"Motherly Love" - a Zinfandel based cocktail that missed Mother's Day by a mile!

All of which was completely my fault, so I apologise for not getting this completely and utterly divine concoction to you sooner.

However - and here's the bonus - I can't think of anything I'd rather drink on a summer's evening when the grasshoppers are chirping in the lawn, the day is cooling down and I'm sitting on the patio just watching the garden grow.

Barefoot Wine (@BarefootWine on Twitter) sent me a bottle of Zinfandel with which to make the cocktail in time for Mother's Day.  However, because of one thing and another, we just didn't get to it on the day itself - and then for quite a long time afterwards.

However, things settled down and making the "Motherly Love" became a target.  I'd bought a punnet of strawberries for our first (abortive) go, but they had been such hard, miserable strawberries that I was glad we didn't get to use them in the end.  (In fact, we ate them up by putting them into a jelly, which did the trick admirably).

Having had a bit of a moan about the state of these strawberries, @VivaStrawb contacted me and suggested I search out the Viva strawberry, as it was apparently one of the best of the early croppers.  I found some in our local Waitrose and although they hadn't got a patch on our mid-season British strawberries, they were flavoursome, sweet and soft - perfect for the "Motherly Love" (and we ate the remainder with vanilla ice cream, that's how nice they were!).

We'd even found the perfect glass for the cocktail.  Hubby is an inveterate trawler of local charity shops and found the perfect tulip shaped glass with a bevelled stem.  It really is beautiful - and when filled with "Motherly Love", the sight was enough to please even the most jaded of Mums.

This really is hubby's project, to be honest.  After all, he found the glass, sourced the props for the photograph, made the cocktail (including making the simple syrup) and took the photographs.  All I did was discover the strawberries and drink the end result!

But how was the end result?  What does a glass of "Motherly love" taste like?  Well, the first sensation to hit you is that it is very cold .. then very sweet .. and a zzzip! from the Zinfandel .. and the tang of strawberry and lemon, jostling for position .. all followed by the gently soothing coolness of cucumber.


If I'm honest, the gin didn't feature in the flavour profile at all.  However, I am quite sure it featured where the texture (or "mouth feel") of the drink was concerned.  You know how gin can have a certain oiliness?  Well, the drink has a longevity of flavour which I'm sure is carried by the gin and I can imagine that if you left the gin out of the recipe, the drink would very definitely miss it.


A quick word about the Zinfandel itself - now I have to admit to being at odds with most red wines and a lot of white wines, too.  However, with the discovery of Zinfandel, I've found a wine that I can both drink and enjoy.  Barefoot's Zinfandel is wonderfully light on the palate, with a sweetness that is tempered by the fruitiness and is very, very drinkable.  You can't ask more of a wine, than that!


So, getting back to the "Motherly Love", well, I'm a Mum - and I love it!  This is very definitely going to be on my drinks list once the weather warms up into summer.


MOTHERLY LOVE


Ingredients :


60ml Barefoot White Zinfandel (which is something of a misnomer, as it's pink!)
25ml gin
20ml lemon juice
3 strawberries
3 fine slices cucumber
20ml simple syrup
Lemonade
lots of ice.


Method :


1.  Muddle the fruits together (muddle = mash lightly) and shake all the ingredients, apart from the lemonade.


2.  Strain over cubed ice in a highball glass.


3.  Top up with lemonade and garnish with a cucumber slice and strawberries.


Serve.

 

Tequila cocktails - oh, the fun we had!

Cactus Cooler on the left, Desert Apple on the right

I was looking at the Recipe Index page on the blog here and thinking to myself that the Moscato Love was looking fairly lonely, there all on its own under the heading of "Drinks".  

So, following some ponderment, I mentioned it to hubby.

There then ensued a bit of a brain storm.  Now we often find that moments of enforced idleness (such as when waiting to collect son & heir - a case in point) can be filled with running ideas up flagpoles, taking concepts on board and generally doing some blue sky thinking.  Or "getting very hungry whilst talking food", as it's known in our house.  The only difference was, on this day we were talking about cocktails - and Tequila cocktails, as it turned out.

Now I am such an innocent were alcohol is concerned.  I'm definitely not a Lambrusco girl - I do draw the line at that - but I like what I like and that's pretty much that.  Having said that, however, my tastes have changed in latter years and I can now cope with a greater number of different types of alcohol than ever before.  (Which is amazing, considering I went through my twenties drinking orange juice and lemonade, while everyone around me got sloshed).


I could vaguely remember trying a Tequila way, way before they were fashionable - and liking it.  Of course, I don't remember which Tequila drink (it would have to have been involving a mixer of some sort - I just don't do neat alcohol), but it was a start.

So having settled upon Tequila, the first thing that struck me as a perfect accompaniment, was the Tymbark Cactus Juice that is my current fruit juice passion.  Available from some branches of Asda and your local Polish Grocery store, it is alarmingly green, made from Prickly Pear, Lime and Apple juice, is completely gorgeous and really refreshing.  Tequila being cactus based, (the Blue Agave, apparently), it just made sense.


Next up, was an idea for an apple juice/Tequila mix.  However, not just any apple juice, it had to be a cloudy, fairly tart, apple juice - and one which would stand up well against the Tequila.


Well, these two ideas were taking shape.  Next thing on the list was to find some Tequila!

