You Deserve a Second Serve
I wish I knew how to truly enjoy things and prolong the enjoyment, especially when it comes to things that fall under the Food and Drink category. Maybe it’s an instinct buried deep in my DNA – a by-product of coming from a long line of war-torn country animals – but I tend to eat with the greed of a hungry wolf pouncing on a herd of docile elk, and I tend to drink my cocktails with an irresistible craving for it. who spent several weeks in the wilderness. As if there will never be another food, or another drink, or another tomorrow.
Yes, I can practice mindfulness, and I do (well, I try), but it’s always good to have a holistic approach to things, isn’t it? As the days get longer and my internal clock shifts to summer, so does the shift from heavy spirits to lighter, more vibrant cocktails. In the darker and colder months, a strong and serious cocktail is like a period at the end of a sentence, emphasizing the end of the day. In lighter, longer months, cocktails are more like commas, and sometimes a day can say a lot.
If, like me, you’re capable of tipping a drink before your friends raise their glasses to applause, consider making friends with some low-alcohol cocktails. Of course, I can attest that they have been huge allies to me, especially on those days when drinking starts early and late nights are expected. Low alcohol content means low alcohol content by volume, so the idea here is that instead of storming the bloodstream with the booze contained in a medium-strength (23-37%) cocktail, you can try to slow it down to a soft trickle. keeping your ABV within 5-7%.
The Second Serve is one of my favorite low alcohol cocktails, which makes sense since it was created by one of my favorite bartenders, Dan Greenbaum . Greenbaum is largely credited with reintroducing the wonders of sherry to the craft cocktail world. And he is definitely responsible for the fact that I decided on this. In fact, in the few times I’ve had the pleasure of talking to him, he’s managed to inadvertently make me love sherry, rethink my relationship with red oranges (I didn’t get them before, but now I do) and introduce me to the wonderful world of cobblers. Needless to say, if I stumble across his cocktail recipe, I almost always like it and learn to learn from it.
This drink also makes a fantastic template for your home. In terms of cocktail family, the Second Serve is essentially a Ricky cocktail with a 1:1 alcohol base amaro/bitter (in this case Amaro Montenegro) and fortified wine (fino sherry) instead of two ounces of gin. Swap Montenegro for Campari and fino sherry for dry vermouth for a Rome With aView cocktail. Bruto Americano and white vermouth will give you the Pacific Coast Highway. Try adding some mint, cucumber slices, or berries if you feel like it. There are many opportunities for entertainment and refreshment here.
How to make a second serve
Ingredients:
- 1 ounce freshly squeezed lime juice
- ¾ oz. simple syrup
- 1 oz Amaro Montenegro
- 1 ounce Fino Sherry (or Manzanilla)
- club soda
Add all ingredients, except soda, to a shaker, fill with ice and shake for about eight seconds. Strain into a highball glass filled with ice and top up with club soda. Stir very gently with a bar spoon a few times to blend the ingredients and serve.