Raspberry Loretto
Once you get used to regularly drinking cocktails, it’s easy to forget that a great many people find a cocktail like the Aviation or Manhattan a little too strong to handle. Of course everyone started that way – I think few people can honestly admit say they didn’t screw their face up and gasp the first time they sipped a cocktail – so the problem is what to serve friends that aren’t ready to enjoy the delights of a Martini. It’s my personal mission to convert everyone I know to cocktails, so when a friend came round this evening I managed to persuade him to avoid his usual Jack Daniel’s and Coke, and found the following recipe to begin the rehabilitation…
Raspberry Lynchburg Loretto
- 2 shots Maker’s Mark Bourbon
- ¾ shot lemon juice
- ¼ shot sugar syrup
- Top up with soda water
- ¾ shot Chambord
- Shake first three ingredients well with ice and strain in to a tall ice-filled glass. Top up with soda water, then float the Chambord to the bottom of the glass. Garnish with raspberries on a cocktail stick.
The Raspberry Lynchburg was created by Wayne Collins at the Roadhouse in London, and gets its name from the original recipe’s use of Jack Daniel’s, which is made in Lynchburg, Tennessee. I don’t keep Jack Daniel’s in the house, but I do keep several Bourbons, so I swapped out Jack for Maker’s Mark and hence rechristened it the Raspberry Loretto. I also swapped lime for lemon, which I love with Bourbon, and lemonade for soda water, because otherwise it was going to get a bit too sweet for my liking.
The lemon and soda water tone back the Bourbon nicely without taking away its flavour. The Chambord also works well, although as nice as the drink looks with the graduated colour, it pays to mix it up a bit with the straw before drinking. It’s certainly no Manhattan, but overall not a bad drink. Of course the most important thing is whether the person for whom you’re making the drink likes it, and he did. I think next time I’ll have to try getting him to drink out of a cocktail glass! What are your favourite drinks for bringing newcomers to the fold?
Posted in Bourbon, Chambord, Lemon, Recipes
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December 15th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Excellent idea for a first time cocktail. It does seem a pity to stir it as it look fantastic in the photograph!
Cheers!
January 13th, 2010 at 8:48 am
O.M.G. I did not think this was going to be any good.
But how wrong I was, it tastes excellent! I even used Jim Beam Bourbon and it still is great