The holidays are full of cookies (this is a good thing, by the way--though I’m not sure my waistline would agree). For instance, recently I received the nicest dozen ginger snaps as a little holiday gift from my pal Jill (her husband, pal Ed Skoog has a book just out called Mister Skylight that you should buy, by the way, if you enjoy poetry). The snaps were a bit more cookie-y than many ginger snaps, and not crisp like some traditional ginger biscuits, but with nice ginger flavor and a little chew. I ate a bunch, but then started thinking, “how will I manage to eat all of these without exploding.” And so I decided that I should make a drink using them as a garnish, so I could balance out the eating with a little liquid. I wanted a ginger-y drink, but one also with some other fun flavors. Which led to me VeeV Acai (it’s a super fruit!) spirit and Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur. The VeeV is pretty sprightly with some tropical hints, the Domaine de Canton is very gingery and touch sweet. The drink wasn’t coming out quite right--until I added a little sweet vermouth. Its bit of herbal-ness completely rounded out the edges of the other two, and all-of-sudden I was in ginger-island-holiday-paradise. If you have an abundance of ginger snaps, this is a dandy way to use them, but it’s also just a dandy holiday drink, too.
Ice cubes
1-1/2 ounces VeeV Acai spirit
1 ounce Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur
1/2 ounce sweet vermouth
Ginger snap or cookie, for garnish
1. Fill a cocktail shaker halfway full with ice cubes. Add everything except the cookie. Shake well.
2. Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with that cookie (I had to notch it just a bit for proper rim balancing. But after that, I did a lot of dunking with it).
--A.J. Rathbun
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