As I mentioned earlier, Wes and I have grown fond of many "classic" (i.e., more commonly quaffed by sophisticated cocktail drinkers 60+ years ago) cocktails, one of which, the "Fancy-Free", has become a particular favorite of mine (we've got to thank Robert "DrinkBoy" Hess for turning us on to that one).
Wes, who seemed to be itching to create something new, decided that the world needed a cocktail called ... the "Footloose". And he was going to concoct it. (He just wants to be able to say, "Bartender, I'll have a Footloose, and my friend here will have a Fancy-Free.")
I got mysterious updates all week as he tweaked unnamed ingredients and their relative proportions. I was finally presented with one on a Friday after he'd been hard at work for a week. My initial impression ... pretty! Pink not unlike a Cosmopolitan, but slightly opaque and with a lovely green twist of lime floating in it -- a nice change from the usual lemon. The aroma was familiar yet unfamiliar, with a bouquet of fruit that I couldn't quite place. I sipped it, and the familiar-yet-unfamiliar sensation intensified.
It's an absolutely yummy drink, but I just couldn't place the ingredients. It had a pleasing finishing scent from the lime oil in the twist and my best description of it was "fruity without being cloyingly sweet, and with a nice bite to it". (When I gave that description to my friend Jordan, he said, "Oh, kind of like Paul Lynde." Heh. If Wes hadn't been determined to call it a Footloose, I would have immediately dubbed it the "Uncle Arthur".)
Wes finally let me in on the ingredients. They combined together so well that I might never have guessed -- mixology is alchemy! I found it to be very different and quite nice. I'd consider this drink to be in the Cosmopolitan family of cocktails; try one sometime, particularly if you're a Cosmo fan and might want to try something different..
Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker with cracked ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass, and garnish with a long twist of lime.
- 2 ounces Stolichnaya Razberi raspberry-infused vodka
- 1 ounce Cointreau
- 1/2 ounce fresh squeezed lime juice (NOT Rose's!)
- 2 dashes Peychaud's bitters
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