Cocktail Time

I love a good cocktail but typically I lean towards a great glass of white wine like a Sauvignon Blanc or Fume rather than a spiked spirit. I have these fabbo low-ball glasses that I inherited from my grandparents and I have had nothing to fill them with. Let's be honest - it's really dumb to drink water or juice out of super-gilted cocktail glasses. But I finally found my jam in the drink department thanks to our resident Michelin-bound establishment, Trummer's on Main. Their Titanic cocktail was so incredibly "up my alley" that I made my own version - called the Cottage Cocktail.

My husband and I really enjoy food and beverages. I refuse to call us "foodies" (more on that later) but we like do like our fair share of indulging and imbibing just as much as the next gastro-phile. My new signature cocktail is an incredibly light and airy combination of flavors including grape, elderflower and fizz. I absolutely love elderflower and I have a few different versions of my fave over-21 drink:

The Cottage Cocktail:

1 jigger good grape vodka

3 grapes, smashed or smooshed

3 oz club soda or San Pellegrino carbonated water (must be freshly opened, if not, the fizz level is just not there)

3 oz elderflower cordial (available at some grocery chains, or can be made by using Elderflower essence in a simple syrup mixture)

The Cottage 2:

1 oz St. Germain (Elderflower liqueur)

2 oz. Champagne (or Sparkling Wine)

optional:

2 oz. Club Soda

Voila!

For those of you who are stumped by the Elderflower component (as so many of my friends tend to be), let's review. The Elderflower is a lovely small white flower that blooms on an Elderberry bush. They are found in abundance in hills of the Swiss Alps but several versions grow all over the world. Sambucus is the genus the berry/flower belong to, not to be confused with the white mountain flower Edelweiss (which belongs to the Leontopodium genus). The flavor is indescribable and is perfect in a light spritzy cocktail.

Bottoms up!

-Bethany