Darlings! Question: Do you have a favorite summertime sipper you never tire of serving? A go-to gulp that freshens the palate (and sometimes the spirit) of whomever you’re pouring for?
My easy-peasy pick has long been The Patricia Anne, a four-ingredient gem that was featured in Imbibe in 2013. I get zero cred for the recipe—that goes to Matthew Lipsky of Lux Bar in Chicago…which you should totes check out if you prefer your creativity by the glassful. But thanks to the PA, I’ve made gin lovers swoon and gin haters stop all their senseless hating, or at least pause it for a night.
(What everrrr did gin do to you guys? The damage is real.)
As home entertainers know, it’s a relief having an ace in your mixology pocket whether you’re hosting a party or shaking for impromptu company…WHICH is the best kind of company. In our opinion. And for Middy N’ Me’s founder Kim, that ace is a Grapefruit Salty Dog, made with Ketel One please and thank you. It comes together in a snap and looks beautiful on a table.
(Here: I borrowed this pic from a lady whose imagery caught my cocktail-loving eye.)
Now, if I were making one for Kim right now (or, for you!) I’d add a little depth, a little more fruit, and I’d surely top it with what my grandmother used to call “pick”: that tickle of effervescence that helps a drink complement food yet still go down smooth if you’re drinking it alone. And by alone we mean with no other food, or with no other person. #NoJudgementDarlings
I call this The Salty Eli, after my Cavalier King Charles Spaniel who’s watched me shake a few ‘tails in his time. Wink.
The Salty Eli
Ingredients
- 2 ounces Ketel One vodka OR Ethereal Gin (=more herbalicious…for all the #GinNonhaters)
- 1 ounce Giffard Pamplemousse (grapefruit liquor)
- 5 ounces grapefruit juice, freshly squeezed (pink=pretty!)
- 1 ounce club soda (or more, to taste)
- 1 shake, Angostura bitters
- 4 teaspoons kosher salt
Method
- Combine everything except the salt and club soda in a shaker. Shake hard to combine.
- Salt your highball glass. How? Pour a small amount of water in a saucer that fits your glass, and dip in its rim; then, dip your glass into another saucer of the same size that has your salt in it.
- Carefully add ice to your salted glass. Pour the shaker’s contents over the ice and top with the club soda float.
Want a twofer? Here’s my bestie, the Patricia Anne. If you and yours like gin, all yall’ll be besties, too.
With these two drinks in your rotation, you can’t go wrong this July 4, this summer or pretty much ever.
(Shout-out to the blog Pretty Plain Janes for the BEAUTIFUL Salty Dog image Ms. Brandy J posted on her own site. Does is make you wanna decorate in teals and salmons even morrrre? Me, too.)
Jen Chase is Middy N’ Me’s content director and a 20-year writer/editor of all things food, bevvie and lifestyle. Her travel writing for MasterCard
is here. Content for a restaurant is here. And you should assume while you’re reading she’s hanging with her pup, wishing it was Five O’Clock Somewhere in her kitchen a furlong from where that shot was heard ’round the world.
Follow her on Instagram at @culinarietherapie.
The post This Salty-Dog Spin Is Our Go-To Summertime Pour appeared first on The Middy Edit.
