Ataulfo mangoes are also known as Champagne mangoes because they're so delectable. (Courtesy Photo)
I love mangoes. I discovered how amazing the ripe fresh fruit could taste during an internship at the Palm Beach Post, when I lived with this couple who had a mango tree in their back yard. If I could resist devouring the fragrant, sweet and golden fruit plain, it wound up in some sort of mango smoothie.
So why didn’t I include a mango cocktail in my sparkling cocktail book The Bubbly Bar? Who knows. Especially since one of the best mangoes around is the Champagne Mango, a smooth and golden-skinned variety so called because its sweet flesh doesn’t get stringy like other mangoes. The Champagne Mango comes from the variety known as the Ataulfo, named after a grower in Chiapas, Mexico.
I’ve enjoyed some tasty mango drinks, including the Mango Ginger Fizz at the Sheraton Twenty/20 in Carlsbad. The National Mango Board’s web site shares some fun-sounding drinks, like the Sweet Escape and Tropical Egg Nog from mixologist Tony Abou-Ganim. And here in the Bay area, where there are plenty of bars with great champagne and sparkling wine cocktails, I discovered Mr. Smith’s.
Every Thursday, bubbly is the thing at Mr. Smith’s in near the Tenderloin. The bar has an old-fashioned feel but boasts three levels including a VIP room with bottle service (really?) and a dance floor. They pour $4 glasses of sparkling wine like the Segura Viudas Aria Brut Cava and offer their sparkling cocktails for just $5 instead of $10. I considered ordering the Absolute Lush, a blend of fresh raspberries, Chambord black raspberry liqueur and cava, but settled on the very tasty Tropical Passion. They were kind enough to share the recipe.
Tropical Passion
3 oz mango puree
1 oz Peach Schnapps
3 oz brut sparkling wine, chilled
Add the mango puree and Peach Schnapps to a champagne flute. Top with the chilled sparkling wine. For contrast, garnish with a raspberry or strawberry.
Of course, we all know now that absinthe doesn’t cause blindness or madness or any of the other evils ascribed to this high-proof spirit back during the run up to Prohibition. But outside of cocktail geeks and urban bars with pretensions of authenticity, I don’t see this spirit becoming the next. big. thing.
A couple years ago on a visit to the Absinthe Museum of America in New Orleans which is excerpted in the slide show at the bottom of this post, a fellow visitor succinctly summed up the real problem with the Green Fairy. ” I love buying different bottles of absinthe, I just don’t like drinking it.” I have to admit I feel the same way. After I got over my fascination with Good & Plenty, licorice is something I like in small doses.
It was different back around the turn of the century in Europe where it became the drink of choice for creative types ranging from Oscar Wilde to Toulouse Lautrec, according to The Absinthe Buyer’s Guide. Anise flavored spirits are still popular and plentiful in Europe, the list at Licorice.org includes Pernod, pastis, ouzo, Sambucca, anisette and Pacharan I tasted in Spain’s Basque region.
It may have been in this licorice-loving context that Ernest Hemingway created his potent absinthe and champagne cocktail called Death in the Afternoon. His book Death in the Afternoon is considered one of the best books ever written about the deeper meaning behind bull-fighting in Spain. Hemingway borrowed the book name and contributed the drink made of a jigger of absinthe poured into a glass of champagne to a humorous collection of cocktail recipes by writers that was published in 1935, according to Absinthe Online.
I love the evocative name Death in the Afternoon; but since I think a little absinthe goes a long way, I fashioned Killing Me Softly, which I included in my book The Bubbly Bar. Besides being a tribute to the fantastic Roberta Flack song, it’s a delicate cocktail that leaves just a hint of licorice flavor lingering on the palate.
Place the sugar cube in the bottom of a martini glass. Swirl the absinthe and elderflower liqueur in a cocktail shaker with ice to chill quickly and strain over the sugar cube. Top with the brut champagne. Lightly squeeze the lemon over the top of the drink and float on top.
I know the summer seems a very long way off right now. So just for fun, I created this slide show of some of the places and people I visited this summer on my Bubbly Bar book tour. Maybe these pictures of wineries in Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino will inspire your summer vacation plans this year. Cheers!
This cremant from Burgundy is French, eminently drinkable, and $10 at Trader Joe's.
On the whole, I think 2009 will be remembered as the year of moderation. Nearly everyone is looking for ways to be smarter about how they spend their money. While champagne and sparkling wines seem like a luxury – and they are a luxurious experience — they don’t have to come with a high price tag. One of the most useful features of my book The Bubbly Bar is a guide to buying bubbly in every price range. Since I wrote the book, I’ve continued to discover affordable sparkling wines that are great for sipping alone or in cocktails. Here’s my list of bargain bubbly available nationwide for New Year’s Eve 2010.