It seems that there are two readily available types of Tequila, the Silver or twice distilled younger variety and the Gold, aged variety.  Of course, there are many more - but these two appear to be available just about everywhere.  We settled on some "Sierra" Tequila, which I have no idea whether it's a good, bad or indifferent one - but it's the one we used.


It seemed to hubby and I that, if you're considering making a cocktail, then you don't really want to go with the aged variety for fear of knocking out some of the more complex flavours.  So that is why we settled on the Silver.


Having got the Tequila, we were curious to find out whether we a) liked the stuff and b) liked the stuff enough to want to create cocktails with it.  Not being ones to wait when you can be getting on with something, I found myself sampling a teensy tiny Tequila & Cactus Juice, at 11 am.  Now I can quite categorically say that you can keep your neat Tequila - bleah! - but with Cactus Juice?  Oooh, now you're talking!

So, last night, we had a concerted effort at blending and developing the "Cactus Cooler" and the "Desert Apple".


My favourite, not surprisingly, is the "Cactus Cooler".  With its ice, cactus juice, lime, and mint, it has an interesting effect!  The initial flavour is the sweetness and greenness of the cactus juice, swiftly followed by the sharp hit of lime and the coolness of the mint leaves - each flavour being quite distinct.  Then, comes the spreading warmth of the Tequila as it registers a slight sourness which transforms into a comforting glow - all ready for the next cooling sip.  Goodness me, but I could drink really quite a lot of this.

Hubby preferred the "Desert Apple".  A mixture of Silver Tequila and Copella Apple Juice with Elderflower, it is elegant in its simplicity.  The Copella Apple & Elderflower Juice is particular to this cocktail as Copella has the dry element of a fresh crisp apple and is not cloyingly sweet like many apple juices.  The "Desert Apple" delivers an instant sharp zing of Tequila on the front of your tongue before the apple juice floods your mouth with a dry sweetness.  Next comes the high floral note of the elderflower.   The whole thing is ice cold and dangerously swiggable - and you get to eat the lime washed apple slice at the end.

I'm quite coming around to this developing cocktails idea.  We should do more of it!

By the way, if you're curious about how we achieved the exotic background - look here.

CACTUS COOLER

In a tall glass, combine the Tequila and cactus juice, in the ratio of 1 to 5 (the 1 being the tequila!) until the glass is three quarters full.

Layer a mint leaf and then an ice cube, repeating until the glass is almost full.

Twizzle the cocktail to mix and garnish with a slice of fresh lime.

DESERT APPLE

In a tall glass, combine the Tequila and the apple juice in the ratio of 1 to 5 (see above!) until the glass is three quarters full.

Add ice to top the glass off and give the whole thing a twizzle.

Take a good sized slice of apple and rub a cut lime over the flesh to prevent it from browning.  Use this to garnish the glass.

Try not to drink it too quickly!

Note : the 1 to 5 ratio of Tequila to fruit juice was our preference but of course you may prefer more or less tequila flavour.  We recommend that you experiment at length to discover your perfect mix!

.

Moscato Love - a Valentine's Day cocktail (or any time, actually!)

Wow.  What a gorgeously delicious, refreshing, mouthwatering, eminently drinkable combination this is!

Now I'm not normally one for making cocktails.  However, when Barefoot Wine got in touch and asked whether (as I cook with wine quite often), I'd be interested in having some of their white Moscato dessert wine and Merlot red wine to play with, (see recipe for Drunken Spaghetti, next up on the blog) I just couldn't refuse.  Well, especially with Valentine's day hoving into view.

With the wine, came some suggested recipes - one of which was for the Moscato Love.  Now I dare say you could call this cocktail whatever the heck you like - as I can see that it has uses across all the seasons.  It is obviously appropriate for Valentine's day, however if you bear in mind the Cranberry juice and the red colour, it would make a fantastic alternative to Buck's Fizz at Christmas.  The flavours though - now they are all summer.  I can imagine that it would be utterly divine, paired up with raspberries from the garden, poured over ice and enjoyed whilst sitting on the patio watching the garden grow.  Fabulous!

As I say, I'm not one for cocktails - and in fact, I'm not one for alcohol in general (unless I'm cooking with it!).  However, this one just blew my little socks off.  I know that there are those out there who would be laughing into their martini glass at this being referred to as a "cocktail", but to be honest I really don't care.  Here's a thought - if you're catering for folk like me, who don't imbibe on a regular basis and who aren't wine drinkers, then this is a great choice - and I wouldn't mind betting that the drinkers will be just as happy with it!

My thanks go out to Barefoot Wine for giving us the opportunity of sampling the Moscato.  Outside of the cocktail, it is of course a very sweet wine (it's a dessert wine, when all is said and done) but in contrast to many it has a remarkably pure and clean flavour without any of the heaviness that so often comes with a dessert wine.

Cheers!

MOSCATO LOVE

Ingredients :

1 bottle of Barefoot White Moscato
250ml of lemonade
1 cup of raspberries
2 teaspoons of honey
2 cups of cranberry juice
Ice.

Method :

1.  Combine all the ingredients except the lemonade and the ice.  Blend until smooth.

2.  Gently add the lemonade, so as to minimise the loss of fizz.

3.  Pour over ice, or add ice to the jug.

4.  Be ready to get up and make some more!

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