Stormy Morning

Two of my favorite liqueurs are St. Germain, which is an elderflower liqueur, and Creme de Violette, a violet-flavored liqueur. In a search for a Creme de Violette cocktail, I came across the Stormy Morning, a drink created at Bayona in New Orleans. The images from other sites listing this recipe really drew me in--the dark purple that transitions to a hazy light violet evokes the name of the cocktail amazingly well. The whole time I was drinking it, I had "Stormy Weather" (the Martha Wainwright version) stuck in my head. Not exactly the same, but close enough.

The ingredients:

• 1 1/2 oz Creme de Violette (we use Rothman & Winter)
• 1 1/2 oz St. Germain (or elderflower syrup)
• 1 oz fresh lime juice
• 4 oz Champagne or other sparkling wine (Many of the cocktails I've seen recently call for topping off with bubbly, so last time we were at Trader Joe's, we picked up a variety of cheap sparkling wine. The kind I used here is some Italian Asti that was like 5 bucks a bottle.)

Fill a Tom Collins glass or tumbler with ice and slowly pour in the ingredients, starting with the Creme de Violette, the St. Germain, the lime juice, and topping off with Champagne. Slightly (very slightly!) stir and enjoy. 

When you start to drink it, it's mostly just Champagne, but as you drink further down, you're hit with the other flavors. By the time you get about halfway down, it gets sweeter, more floral, and fruitier. This is a really spectacular drink and I love anything that lets me use more than 1/2 oz of Creme de Violette. I think this would make an amazing brunch drink...we had it before dinner with some cheese and crackers and it really hit the spot.

French Gin Rickey

I know it's November and we're supposed to put away our gin and ice cubes, but I had a stressful day today and it was dark and gray outside, and what I really wanted was something sweet and fizzy. This drink doesn't have a clever name, and it's just about as basic as it gets. Traditionally, a Gin Rickey is just gin, lime juice, and club soda, like a gin & tonic with no tonic. But if you went into an old-timey soda fountain, if you were lucky enough to be able to go into an old-timey soda fountain, and you ordered a Lime Rickey, you'd get something with lime juice, syrup, and seltzer, and no gin. So, I think for that reason, a lot of people make a Gin Rickey with sugar in it, even if it's not the original formula. I myself find the gin & soda version a little flat, and the times I've had it, I felt like I wished the soda was tonic.

You could probably make this with any number of things for the syrup, like simple syrup, Cointreau, grenadine, or any other kind of flavored syrup or sweet liqueur. Elderflower always tastes cheerful to me, and as I said, I was looking for a mood-lifter.

2 oz gin (a London dry style stands up well to the syrup)
1 oz lime juice
1 oz elderflower syrup or St Germain liqueur

Shake well with ice and strain into a highball glass with fresh ice. Top with club soda and throw a hunk of squeezed lime shell in the glass.

Note: I like St Germain. But it's expensive, and I'm cheap. I like to buy the elderflower syrup from IKEA to use in cocktails that call for St Germain. It's cheap and it tastes great.