March 20, 2015

Vanilla-Pear Spiced Bourbon Lemonade Fizz

Disclosure: I received Rodelle products for review. As always, all opinions expressed are 100% my own. Thank you for supporting brands and companies that I love and trust. It’s opportunities like these which allow me to continue to create and share unique content with you.

We made it through another week!

And THIS week. Well, it was particularly long for me. So I’m ready to celebrate the arrival of Friday with a cocktail! Are you with me? Good. Let’s do this.

Until this past year, cocktail making wasn’t something I did particularly often. I guess I was kind of intimidated by the whole endeavor. So I always saved my cocktail drinking for nights out on the town. But now I’ve learned how to shake things up at home. And it’s a lot of fun!

One of the most important things I’ve learned for achieving cocktail success at home is to use really high quality ingredients. While I always strive to cook and bake with the best stuff I can get my hands, I think it’s even more important when it comes to cocktail making. Why? Because there are so few components that go into your glass. You definitely don’t want some less-than-stellar ingredients muddling things up.

Unless of course you are making a mojito, then muddle away. Or something like that.

So for this fizz, I grabbed the plumpest looking lemons I could find, a couple perfectly ripe pears, some fragrant thyme and an intoxicatingly fragrant Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Bean. If you haven’t tried Rodelle vanilla beans yet, I urge you to change that ASAP. There is nothing in this world quite like slicing into a fresh, richly aromatic vanilla bean. It’s life altering.

Oh and do yourself a favor and make up some fresh ice too. That stuff that’s been sitting in your freezer for months = no bueno.

This Vanilla-Pear Spiced Bourbon Lemonade Fizz is like a little teaser for the warm weather that’s on the horizon. The lemonade part of it just screams summer. But the pears, vanilla, thyme and brown sugar give it a warming quality and some real depth of flavor. It’s how we transition through the seasons in style.

And while I’m not one to ever leave out the bourbon (ahem), you can totally skip it for a great virgin cocktail.

Cheers,

Liz

Vanilla-Pear Spiced Bourbon Lemonade Fizz

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

• For the Lemonade Base
• 2 cups water
• 2 cups fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 1 1/4 cups white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 pears, cored and chopped
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 Rodelle Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Bean, split

• For the Cocktails
• Crushed ice
• Club soda or seltzer water
• Bourbon

Instructions

1. Make the lemonade base. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine all of the ingredients for the lemonade base. Bring the mixture to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Once the sugar is dissolved, remove the saucepan from the heat. Let the lemonade base cool to room temperature. Then transfer it to your refrigerator to chill completely, at least 2 hours or up to overnight. The longer the lemonade base sits, the more the flavors will develop.
2. Strain the lemonade base through a fine mesh strainer into a clean container, discarding the solids. The lemonade base can be store in your refrigerator for several days.
3. Make the cocktails. Pour about 3/4 cups of the lemonade base over some crushed ice in a glass. Add about 1/4 cup of the club soda or seltzer water and 1 1/2 ounces (about one shot) of bourbon. Stir gently to combine. Serve immediately.

3.1

https://www.floatingkitchen.net/vanilla-pear-spiced-bourbon-lemonade-fizz/