Business casual is something that I still don’t fully understand. Yeah, I know, it’s a rather strange sentiment as someone who’s made a living making websites and found a modicum of success online, but a hoodie and jeans, to me, just isn’t swanky. I’m a big fan of the school of thought that when you dress better, you feel better and perform better. It’s the same thing with cocktails. There are every day cocktails that are great, but sometimes, they deserve an extra bit of polish, a little extra refinement. We did that with the Screwdriver by tweaking, adjusting and fiddling to come up with the Rosemary Screwdriver.

Continuing our recent trend of using big ol’ sprigs of herbs in our cocktails (seriously, check out the Beet-N Rye or the Lavender Pisco Sour), I wanted to do something with rosemary. It’s a great fall flavor that I wanted to extend in drink form without burning and/or smoking it. That’s a thing too.

For me, a Screwdriver is usually pretty close to 1:1 OJ to vodka – though, that’s a bit – um – let’s go with stiff for most people. That’s probably why the “proper” recipe calls for closer to 2:1. As that was my goal, I set out for mass acceptance.

The first thing I did was get some great OJ (you can totally squeeze your own, get the best oranges you can). Living where there are quality farmer’s markets make that easy.

Then, it was about getting the rosemary in there — which, for this, was pretty darn simple. As in, making a rosemary simple syrup. Great success!

However, adding the sugar water (let’s not fool ourselves, that’s all that simple syrup is) brought quite a bit of sweetness to the already inherent sweetness that comes from the OJ. That I balanced with a splash of orange bitters. They also help round out the flavors.

Then, it was about finding a vodka that would work on our upscale take on the Screwdriver. Luckily, our friends over at VDKA 6100 had just sent us theirs. Perfecto. De Niro approved, works for us and this cocktail.

Now that we had all of our components in place, it was about getting them mixed and into our glass. No old-fashioned glass for this either, we went fancy shmancy and put it in a cocktail glass. Tres chic.

Let’s get down to the recipe and start enjoying the Rosemary Screwdriver!

 

October 2nd, 2015 | by morgan