, and has become my favorite white sipper of the Summer. Here are a couple vintner's whose LUGANA I enjoyed.

1.  LUGANA, 2014, Otella, Italy, $16
2. VIGNE DE CATULLO, 2014, Tenuta Roveglia, Italy, $19

TRACK DOWN A BOTTLE TODAY!

If you steal my Sunshine....

Lawson's SIP OF SUNSHINE is a New England IPA.  Some would say it's the Coke to The Alchemist HEADY TOPPER's Pepsi. Arguments continue in Vermont to this day as to which is a better example of this New England IPA style.  It has a deeper golden (sunshine) color in comparison to HEADY.  You get the citrus mango flavors you expect of a NE IPA, but I find it has a more bitter/hoppy finish on the back of the tongue, like a regular IPA.  

This is a great summer grilling beer.  It would pair well with a greasy cheeseburger or a marbleized steak like a Delmonico or a Tri-tip. Drink up and enjoy! This one goes down easy but be wary of the 8% alcohol- it packs a punch.