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Three Summer Cocktails
The Summer cocktail menus at Blackberry Farm feature light, refreshing sips that are perfect for cooling off from a hot day. Get the recipes for three seasonal cocktails we’re loving from The Barn and Main House Beverage teams, and learn a little about the ingredients that make up each delicious sip.
Porto Tonico
Popular in Portugal, the Porto Tonico is a great refreshing aperitivo for hot weather. The Barn’s version features a white port from Niepoort – a historic family winery that has been around since the 1840s and a pioneer in many movements of Portuguese wine.
White port is a fortified wine from Portugal made from white grapes. Midway through fermentation, aguardente (Portuguese moonshine) is used to kill the yeast and stop fermentation, raising the alcohol and leaving natural grape sugar. At 21% alcohol, this is half the proof of a gin or vodka.
Ingredients:
- 2 ounces Niepoort Dry White Port
- Tonic water, to top
- Lemon peel, for garnish
- Mint leaves, for garnish
To make:
Build in a rocks glass with ice, and top with tonic water. Garnish with a lemon peel and mint leaves.
– John Schlichting, Sommelier at The Barn at Blackberry Farm®
La Grande Peche
Juliette Liqueur is made from heirloom peaches harvested in July from the Rhône Valley in France. It has a very rich and full-bodied flavor. In the La Grande Peche cocktail, the Main House pairs this liqueur with a Champagne that is high in acidity and has an earthy, mineral finish.
Ingredients:
- 1 ounce Juliette Peach Liqueur
- Voirin-Jumel Champagne, to top
- Peach slice, for garnish
To make:
Stir liqueur in a mixing glass with ice to chill. Strain into a flute glass. Top with Champagne and garnish with a thin peach slice on the rim.
– Janene Hoffman, Sommelier at The Dogwood at Blackberry Farm®
El Presidente
The El Presidente cocktail was created in the 1910s in honor of Cuban president Mario García Menocal. It became famous during the 1920s and 1930s when Americans flocked abroad to find alcohol where they could. Complex and aristocratic, the El Presidente fell into obscurity until rediscovered in the 1990s and is now seen as a classic.
This spirit-forward rum martini is elevated by its classic ingredients. When pomegranate juice, grenadine and Dolin Blanc vermouth became more available in the U.S., craft cocktail bartenders and fans were able to make the drink, increasing its popularity.
Ingredients:
- 1 ½ ounces Planteray 3 Star Rum
- ¾ ounce Dolin Blanc Vermouth
- ½ ounce Cointreau
- 1 barspoon house-made grenadine*
To make:
Stir all ingredients with ice, strain into a coupe glass and garnish with an orange peel.
*For the house-made grenadine:
- 48 ounces 100% pomegranate juice
- 48 ounces sugar
- ¾ ounce rose water
Heat pomegranate juice and sugar mixture in a pot until all the sugar is melted. Cool, add rose water and quart up. (This recipe makes three quarts).
About the ingredients:
Planteray 3 Star Rum – a classic, cocktail-friendly blend of rums from Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad. Belonging to the same family as Pierre Ferrand cognac, they age their rums in France, which offers a gentler aging than the Caribbean.
Dolin Blanc Vermouth – a vermouth between dry and sweet. A style created by Dolin in 1881, Blanc vermouth is a wine-based blend of 33 botanicals. It gives a subtle aromatic complexity to the drink.
Cointreau – a cognac-based orange liqueur. Cointreau adds darker base notes that we found missing in the triple sec and dry curacao.
– John Schlichting, Sommelier at The Barn at Blackberry Farm®