The Serenade
Reprinted with permission from Distilling The South: A Guide to Southern Craft Liquors and the People Who Make Them (The University of North Carolina Press, 2018).
Yield: 1 drink
1 small handful cilantro
1 1/2 ounces good-quality moonshine, such as Copper Barrel
1 1/2 ounces cantaloupe shrub* (recipe included)
1 chunk cantaloupe reserved from shrub for garnish
1 cilantro sprig for garnish
Muddle cilantro in bottom of a cocktail shaker. Pour in moonshine and shrub. Add ice and double strain (see note) into an old-fashioned or rocks glass. Garnish with a cantaloupe chunk from shrub and a cilantro sprig.
NOTE: Cocktails that are muddled with herbs need to be double-strained to get all the little bits of green matter out. To do it, hold a small fine-mesh kitchen strainer over the glass and pour the contents from the shaker through both the strainer on the shaker and the kitchen strainer into the glass.
*To make the cantaloupe shrub, cover about 4 cups peeled, chopped cantaloupe with 1/4 cup simple syrup and refrigerate overnight. Strain syrup, setting aside cantaloupe for garnishes, and add about 4 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar to shrub.
Yield: 1 drink
1 small handful cilantro
1 1/2 ounces good-quality moonshine, such as Copper Barrel
1 1/2 ounces cantaloupe shrub* (recipe included)
1 chunk cantaloupe reserved from shrub for garnish
1 cilantro sprig for garnish
Muddle cilantro in bottom of a cocktail shaker. Pour in moonshine and shrub. Add ice and double strain (see note) into an old-fashioned or rocks glass. Garnish with a cantaloupe chunk from shrub and a cilantro sprig.
NOTE: Cocktails that are muddled with herbs need to be double-strained to get all the little bits of green matter out. To do it, hold a small fine-mesh kitchen strainer over the glass and pour the contents from the shaker through both the strainer on the shaker and the kitchen strainer into the glass.
*To make the cantaloupe shrub, cover about 4 cups peeled, chopped cantaloupe with 1/4 cup simple syrup and refrigerate overnight. Strain syrup, setting aside cantaloupe for garnishes, and add about 4 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar to shrub.