The recipe for this cocktail came from a man named Charles Portera, but you'd better not call him that--he's The Diva, baby. He tends bar at the Court of Two Sisters, right between Bourbon and Royal Street; we met him during an excellent Cocktail Tour, and went back to visit several times during our stay. You'll definitely know when you've met The Diva; he's prone to exclamations like, "Woo, you see that waiter over there? Honey, if I wasn't married, I'd be all over him like gravy on rice."
This cocktail took the top prize at Tales of the Cocktail, the annual gathering of cocktail nerds in NOLA. (It's going on right now, in fact, and reading the blog posts from down there hurts me.) This feat is even more impressive when you consider that The Diva has never actually tasted the drink--in fact, he hasn't had a drink in fifteen years.
I'm not big on pre-made sour mix, so I replaced it with a mix of about 1/3 fresh lemon juice and 2/3 bar syrup (that is, equal parts sugar and water heated up until it dissolves). Seemed about right. Ordinarily you don't put fizzy ingredients in the cocktail shaker, but since the fizz isn't really a factor here, it works.
Southern Orleans
1 oz Southern Comfort
2/3 oz lemon sour mix
2/3 oz Champagne (The Diva specifies Korbel)
1/4 oz Grenadine
1 sugar cube
1 lime wheel
Place the sugar cube in a cocktail (martini) glass. Put the SoCo, bubbly, and lemon sour mix in your shaker with clean ice, and shake. (Remember: horizontal, over the shoulder, fifty hard shakes.)
Strain into the glass with the sugar cube. Pour the grenadine straight down through the middle of the drink. Do not stir. Garnish with the lime wedge. Raise to The Diva.
No comments:
Post a Comment