Creme de Violette » The Red Shaker

Starry Night

Mar 272010

Last week while I was away from LA I looked up at night and I could actually see stars. And while I’m a city girl at heart (….the lights of the city are the stars on the ground-name that tune!), there’s something about looking up at an indigo velvet canopy studded with sparkling lights that makes you stop and just be in the moment……….marveling at the immenseness and beauty. What else does it make you do? Well, if you’re a shaker it makes you mix up a martini inspired by the night sky.

And so we have:

The Starry Night

regular vodka, creme de violette, vanilla vodka, pineapple juice, a splash of lemon…….still working on the proportions but this has possibilities. The violette and vanilla play nicely together while the pineapple juice foams up a lovely solar system across the top of the drink. Hmmmm, maybe some champagne next time to add “sparkle” to the sky???

I need to work more with the creme de violette. It is a lovely liquor…..subtle taste and a mesmerizing color that goes from inky indigo to pale lavender depending on the mixers. I wonder how this would play with a tea infusion?

So like the night sky, a good ingredient should make you wonder where else the night will take you………..

(as is, 3 1/2 olives-but I think this could be worked up to a 4)

Shaker One bids you a good night.

Turkey and…. violets??

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Nov 252009

On this eve of Thanksgiving, the Shaker Girls decided to have a decompression night and try an interesting new liqueur that Shaker One has been itching to try for quite a while…. an Austrian violet liqueur. The label reads that this concoction comes from the Austrian Alps and made of wild violets from the mountainside. Now, this is not some run of the mill schnappsy beverage, it is a rather unique drink that is a bit more on the aromatic side rather then an overpowering synthetic flavor. It also gives the drinks a fun bluish color! We like fun colors.

We first tried the Creme de Violette alone, since neither of us had tasted it before. It was slightly sweet, but not cloying.

Our first drink was a Violet Fizz, which we tweaked a bit using vodka rather then gin (‘cuz we are vodka girls, not gin girls..and it’s our blog, so there.)

The result was not bad, but we felt that there was a bit too much lemon in the drink-it really overpowered the violet. So we halved the lemon and got close to a lovely drink ( the lemon proportion totally overshadowed the violet)

As written, it gets 1.5 stars

…. tweaked, it gets 3.5.

We also like that the drink matched Shaker One’s dress!!

Next was our own concoction of champagne sorbet (thank you, Surfas!), Creme de Violette, vodka, a splash of lemon juice and a splash of lemon bitters (thanks, Lynda!!) This was quite lovely – but then again, it was based on champagne sorbet, how can you go terribly awry??

Both of us felt this was well worth the liqueur’s fairly subtle flavor.

Our third drink of the night was Creme de Violette with champagne. Oh yeah, baby.. this one was good. The flavors made friends in the glass and complimented each other well. Definitely going to be a repeat guest in the menu, methinks.

On the night before Thanksgiving, we would like to thank all of you who read our blog. This is a lot of fun and has been educational on so many levels. Much love to our family and friends. We will return after the turkey coma has subsided and the food babies have gone away.