Mixed Up: Try These Party-Perfect Flower Cocktails at Your Next Soirée
The holiday season is typically full of firs and pine boughs, but for a bloom-obsessed brand like us, there’s plenty of room for flowers in the festive mix, too.
Discovering Il Fiorista, a new floral-centric NYC restaurant where blooms abound, was like finding our restaurant nirvana. Chef Garrison Price’s menu is flower-powered, while buds are on display via gorgeous arrangements by florist Mindy Cardozo and in the cocktails that mixologists Gates Otsuji and Crystal Chasse whip up behind the gorgeous marble bar.
We sidled up to sip some of the signature botanical tipples and walked away with two recipes that we’re totally crafting for our next holiday get-together. Flowers Bloom is a delicious booze-free drink made with a fuschia prickly pear shrub (you can boost it with a shot of gin or other liquor for cocktail hour), while the Petal Pusher a celebratory fizz topped off with floral notes and garnish.
Style note: even if you don’t shake up the cocktails, the flower-embellished ‘furikake’ (a riff on the Japanese seasoning) glass is a trick to steal.
Flowers Bloom
Makes 1 cocktail
1.5 oz Prickly Pear Shrub (recipe below)
4oz soda water
If using as a cocktail base, add 1.5 oz of gin or other liquor
To garnish, mix a blend of dried petals (rose, cornflower, safflower, calendula petals) and black sesame seeds to create a floral ‘furikake’ in a shallow dish. Moisten the side of a tall glass with a fruit wedge and dip in mix to garnish glass.
Prickly Pear Shrub
2 cups sliced, peeled prickly pears (also called cactus pears)
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
½ teaspoon whole cloves
2 teaspoons black sesame seeds
½ teaspoon dried calendula petals
1 ⅓ cups white wine vinegar (to be added after the fruit/floral mixture melds for 48hrs)
Toast both cloves and sesame until aromatic in a heavy-bottomed pan. Layer fruit, spices, florals and sugar in a sealable jar or pitcher with a close-fitting lid. Do not add vinegar yet! Rest fruit, spices and sugar for 48+ hours. Add vinegar and let rest 24 hours. Strain solids through a fine sieve into a sealable jar.
Petal Pusher
Makes 1 cocktail
.5 oz St. Germain elderflower liqueur
.25 oz Cardamaro herbal amaro
.125 oz Godiva dark cacao liqueur
4 oz dry Prosecco
Combine all ingredients over ice in a lowball glass or flute. Top with a floral flourish: a thistle blossom, rose petal, calendula petals or other bloom of your choice and serve.
