Second Honeymoon

There’s a classic cocktail called the Honeymoon Cocktail, a calvados-based number with Bénédictine and Cointreau, sort of like a Sidecar. The recipe below ain’t that one. No, folks—no honeymoon here.

Let’s celebrate with a bottle of bubbly!

Seriously, though, the basic ingredients for the Honeymoon make a dandy royale with the addition of brut sparkling wine. I left out the Cointreau.



Second Honeymoon

• 1 1/2 oz calvados
• 1/2 oz Bénédictine
• 1/2 oz lemon juice
• sparkling wine to fill (about 4 oz)

Shake all except wine with ice and strain into a wine glass. Add sparkling wine, lemon twist.
ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

Lately I’ve been on the lookout for cocktails that can pair with food, and wanted a balance of sweet, tart and savory elements without being excessively strong. For the wine, I used L’Hereu by Raventós i Blanc from Spain, a great compliment to salty foods and crisp apples. Not surprisingly, it marries very well (heh—see what I did there?) with the fruit and herbs in the spirits. And if you don’t quite finish the wine when making the cocktails, it’ll be great with cheese at the end of dinner.

Sunday Morning

Sunday morning, praise the dawning
It's just a restless feeling by my side
Early dawning, Sunday morning
It's just the wasted years so close behind

—Lou Reed and John Cale

One of my favorite wine cocktails. I’ve never liked ordinary Mimosas much but enjoyed them with Campari. It gives the drink an edge and there’s that nice sunrise color. I’m not sure when I started drinking them that way, though I remember sitting around with my friends in New York one morning and we all knew what to do without having to discuss it really, beyond saying how much we liked them. Here’s a version with a couple of dashes of other bitters besides.

I should remember this as a use for oranges I’ve peeled for twists.



Sunday Morning

• juice of a Valencia orange
• 1/2 oz Campari
• 2 dashes orange bitters
• 2 dashes Angostura bitters
• 4 oz dry sparkling wine or to taste (prosecco)

Shake all but sparkling wine with ice and strain into a chilled wine glass. Add bubbles, orange twist.
SOURCE: ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

Air Mail

In a different era in my boozing, in another incarnation of this town, I used to spend my time in the grand old rooms of San Francisco, remote roosts attainable only by cable car, staircase or Air Mail.



Air Mail

• 1 1/2 oz gold rum
• 3/4 oz lime juice
• 1 tsp honey
• Champagne

Dissolve the honey in the lime juice. Add rum and shake with ice. Strain into a chilled flute or tulip glass. Fill with Champagne.
SOURCE: COCKTAILDB

Puerto Rican rum would be the usual thing here, though I made this one with 10 Cane with fine results. For the honey, I used lemon blossom, which went nicely with the rum.