1. Michel Dervin Brut Champagne – crafted by a small grower in Champagne, this is toasty just the way you want, about $29.99
2. Domaine Ste. Michelle Brut or Extra Dry – made just outside Seattle, these wines are fresh and easy to like, about $8.99
3. Juve y Camps Reserva de la Familia Cava Brut Nature – an elegant and delicate mouthful, about $15
4. Blason de Bourgogne – a sparkling wine from Burgundy, made especially for Trader Joes available in brut and a brut rosé, about $10 – At Trader Joe’s
5. Gloria Ferrer Blanc de Noirs – crafted from pinot noir and chardonnay grapes, a satisfying bubbly with a hint of richness, about $17
The Domaine Carernos Brut is a perfect marriage of California and France, with its fresh fruit balanced by toastiness.
I get lots of questions about sparkling wine and champagne at my web site The Bubbly Girl. Some times they’re asking my opinion of a certain wine, or whether it’s alright to drink an old bottle of champagne they’ve been saving – I always say yes to that one; you’ll probably be pleasantly surprised. Other times they want me to help divine the name of a wine they liked from a few flavor clues.
I got one of those questions the other day from a woman who had been served champagne at wedding that tasted just like apple cider. Since champagne is made from grapes and many people are trying to save money at a wedding, it’s very likely what was served as “champagne” at this nuptial was closer to a sparkling cider like Martinelli’s than Moët.
But the question got me thinking about the delicious bright and sweet taste of fresh apple cider made from fall apples. If you have a juicer, try making your own apple juice sometime – it’s nothing like the flat and sugary golden liquid that comes in glass jugs and juice boxes. The closest thing to making your own is getting fresh apple cider in a soft plastic jug.
The season and the cider inspired this cocktail I call Spicy Sparkling Cider, which is a mixture of fresh cider and sparkling wine. I used the Domaine Ste. Michelle Brut, though an extra dry style of bubbly would work if you like a sweeter drink. It’s spiked with Navan, a natural vanilla cognac by Grand Marnier and warm spices like cinnamon, star anise and ginger. Spicy Sparkling Cider is a fun individual drink – we had it before Christmas Eve dinner- but would make a delicious punch as well garnished with whole crab apples bobbing on the surface.
Spicy Sparkling Cider
2 ounces fresh apple cider (don’t use anything from a glass jug)
1.5 ounces Navan Vanilla Cognac
1 sliver cinnamon stick
1 sliver candied ginger
1 star anise (optional)
3 to 4 ounces brut or extra dry sparkling wine, chilled
slice crab apple, cut crosswise to show the star
Add the cold apple cider and Navan to a rocks glass or small stemless wine glass. Add the cinnamon stick, ginger and star anise, if you’re using it to the cider-cognac mixture. Let the spices rest in the cider-cognac mixture for a 5 to 10 minutes to give them time to release their flavor. Top with the sparkling wine, garnish with the apple sliced and serve right away.
By Maria Hunt, author of The Bubbly Bar: Champagne & Sparkling Wine Cocktails for Every Occasion (Clarkson Potter, $16.99)
Champagne Cocktails are some of the simplest and best drinks for starting off a party. They’re bubbly and the aromatic bitters get your appetite going. And then there’s a hint of sweetness, but not so much that you’re in danger of drinking the whole thing in 2 gulps. Check out this video where I lead you through making a classic Champagne Cocktail, the first drink in my new book The Bubbly Bar.
Once you’ve mastered the basic recipe with Angostura bitters, there’s a world of possibilities for making the Champagne Cocktail more elaborate. For my Los Angeles Bubbly Bar launch party at The Edison, I doused sugar cubes in a variety of flavors including absinthe, Pama pomegranate liqueur and orange bitters. I arranged the pretty tinted cubes in rows on a silver tray and let guests customize their own drinks.
Create champagne cocktails take on a range of flavors with different flavored sugar cubes.
I’ve been in NYC for a few days of press interviews and book signings to promote The Bubbly Bar. The highlights included taping a Better.TV segment with Audra Lowe that airs later this week, making cocktails for Betsy on Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food with Betsy Karetnick. But in between all the running around, I was lucky enough to be able to steal away to a few of Chef Daniel Boulud’s restaurants that included the fabulous new DBGB Kitchen & Bar where we had the most perfect gourmet burgers and housemade sausages and DB Bistro Moderne, where I enjoyed a a light lunch of an Indian spiced squash soup, Alsatian tart and an Eliot Spitzer sighting.
