Hot Buttered Rum

[OakLeaf]

DH made a cocktail recipe from Cooking Light for Thanksgiving. It was gin, Compari, and Rosé Prosecco, with simple syrup. It was fabulous, but a lot of work.

Simple syrup will keep in the fridge for a very long time. You can make a quart now and it will still be fine for your mint juleps on Derby Day and your summer margaritas and mojitos. If it starts to crystallize, just dump it into a pan and warm it up again.

That said, I'm more likely to grind up some bar sugar and deal with the cloudiness if it's just me and DH. It only takes a couple of minutes with a mortar and pestle to grind sugar fine enough to dissolve in a cold drink. Less than that in a spice grinder, if you can get yours clean enough that you're not introducing cumin and hot pepper flavors where you don't want them. It's just not as pretty and crystal clear as doing it with syrup.

Traditional Italian spritz is just Campari, prosecco and club soda with a twist of lemon. Terrific summer apėritif. Campari is plenty sweet enough you don't need any extra. Or you can use tonic water in place of soda, for extra bittersweet.