How To Drink Dandelion Wine, Part 3

Ahem. It was brought to my attention by one of our mixologists that I messed up the reveal of our drink winners. In my last post on the subject, I mistakenly wrote that the Drink of the Lion Fairy and The Rosemaryclaire were third place drinks. 

Wrong! 

These were, and deservedly so, our second place drinks. I made the correction as fast as I could, but if you are quick to click, you probably read my mistake. Oops and sorry. 

So today, we'll look at the actual third place cocktails. Again, we had a tie for both third and second place, so there are two more great recipes to share.

The Raspberry Beret

Presented by Meredith Moore

1/2 cup raspberries, crushed

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

3 blood oranges, freshly squeezed

1/2 cup dandelion wine

1. First, make a raspberry simple syrup by combining raspberries, sugar, and water in a saucepan and heating on low until the sugar is dissolved, stirring as necessary. Allow to cool, then strain syrup into a jar.

2. Juice the blood oranges (navel oranges will work fine too!) into a highball glass:

3. Add 1/2 cup dandelion wine, 1 Tbs. raspberry simple syrup, and stir well. 

According to our friendly mixologist, you can experiment with the level of sweetness by cutting the amount of simple syrup if you like--perhaps as much as by half, depending on your taste as well as the sweetness of the oranges you are using. 

I would also like to suggest that maybe a teaspoon of the raspberry simple syrup is an absolutely amazing addition to a glass of dry champagne! That stuff is outstanding, and I bet it has many other excellent uses in your bar-tending repertoire.

The Ginger, Lime, and Mary Ann

Presented by Kirk Trach 

1 piece ginger root

1 lime wedge

1 Tbs. powdered sugar

2 oz. dandelion wine

plain seltzer or soda water

1. Thinly slice fresh ginger and add 3-4 slices to a highball glass.

2. Squeeze the lime juice into the glass, then add the sugar. Muddle briefly.

3. Add dandelion wine and stir well, then top off with seltzer to fill up the glass.

This is a refreshing drink that you can, like the Raspberry Beret, make more or less sweet according to your taste. If you like ginger beer (or perhaps a Moscow Mule), you'll probably like this cocktail too.

I don't have a picture of Kirk's drink or of him making it, because he was the photographer for the evening. He did take a cool panoramic of the whole party, though:

This makes our dining room look much bigger than it actually is. It's also not rounded in any way. Still, it's a fun way to capture the whole scene. Thanks, Kirk!