One element that I found in all three restaurants – besides the amazing food, interesting decor and top-notch service, was the Cuvée Daniel Champagne. It flowed most freely at Restaurant Daniel, where we sipped glasses of the house bubbly along with a series of little morsels including scallops and satiny fluke that were on the appetizer menu. It was elegant and crisp with a richnesss that unfolded around gorgeous streams of tiny bubbles.
Daniel’s champagne is made by Pierre Paillard, a small producer in Bouzy that has specialized in pinot-noir driven wines and champagnes since 1768!
And it turns out, it’s available for purchase from Sherry-Lehman in NYC. This week they’re offering Cuvee Daniel for $45 a bottle; even with cross country shipping it’s a quite affordable way to experience a bit of luxury from one of New York’s top restaurants.
I just did a fun Saturday morning radio interview with Mario Martnoli and Amy Strong of the “Food & Dining” show on KLAA AM 830 and are they ever Italo-philes! We talked about buying hand-blown champagne flutes in Venice, sipping cocktails made with Aperol and the Lemon Ice, a delicious digestif cocktail from The Bubbly Bar made with prosecco, vodka, lemon sorbet and fresh mint.
Our conversation got me thinking about all the lovely sparkling wines and liqueurs that come from Italy. When I’m mixing a cocktail, probably the first wine I think of is prosecco, the sparkling wine from the Veneto. Wines made from the prosecco grape have such a delicate quality with soft bubbles and hints of green apple, minerals and white flowers.
I recently received a sample of a new one called Passionne di Fiore.It’s a likable little wine, with lots of fresh green apple and hints of underripe peaches in its aroma. It’s a spumante style of prosecco, meaning it has about 4.5 to 5 atmospheres of pressure in the wine; a frizzante style of prosecco is softly sparkling and has just 2.2 to 2.5 atm of pressure. I also liked that it’s available in the 375 ml size which is perfect for making a couple cocktails for brunch.
The same company that makes Passionne di Fiore prosecco also makes a unique liqueur called Fragoli. It’s a wild strawberry liqueur that I wrote about here a few months ago after I discovered it at the W San Diego. Fragoli actually contains the little Italian wild strawberries called fragolini di bosco.
Since Mario, Amy and I were talking about good cocktails to serve to guests, I decided to create a brunch cocktail called La Mattina Appassionata (Passionate Morning in English) that mixes some of the flavors I love from Italy.
La Mattina Appassionata
1 ounce Fragoli
splash Aperol
juice of 1/2 tangerine
4 ounces prosecco
Add the Fragoli, Aperol and tangerine juice to a flute, straining out any seeds. Top with the chilled prosecco and serve immediately. Cin cin!
The holidays are almost here, and admit it, you’re probably thinking about pulling out those same familiar recipes you make every year. I bet they’re good, but here’s an even better idea: join me for one of these three events in San Diego this month to pick up a bunch of new ideas and recipes for easy and delish drinks and party food.
Next Thursday Nov. 19 I’m teaching The Bubby Girl’s Ultimate Party Plan at the San Diego Bay Wine & Food Fest, which kicks off Nov. 18-22. We’ll be tasting great food like Mediterranean style lamb sliders, Alsatian Tarts and my super easy Posh Popcorn paired with deliciously affordable sparkling wines and seasonal cocktails from my new book The Bubbly Bar: Champagne & Sparkling Wine Cocktails for Every Occasion. Click here to buy your ticket and make sure you get a spot in this tasty and useful class for anyone who wants to be better at entertaining.
Bring your canvas shopping back and meet me at the Little Italy Mercato from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday Nov. 21. Pick up some free Bubbly Girl cocktail recipe cards and ingredients for your Thanksgiving dinner at the market at India and Date streets. Click here for a map to the area. If you haven’t been before, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the mix of cool food artisans, farmers and restaurants at this urbane market.
And to help inspire you just before Thanksgiving, join me at the ever-so-elegant Cafe Chloe for a pre-holiday party and book signing from 4 to 6 p.m. on Monday Nov. 23. This is a free event, so come down and share a glass of wickedly delicious Framboise Apricot Punch from The Bubbly Bar and nibble on appetizers including duck confit with caramelized shallots, housemade charcuterie and ahi niçoise – all featured on Cafe Chloe’s delicious party platters.
We’ll also make it easy to get started with holiday gift buying- I’ll be signing copies of The Bubbly Bar and Cafe Chloe’s just made a new batch of their gorgeous rose syrup that’s perfect in bubbly or an Italian soda. Never tasted it? Rose Royale cocktails will be available for half-price.
