After messing around with the Cosmo last week, I was looking for a good riff on that drink. Essentially, this means incorporating citrus and cranberry. It helps that cranberry will almost certainly make the drink pink, which felt right for Valentines Day.
This is an original cocktail that, while certainly informed by reading a whole ton of cocktail books, is from my own brain completely, and this is the first time I’ve published one of those drinks.
Context
There’s really probably no such thing as a truly original cocktail in concept at this point. Sure, you can make a drink your own using very specific ingredients, but at the end of the day every drink fits into some kind of more general classification. These drink classes aren’t something I’ve gone into before primarily because I don’t think knowing them is very helpful, but here’s a quick primer:
Most cocktails start as sours, using citrus juice, sugar, and spirit. Switch out the sugar for a liqueur, and you have a daisy (like the margarita). Just add soda to the sour base and you have a collins. Use sparkling wine instead of soda and you get a 75.
If you didn’t start with citrus at all but added some bitters instead, you have an old-fashioned cocktail. Use a sweetened alcohol here instead of sugar and you have a martini or Manhattan. Add in amaro and you essentially have a negroni (though the proportions can be very different here).
This is the best guide I’ve found with a quick breakdown of these fundamental drinks. However, there are a ton more (obviously) that don’t fit into these 7. Regardless, there’s usually a class that any drink falls into. And, when you riff on a drink, you’re usually not changing it’s entire class.
That’s not what Bittersweet Feelings is to the Cosmo. The Cosmo is essentially a daisy where the fruit is prominent. Bittersweet Feelings maintains the fruit profile, but instead of the sour base, it’s bitter. This is closer to a negroni than a margarita.
Making the Drink
Making the Syrup
I usually make 1:1 simple syrup, which means equal parts water and sugar. You just heat the mixture until the sugar is fully dissolved and the liquid completely transparent, then you cool and store it as syrup.
In this case, I used 1/4 cup of sugar, a little less than that amount of water, and 2 tbsp of 100% cranberry juice (from concentrate). This is a bit less sweet than pure 1:1 syrup, is a beautiful dark pink, and smells and tastes distinctly of cranberry.
If you want your syrup to last longer in the fridge, add a little vodka to it (but remember you did this when you use it in drinks – it will change ratios).
Making the Cocktail
Since there’s no citrus juice in this drink, the preparation will change from the Cosmo. Where the Cosmo is shaken, this drink is stirred. Without citrus or egg to aerate, there’s no reason to shake, and doing so will throw the flavor in the bitters here (as a general rule, don’t shake Campari).
Tasting Notes
If there is a midpoint between Cosmo and Negroni, it’s this drink. The citrus is up front with sweetness and cranberry, and it’s followed immediately by the bitter Campari. There’s less herb but more fruit and sugar, and it finishes with the lemon and sugar. It’s well worth drinking.