Sloe Gin Fizz

Ahhh. Thursday night. Before one of Mike's fridays off. Is there anything better? In general, he gets every other Friday off, so every other Thursday feels like a holiday.

So I suppose I'm drunk blogging. Bear with me.

I've wanted to try a sloe gin fizz ever since I heard Blanche offer one to somebody on The Golden Girls. Man, I must be tipsy to admit that online! I'd never heard of one before, and I thought it was "slow" instead of "sloe," and I couldn't for the life of me figure out how one could make gin fizz slowly. I happened to see the episode on again last week, and I figured this Thursday would be the night for us to give it a try.

The picture above is the second manifestation. The first try was from the back of the bottle: 1 1/2 parts sloe gin, 1 part lemon juice, and 3 parts club soda.

Y.U.C.K.

It was so tart that my teeth hurt. How could Blanche ever serve this to one of her gentleman callers?!? Every time I sipped it, my face involuntarily crimped up like I'd just eaten a sour jolly rancher. As I type this, my mouth is watering just thinking about it. Lesson learned: don't use 1 part lemon juice.

Then Mike suggested we look at his bartender's book. I know it's a good one because it's what they use down at Wine & Sprits. Mike knows it's a good one because I gave it to him for our one-year anniversary. Hey, it was paper. And apparently we are boozehounds.

In that vein, allow me a moment to sing the praises of Wine & Sprits: if you live close by, definitely give these guys a shot. I emailed Nick back in April to see if he could somehow smuggle some Mumm champange directly from the winery for us - we discovered it during our trip to San Francisco and couldn't ship any back to Mississippi. Nick printed out my email and KEEPS IT in his binder with detailed notes of his correspondence with Mumm! Impressed? I should think so!

But I digress. Our bartender book said to try 1 part sloe gin, 1 part sour mix, and 1 1/4 part club soda. Sour mix! That's the key!

When I'm tending bar, I tend to pour by counts. For instance, gin for a gin & tonic (G&T) is a 2 - 3 count depending on how sassy I'm feeling. I'm just tipsy enough to realize that the rhythm by which I count is actually my heartbeat. Lord help me if I'm relaxed and have a slow heart rate.

Tonight I poured the sloe to a 2, the sour to a 1.75, and topped it off with club soda. Stirred it with a nearby chopstick.

Bingo.

Did I mention the gardenia is blooming again? I can't beleive it's that time of year. Where did 2009 go?