Blood Orange Boulevardier Cocktail
If you follow me on instagram, you know I love a good classic cocktail with a bit of a modern twist. There's something about classic cocktails where you find ingredients that millennials don't always keep around. Recently I found sweet vermouth, seems strange, but I had very rarely had it before - OR not understood that the flavor I was enjoying from a mixed drink was from the sweet vermouth.
So I had been researching classic cocktails that included sweet vermouth. And Campari kept coming up. So here's the thing. Campari is not for everyone, but for those of you who like bitters... (hi that's me!) it can be a delicious addition to something sweet. The herbal bitterness is really quite delightful if combined in the right way.
Now- this drink is called a Boulevardier- which is basically a Negroni with Rye Whiskey instead of Gin. I'm currently mourning my favorite Gin (SAGE by Art in the Age - no longer in production), so I tried a cousin of the more famous drink.
I liked the original, but I always like something with a bit of a twist, a bit of citrus and there are just piles of Blood Oranges in the super market these days. So... let's use them shall we!? The resulting cocktail is this wonderful juxtaposition between sweet and bitter. It's delightful.
Blood Orange Boulevardier Cocktail
Ingredients:
- 1 oz blood orange juice
- 1.5 oz sweet vermouth
- 1.5 oz Campari
- 1 oz rye whiskey
- garnish: blood orange slice and fresh mint
DIRECTIONS
- This cocktail is best stirred, not shaken. Start with your glass, filled pretty full with ice. I like a good giant ice chunk. Or 2-3 small "regular" ice cubes.
- I like to add in my alcohol first, and then add in the juice and seltzer to top it off. SO, first pour in the sweet vermouth, campari and rye into the glass. Stir with a cocktail mixer or other instrument. I find a cocktail mixer is actually QUITE nice because it mixes JUST the right amount.
- Then add in your juice almost to the top, but leave a little room for some club soda/seltzer. Stir again lightly.
- Garnish with fresh mint to bring out the herbal flavors, and any leftover fresh blood orange slices, because YUM. Enjoy!