June Drink of the Month - C.O.V.I.D. Punch

Quarantining with a three year old and a very pregnant wife means I've that if I choose to make a drink, I've had to drink alone. One way to make things interesting (and not feel like an alcoholic) has been to participate in drink making challenges with Zack via text, social media, or Zoom. During the month of June, we actually met in person (outside) with the rest of the cocktail club crew, and had to create something unique for the gathering. While its a little morbid, we took creating a "COVID" cocktail as a challenge, and the result is a pretty tasty beverage you will find below.

We chose to take COVID as an acrostic and use an ingredient per letter. The most challenging were "D" (Drambuie?), "I" (only weird, obscure stuff), and non-vodka "V"s. In the end, we cheated a little bit, using ice for the "I." Were we not in a pandemic, and able to make a shared bowl of punch, we would have had an elaborate ice mold with 19 slices of orange, but we made everything single serving to avoid possible contamination. Here was what we settled on:

Champagne

Orange Juice

Velvet Falernum

Ice

Diplomatico (my favorite Venezuelan Rum)

We added a few small ingredients to tie everything together: simple syrup, tiki bitters, and citric acid to boost the tartness of the orange juice (OJ by itself is usually pretty bland in cocktails, but add a little citric acid, and it shines!). I've included the recipe below for the individual portion version of the drink (including a block ice cube with a supreme of orange instead of the ice ring).

Ingredients: 1.5 oz Diplomatic Rum, 1 oz citric acid boosted orange juice*, 0.5 oz simple syrup, 0.5 oz velvet falernum, 2 dashes Bittercube Jamaican Bitters #2, top with 2 oz champagne

Preparation: Prepare citric acid boosted orange juice (see notes below). Add orange juice, rum, simple syrup, and velvet falernum in a cocktail shaker. Shake over ice, and strain into a cocktail glass. Add the orange ice block and bitters, then top with champagne and serve.

Notes: To make citric acid boosted orange juice, add a barspoon of citric acid to 3-4 oz or orange juice. Test for desired tartness, add more orange juice if too tart for your liking.