Hey there! Sorry for the silence, but I’ve been in Greece! A friend of mine got married in Athens, and my husband happened to have a conference in Mykonos the following weekend. Combined, the two events were enough to justify dropping the little one off with his grandparents and jetting off for a vacation. We spent the time between the two events on the island of Paros, which I can’t recommend highly enough. It had all the beauty of Santorini or Mykonos without quite as many tourists. If you’d like to see some photos, check out the saved “Greece” highlight on my Instagram.
Today’s recipe is a really special one – it’s the drink that Griffith Gall and I designed for our big #DrinkstaJam event last month. In case you don’t follow me on social media, let me fill you in! A couple of years ago, I contacted a bunch of other Bostonians who had cocktail-related Instagram accounts and we all started getting together for drinks. This year we decided to throw a cocktail event for charity. We dubbed it DrinkstaJam, and held it at Earl’s Cocktail Lab in the Prudential Center. There were eight of us participating (@nailthecocktail, @bostonbarhopper, @mrmuddle, @young_overholt, @boozy_boston, @joshterrible, Griff, and me) so we divided into four teams of two. Each team developed a recipe using a local rum. Griff and I were lucky enough to work with Privateer Amber, an absolutely stellar rum from Ipswitch, MA.
The drink we ended up developing is a swizzle. The star of the show (besides the rum) is a grapefruit cordial. A cordial is basically a syrup that is also made with the peels of the citrus, which impart their oils to the mixture as well. The most famous recipe I can think of that uses one is the Gimlet (one of many early recipes I posted that needs an update), which is traditionally made with lime cordial. I was hesitant about the grapefruit because grapefruit juice is not really my thing. But this cordial is fantastic. It amplifies the best parts of the grapefruit and tones down the bitterness. It was a very fun ingredient to work with.
We finished our swizzle with some mint, Aperol, and lime juice. It has a great balance of sweet, sour, bitter, and herbal. It’s an absolutely delicious drink, and seemed to be a popular choice at the event!
Government-Sanctioned Piracy
2 oz. Privateer Amber or other dry aged rum
1/2 oz. Aperol
1 oz. lime juice
3/4 oz. grapefruit cordial*
Handful of fresh mint
Place mint in the bottom of a tall glass or mason jar. Add remaining ingredients and fill the glass with crushed ice. Insert a swizzle stick or barspoon and swizzle (spin the stick or spoon by rubbing it between your hands like you’re a Boy Scout starting a fire) until the drink is chilled and the glass is frosty. Top with more crushed ice and garnish with a sprig of mint and a candied grapefruit peel from your cordial.
*For the cordial, use a peeler to remove the zest from a grapefruit in strips (just the colored part of the peel, avoiding the white pith beneath). Put the strips in a jar. Juice the grapefruit and measure the juice before adding it to the jar as well. Then add an equal volume of sugar. Seal the jar and shake well. Let sit in the fridge overnight, shaking occasionally.