IntroductionThis book is about sharing fun flavors for any occasion in simple cocktail recipes with one thing in common: fizz.
Sparkles are shortcuts to joyful moments. Whether it’s champagne, cava, cider, beer, soda, or kombucha, bubbles invariably buzz as we celebrate the occasions, people, and places that are most special to us. With simplicity, these drinks, whether cocktail or mocktail, are designed to take your mood to cruising altitude without the need for takeoff.
The Basics Depending on which fizz you’re popping, the drink you’re creating will have a unique core characteristic. For instance:
• Classic champagne has many merits.
• Mellow fizz such as prosecco works with fruity flavors from rhubarb cordial to pomegranate molasses.
• Sour kombucha can spritz up zesty tropical flavors such as passion fruit.
• Cava is more savory and pairs well with herbal and aromatic ingredients.
• There are domestic sparkling wines that you may not know much about.
• The revolution in craft brewing brings its own beer frontier breaking across style, depths, and texture.
• The supremacy of cider is as yet unsung, with some of the finest and best-value bottle-fermented bargains.
• The salinity of your soda, spice of ginger beer, or kick of tonic sets up the speakers for the other flavors to dance around.
• Sake can sparkle and, with high umami and low acidity, lends itself to gardeninfused cocktails featuring gentle refreshment, such as cucumber water.
In this book, you’ll find out how these all bring the bubbles fizzing into a balance of tantalizing color, flavor, and texture.
To help you pick the right sip for the mood and moment, each mocktail and cocktail is given a three-bar icon rating to indicate how strong the flavors are:
One: Sublime subtlety
Two: Enticing and marvelous
Three: A detonation of deliciousness
Copyright © 2020 by Olly Smith. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
