Happy Hour Tuesday: Limoncello Margarita

Happy Tuesday everyone!

We hope you all had a great Memorial Day weekend! For those of you who follow us regularly, you know that the party is not over yet, as we have a tasty, fun, refreshing drink on the spotlight this week: Rometti Limoncello Margarita.

Margarita’s are one of the most popular American drinks, dating back to the 1940s. As it typically happens with cocktails, popular anecdotes present not one but a few versions of how the drink came to be. The Margarita has at least four! One of them attributed the name to Margarita Henkel, daughter of a German ambassador, thought to be the first one to taste a new drink made by bartender Don Carlos Orozco in Ensenada, Mexico.   Some believe that the Margarita was created by another bartender Carlos Herrera’ Margarita who worked at the Rancho La Gloria hotel, near Tijuana, Mexico it was there that he dedicated the drink to dancer Marjorie King. There was also popularity around Albert Hernandez’s Margarita, a bartender at La Plaza restaurant in La Jolla, San Diego, whose owner, Morris Locke, brought back a traditional recipe from Mexico frequently meeting up with the above mentioned Carlos Herrera.   An other version claims the birth of margarita to bartender Santos Cruz in Galveston, Texas, who created his version for singer Peggy Lee.   At last, the Margarita seems to be the latino version of an American drink, the Daisy, which was made with tequila during the Prohibition times. The name changed then to “Margarita” which is the Spanish for “daisy”.

Whichever story you decide to believe, one thing is true our Rometti Limoncello Margarita recipe is a fun, refreshing, fruity, delicious variant of the Margarita, we hope we can all agree on that!

Ingredients:

2 oz tequila

1 oz Grand Marnier

1 oz Rometti Limoncello

1/2 oz fresh lemon juice

1/2 oz fresh lime juice

1 oz Sugar syrup (you can add less if you want it less sweet)

salt

ice cubes

If you like, prior to pouring, you can wet the rim with some lime juice and add salt.  Combine all the ingredients into a cocktail mixer. Shake well, and pour into a margarita glass.

ENJOY! ~

 

Happy Hour Tuesday: Sorrento Cafe’

For a coffee lover like me, the day never really begins until the first cup of coffee, often followed by another mid-morning espresso and perhaps coffee after lunch. That’s why I love Sorrento Cafe’, which combines two of my favorite beverages, coffee and limoncello!

Sorrento Cafe’ is more of a sweet treat than a drink itself, thus perfect for Happy Hour. The strength of the coffee is slightly offset by the fruity, zesty aromas of the Rometti limoncello and the orange-flavored-Grand Marnier. To top it off, the airy sweetness of the whipped cream elevates the drink by giving it richness, both in flavor and consistency.

This drink is perfect while reading a book, catching up with a friend, watching tv, as a mid-afternoon break or after dinner, and if accompanied by chocolate pastries (chocolate pairs very well with both coffee and citruses) it will taste even better!

Ingredients:

1 oz Rometti Limoncello 
1 oz Grand Marnier® orange liqueur
2 oz coffee
1 1/2 oz whipped cream

Fill glass with ice, pour Rometti Limoncello and Grand Marnier into coffee glass. Fill with coffee, top or stir in whipped cream.

ENJOY! ~

 

Happy Hour Tuesday: Italian Sunrise

Happy Tuesday everyone!

We hope you all had a great weekend and got to spend some time with your Moms, with whom hopefully you got to enjoy some Lemon Bacca Baci drink as we suggested last Tuesday 🙂

This week we celebrate one of the most popular drinks that use limoncello, the colorful Italian Sunrise. Preferably served in an ice cold highball glass, this cocktail with its warm red and yellow tones that playfully blend in as on a painted canvas reminds of a beautiful sunrise over the Tuscan hills.

The unmistakable bittersweetness of Campari offsets the sweetness of the orange juice with Rometti limoncello, and adds a pleasant herbal aroma that goes so well with the sweet and sour from the citrusy mix of oranges and lemons.

