Tidings Magazine

February isn't the only month for sentimental celebration. Every day can be Valentine's Day. You are even forgiven for splashing red hearts and pink blush all over the place. During the festival of perfect love, marriage or just a pas de deux, the same principle applies to drinks. They are allowed to be pink and pretty and to dance divinely on your tongue with compatibility, creative interpretations and with ingredients and flavours that make for a beautiful relationship.

Put on the cocktail music and, instead of flowers, why not enjoy the aroma and romance of cocktails of love? 

I adore Il Vino dell’Amore Moscato Petalo-Moscato Spumante. The sweet scent of roses wafts out of the glass and embraces your senses. In Padua, Italy, where Petalo originates, roses are widely cultivated. During the flowering period, bees transmit the delicate aromas of this flower to the vine. The result is that this fragrant, light and pleasantly sweet wine has an unmistakable touch of rose to it, also evoked by the image of the petals shown on the label.

Surprisingly this Moscato finishes dry. It’s low in alcohol (6.5%), great on its own and fabulous with light fare. Made sparkling by the Charmat method, you are easily charmed into the glass.

(Some of the following recipes appear courtesy of Raincoast Books, and are taken from Mini Bar: Vodka by Mittie Hellmich.)

Cherry Popper

4 oz Vino dell’Amore Moscato Petalo

2 tsp cherry liqueur

Pour the liqueur into a flute and coat the inside of the flute. Then add the Moscato.

Southern Shag

1 1/2 oz Southern Comfort

2 oz cranberry juice

1/2 oz orange juice

Fill a highball glass with ice. Add Southern Comfort, cranberry and orange juices. Stir well. Garnish with a lime wedge.

Goodnight Kiss

drop of Angostura bitters

sugar cube

splash of Campari

4 oz Champagne or sparkling wine

Place a drop of bitters on a sugar cube and set into a Champagne flute. Add Campari and then Champagne. Lull yourself into bliss.

Ballet Russe

1 oz vodka

3/4 oz crème de cassis

1 1/2 oz fresh lime juice

1/2 oz fresh lemon juice

1 oz simple syrup or 2 tbsp superfine sugar

Shake all the ingredients vigorously with ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. If you prefer a tall fizzy drink, strain the ingredients over ice into a highball and top up with ginger ale.

Purple Passion

2 oz vodka

3 oz purple grape juice

3 oz fresh grapefruit juice or pomelo juice

Pour the ingredients over ice in a chilled Collins glass and stir.

Pink Fetish

1 oz vodka

1 oz peach schnapps

2 oz cranberry juice

2 oz fresh orange juice

Shake ingredients vigorously with ice. Strain into an ice-filled Old-Fashioned glass. Squeeze a lime wedge into the drink.

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