We can't stop when it comes to things that fizz, sparkle, and pop, but we don't have a bottomless bank account. So when we reach for the value choice sparkling wine, we often also reach for a modifier to jeuje it up.
Poor vermouth. It’s the Rodney Dangerfield of many a home bar: everyone has some, but dammit, it gets no respect. It’s the key ingredient in your beloved Manhattan, Martini, or Negroni, but at shopping time it rarely receives the same attention that your Whiskey or Gin selection does. Generally, this isn’t out of a true disdain for the stuff, but rather habit and lack of awareness of what it really is.
With its classic, striking label and near omnipresence in pop culture and commercial art for over a century, a bottle of Lillet looks familiar to almost everyone. James Bond even called for it by name! But outside of this familiarity, the liquid inside is a mystery to many people..
My first association with sherry was as a boy reading the Harry Potter books, in which the crazed, clairvoyant, and apparently alcoholic teacher, Professor Trelawney, is constantly described as smelling strongly of cooking sherry. Although I had no clue what sherry was, this association with the “crazy, spinster aunt” type stuck. I proceeded to live my life quite happily for some years before being untimely sucked into the world of cocktails, where I found myself avoiding recipes that called for all varieties of this mysterious sherry, never quite being sure of what it was or where I would start with it, not to mention the probably deep seated fear that I may eventually become a spinster myself if I tried it.
While a stiff drink never goes out of style, in the summer heat it’s hard to beat something refreshing, something bubbly enough to tickle your tongue as well as it tickles your fancy. Enter our three summertime players: the Spritz, the Fizz, and the Highball.
If there’s just one tradition we could transplant from Italy to this side of the Atlantic, it very well might be the Aperitivo Hour. Here, on our side of the globe we’ve inherited the decidedly more New World-style, Happy Hour. And don’t get us wrong, Happy Hours are great - but Aperitivo Hours are just something different - more relaxed, more convivial, more joyful. Who can say no to a late afternoon in the sun, enjoying a glass of something light, delicious and refreshing?
