Locally Mixed
From Our Community
Sarah and Dulcie's seasonal recipes don't stop at fork-friendly foods on their Two Tarts blog. In their new column, Locally Mixed, they expand on their interest in scratch-made sippables, and prove that cocktails are just as deserving of fresh, local flavors.
In their inaugural post, Sarah and Dulcie brighten up an old standby, the salty dog, with lemon and vanilla.
The winter seasonal staple of citrus is mellowed and sweetened with fresh vanilla bean flecks in this lovely and simple cocktail. On top of the deliciousness of the fresh grapefruit, spritz of lemon, and vanilla bean seeds, we were thrilled to finally use a locally distilled (in Boulder!) vodka, called 303 Vodka. You know, for the area code.
303 Vodka is made from Colorado potatoes and "award winning spring water." I was unaware that there were awards to be won for spring water, but hey, I’m not a spring water expert. Either way, high quality vodka made with pure local ingredients is right up our alley. We’re officially fans.
This cocktail comes together easily, and the fresh vanilla beans transform a bright citrus cocktail into something special. There’s one prep note to keep in mind here, and it involves shaking. Vigorous shaking.
Combine the citrus, vodka, and scraped vanilla bean seeds with about 3 cubes of ice in your cocktail shaker. Shake vigorously for a minute or so. Your goal here is to break up the vanilla bean clumps as finely as possible (using the ice cubes as sort of vanilla bean seed wrecking balls), all the while infusing your citrus cocktail with their loveliness. The more you shake the better, in our experience!
Note: We garnished our cocktails with a pretty lemon zest spiral. You can find a tutorial for these garnishes over at Two Tarts, here.
Vanilla Citrus Cocktail
Makes 2 cocktails
4 ounces fresh grapefruit juice
3 ounces vodka
1/4 vanilla bean
1 ounce lemon juice
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 lemon zest spirals for garnish
See the full recipe (and save and print it) here.
All photos by Sarah Welle and Dulcie Wilcox.
Sarah and Dulcie run the blog Two Tarts, which specializes in delicious recipes and cocktails using local and seasonal ingredients.
