September Drink of the Month - The Saint Tropez

One of the best things about this summer in South Bend was the opportunity to take day trips all over southwest Michigan, visiting awesome little towns, wineries/breweries/distilleries and beaches. One of my favorite little SW Michigan towns is Sawyer, MI, home to the excellent Greenbush Breweries. Even if you are not a beer drinker (guilty), their BBQ beef brisket sandwiches are most excellent and worth the drive.  Last weekend, however, Ann and I decided to try something new and head to Greenbush's next door neighbor, a swanky little bistro called Fitzgerald's. I've often walked past Fitzgerald's, and I've always been intrigued by the rotating list of martinis they advertise in their windows, but this last weekend was the first time I had even been inside. We were both pleasantly surprised with our food (turns out their BBQ is pretty good as well), but the highlight of the trip was the chance to try out some new cocktails.

At least a quarter of Fitzgerald's cocktail menu featured St. Germain, a liqueur made from "elderflower" (otherwise know as the flower that blooms on elderberry plants). All terrible Monty Python jokes aside, St. Germain is a lovely base for many cocktails - it is both sweet and citrus-y and blends excellently with white wines. The classic St. Germain Cocktail is made with combination of champagne and sparkling water - the resulting cocktail has all the bubbly fun of champagne but heightened citrus and floral flavors that give it a unique taste. Fitzgerald's featured the St. Germain cocktail, but also a number of other creations. I tried something off the menu featuring St. Germain and bourbon that was fairly decent, but Ann hit the jackpot with a Saint Tropez.

As is sometimes the case with cocktails, there are several recipes floating around for the Saint Tropez, and they couldn't be any more different from each other. One popular recipe features Dubonnet (a French fortified wine) and orange juice. Another recipe turns the beverage into a alcohol-free passion fruit concoction. However, the Saint Tropez we enjoyed in Sawyer was completely different from these types of drinks. While the recipes listed above feature heavy flavors and are quite syrup-y, the St. Germain based Saint Tropez cocktail is extremely light and bubbly. The flavors are extremely light and muted, but compliment each other extremely well to make it an excellent picnic drink on a hot summer day. Here is the recipe we used for the Saint Tropez cocktails we made at home the next week:

In a cocktail shaker combine the following ingredients:

1 part Absolut Citron or similar lemon vodka

1 part Saint Germain

.25 part lemon juice

Shake over ice and strain into a Collins (high ball) glass filled with ice

Top with soda water and a lemon peel garnish (Fitzgerald's also added a strawberry)

The resulting cocktail should be mostly clear with a slight yellow/gold hint. This is a very "clean" tasting cocktail - the flavor notes are very subtle and this is not an extremely concentrated drink. If you feel like adding a little more flavor or variety to the drink, I suggest replacing the lemon vodka with cherry vodka or adding a few dashes of cherry bitters to your liquor mix before you shake/strain. The cherry flavor adds an extra note without overwhelming the elderflower and lemon.

Enjoy your Saint Tropez - and do it soon, there's only so many day of summer left to drink light cocktails like this! Soon we'll have to turn to heavy, cream-based cocktails to keep warm!