A Tale of Two Tinis
When we were doing our Valentine’s Day series last week, I had planned to write about another cocktail recipe using Parfait Amour. The name is just too perfect to pass up for Valentine’s Day and, since Rosanne had provided one suggestion, I thought I’d provide another use for that bottle you may have purchased!
Well sometimes ideas just don’t quite pan out. I made one concoction based on a recipe I found, but it didn’t turn out as planned. I wanted to try another variation and by the time I got that all sorted out I just didn’t have the energy to write about the whole thing. But it was a fun experiment so I’m going to tell you about it now.
I found a recipe in Tini Bigs Big Martinis, a mixology book from a local lounge. The recipe is called the Jill-Tini and was named for Jill Cordes one of the hosts of “The Best of …” a show that airs on the Food Network. It was created when she visited Tini Bigs to film a segment for the show.
First - the recipe as presented in the book.
Jill-Tini
3 ounces vodka
1 ounce Parfait Amour
1/2 ounce Cointreau
1 ounce fresh sweet-and-sour
1 ounce 7-UPGarnish: Maraschino cherry
Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add everything except the 7-Up and the cherry. Stir vigorously. Pour 7-Up into a big martini glass (10 ounces). Strain the contents of the shaker into the glass. Garnish with the Maraschino cherry.
I couldn’t leave well enough alone so I decided to substitute Blue Curaço for the Cointreau to intensify the purple color. It was a good idea, except that the blue overpowered the subtle purple and so the drink became one of those neon things - that’s the picture above. It did taste good, it just wasn’t the purple I had hoped for. So back to the drawing board. I also used a sour cherry in place of the maraschino and it really got lost in the drink.
On to the next version. I had just purchased a new bottle of Rose Flower Water so that I could make a proper Turkish Chocolate. And that made me remember that the other version of Parfait Amour is flavored with rose instead of violets. So instead of using any orange flavored liquor I thought I’d try adding just a bit of the Rose Flower Water. Rose Flower Water is very strong so you don’t need much of it before it becomes overpowering. So I added just a drop or two to the mix. The color came out more like I wanted, although it was a bit too pale, and the taste was okay but not great. I think there may be hope here though and sometime I’ll get back around to tweaking this recipe to see if I can get it right.
