1/2 oz st. germain

1/4 oz campari

1/4 oz blood orange juice

sparkling wine

combine ingredients in a flute, top with sparkling.  orange twist garnish.

blood oranges abound at the restaurant these days (made two batches of a beautiful soju with blood orange and thai chilis and a little bit of ginger last weekend; we’re almost out), and i’ve been keeping a small bottle of the juice on hand lately.  i wanted to run a new special this week, and i’d had it in my head that a blood orange/campari/sparkling wine thing would be good and go over well.  when i actually made it, it was too astringent, and needed some leavening.  blood orange juice tastes more like grapefruit than orange, and so the note of sweetness i might have gotten from regular orange juice was lacking in today’s concoction.  enter the st. germain, which i have heard referred to as ‘bartender’s ketchup,’ which gave the front end the sparkle and verve it needed to carry the heavier, more resonant back end, in which the blood orange and campari linger on the tongue, leaving a pleasant bitterness that sets the stage for the next sip.  and, of course, it’s a lovely shade of red, and looks good with the twisted orange zest sticking out of it.