Whether it’s raining outside or the sun is shining, you won’t help but smiling while sipping on your tasteful Italian Sunrise!

Ingredients:

1 1/4 oz Vodka

3/4 oz Campari

1/4 oz Rometti Limoncello

3/4 oz Orange juice

3/4 oz Sweet and sour

This couldn’t be easier! Shake the ingredients and stir into a cold highball glass. If you like you can add a cherry on top or a lemon spiral to garnish.

ENJOY ~

Happy Hour Tuesday: Lemon Bacca Baci

Dear Reader,

Mother’s Day is just around the corner, and we are confident that you might have already planned a wonderful surprise for the most important woman in your life!

Happy Hour Tuesday this week would like to suggest a very light and refreshing drink that seems to fit the occasion perfectly. This fruity, sweet, sparkling treat is one you can surely enjoy with Mom.

Lemon Bacca Baci (that in Italian means”lemon berry kiss” ) with its delicate taste and bubbly sensation, savore with fresh, light appetizers, or paired with a complimentary fruit tart or fruit salad as a mid-afternoon snack. This colorful drink with its red and orange shades tastes as playful as it looks!  The sweet and sour of the berries complements the sweet, zesty kick of Rometti limoncello, yet the bubbles make it an etherial drink. Very feminine indeed, it will be even more appreciated if served to Mom with a kiss.

Ingredients:

4 ounces sparkling wine

1 ounce Rometti Limoncello

1 tablespoon fresh blackberries, currants or raspberries

crushed ice

Combine sparkling wine and Rometti Limoncello in a mixing glass.  In a champagne fluted glass place a spoonful of crushed ice and top it with fresh raspberries, blackberries or currants. At last, pour the sparkling limoncello.

{To be served to your Mom with lots of love and appreciation}

ENJOY and Happy Mother’s Day!

 

Happy Hour Tuesday: Limoncello Basil Mojito

Here we are five months into the year, and summer couldn’t come soon enough, I’m sure many of us are daydreaming of a carefree, tropical vacation. Should your pocket book prevent you from such a vacation let us take you on a savory trip to the golden sands and turquoise waters of Cuba, the land of Mojito, one of the all time favorite summer cocktails.

Like many other drinks, there are several stories about mojito’s origins: some claim it to have originated in Britain at the times of Francis Drake (the “El Draque” was a rum-based drink named after him and believed to be the predecessor of mojito), some to the African slaves who worked in sugar cane fields in Cuba. Sugar cane is in fact one of the five ingredients for mojito, together with white rum, lime juice, mint and sparkling water. Because of the combination between an alcoholic spirit – such as rum- and a large amount of non alcoholic mixer, mojito is considered a highball drink.

Among the fans of mojito, we find Ernest Hemingway who used to sit at La Bodeguita del Medio in Havana (“My mojito in La Bodeguita, my daiquiri in El Floridita“).

The balanced mix of sweet and sour – mint and lemon- makes Mojito a light, bubbly, refreshing drink which can be interpreted in many different ways. Limoncello Basil Mojito is similar to the classic mojito yet brings some new unique qualities. Mint is replaced by basil leaves that are muddled with the sugar cane while the lemon juice releases essential oils. While mint is pungent, fresh, they can often leaves you with a cool aftertaste.  Basil has a more complex scent that seems to incorporate pepper, anise and mint in a very exquisite aroma. The delicacy of the basil is complimentary to the citrusy flavor of limoncello, which substitutes the rum and contributes to both sweet and sour tones of an old classic drink with a twist.

Ingredients:

2-4 Fresh Basil Leaves

1 oz. Lemon Juice 

1/2 oz. Simple Syrup 

2 oz. Rometti Limoncello 

3 Splash of Club Soda

Muddle lemon juice, simple syrup and basil in a tall glass. Add ice, Rometti Limoncello and club soda. Garnish with a lemon wedge and basil.

ENJOY!