Harvest Highball!

I came across this recipe on the food page of the Huffington Post web site. There was an article describing several lesser know drink recipes that they thought would be great for a Super Bowl party. 

It looked wonderful and when I did a quick search for more information, I was taken to a page on YouTube where a gentleman mixed and reviewed cocktails. Throughout his presentation, he made several references that this was a cocktail more suited to fall and winter and holiday drinking, hence the name “harvest highball”. But looking thru the ingredient list: fresh lim juice, ginger beer, citron flavored vodka, ... it didnt seem like there was a reason to limit this to a autumn  recipe. In fact once you taste it, you will find that the fresh, crisp spicy taste is suited for all kinds of situations. This would be a perfect drink for a summers night, or a cold winters evening when you need something to warm you up.  The night I saw this I knew I wanted one, I had everything in the house but the ginger beer so I needed to wait a bit till I could get to a liquor store and purchase the beer. 

   Last year I had wanted to try a Moscow Mule. Which is almost the same recipe. I had found  cans of the ginger beer at my favorite little gourmet market and I bought a can to experiment with. Unfortunately I bought the can in mid summer, in the midst of a major heat spell. I tossed the can onto the top of the dash of my jeep and I drove home. I left the can in the vehicle for several hours without imagining that the intensified heat would cause the can to explode. But, it did. When i returned to my jeep several hours later I found ginger beer dripping from every part of my dash. It was a sticky, disgusting mess that I am still cleaning up. So my initial experience with the stuff had been pretty disappointing.  The second time I tried it I was less than impressed. But I think it was more that I tried it straight from the can, which made it a  bit “intense” even for me and I absolutely love ginger and often by a box of the candied kind and eat it as a snack.  But I was hoping that blended with the other ingredients the ginger beer would be more sublet, and I was right. It was worth giving this recipe a try. I found the ginger beer at a local liquor store. 4 small bottles,  6 oz each for nearly $6.00, which I thought was pretty pricy, but still worth trying.  The rest of the recipe calls for:

2 oz citron flavored vodka

2 oz ginger beer

1/2 oz of fresh lime juice

1/2 oz simple syrup

You can buy pre-made simple syrups. Or you can make your own by combining equal parts sugar and water and lightly simmering it until the sugar melts. Its so easy and way less expensive. 

 With this recipe, I chose to add the zest from 2 limes to 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water. Once the syrup was off the heat and cooled to room temperature, I added the juice of one lime to it. It was the only change I made to the original recipe. I just wanted to boost the flavor a bit. Other than that, this recipe is perfect as is and I wouldnt change a thing. 

Enjoy!