I think some cocktails are “inevitable”. THE DaiquiriTHE Sour whiskeyTHE Manhattan… These are drinks in which the flavors work so well together, it was just a matter of time until someone gathered them. These are also all drinks whose specific stories are lost in time for this exact reason. Which first mixed a Mojito? Who cares! Even if it was knowable (which is not the case), that would not have importance. It was inevitable.
Fleur de Fleur de elder is, in the same way, inevitable. The combination of the elderflower with white wine (motionless or sparkling) is the most obvious thing and as delicious as possible with a bottle of St-Germain. Interesting fact, however, unlike the Tom Collins Or Old -fashioned Or one of the other just as inevitable drinks, the St-Germain was only published in 2007, and therefore what is fun about the Spritz of the elderflower (and its coterie which results from the almost identical cocktails, Hugo Spriz, the convergent evolution and the Royal St-Germain) is that you can see this convergent evolution occur in modern and real time.
In 2005, in the small town in northern Italy of Naturno about 10 miles from the Austrian border, Roland Gruber invented the Hugo Spritz, initially a combination of prosecco, soda, mint and lemon balm syrup. Gruber also experiences a syrup made from local elders, which are abundant at the end of the spring and at the beginning of the summer in this part of the world and whose shiny and juicy floral qualities brilliantly mix with the exuberant acidity of sparkling wine. A few years later, St-Germain made its debut, and this source of flipper of elderflower all year round and reliable is absorbed by the recipe for Hugo Spriz, which becomes extremely popular in and around Italy, Austria and Germany.
The following year and most of a continent, St-Germain is about to be published in the United Kingdom, the brand contacted the bartender Simon Diffford to obtain help for an original launch cocktailAnd Diffford immediately recognizes the ability of St-Germain to complete the spicy, floral and mineral qualities in white wine. He creates the Spritz de Fleur de elder, which combines St-Allemain with soda water and a touch of flat white wine, in this case Sauvignon Blanc. He calls him the Spritz of Elderflower.
Less than a year after that and on the other side of the Atlantic, Death & Co. had just opened their doors in the East Village, and the newly launched St-Germain was precisely the type of exciting and carefully mixable liquor which attracted their interest. The bartender Phil Ward initially makes an old-fashioned gin he called elderly fashion, then the following year, as clever to ignore the way the flavors would go with sparkling wine, he adds Champagne and calls it the royal elder fashion, the “royal” suffix, as with the famous Kir Royalemeaning “with champagne”.
And finally, some of you know this drink as a hummingbird, but why? In the 2010s, St-Germain was already a power. They had not yet sold in Bacardi but became a familiar name, and what they called the St-Germain cocktail (St-Germain, sparkling wine, soda and lemon torsion) was the brand's signature recipe. At the end of 2011, the founder Rob Cooper somehow understood that the mixture should have a name more similar to a cocktail, so they renamed the St Germain cocktail as a “hummingbird”. The brand change did not last – at the end of February 2012, the official website had been returned in the name of the “St -Germain cocktail”. It is possible that Cooper is on something, however, because even if the hummingbird existed for a season, the name persisted through the echo room of recipe blogs and memories of bartender. Due to these three months over 13 years ago, I was personally asked for a hummingbird when I am behind the bar at least half a dozen times in recent years.
Today, St-Germain has absorbed them all (with the exception of the hummingbird) in official brand cocktails and present the three of the subtle differences: the Hugo Spriz and the St-Germain Spritz are identical but for the mint in the first and a touch of lemon in the last, and the Royale St-Germain decreases water and the exchanges for champagne. We find it useless, so in the light of Mother's Day – the genre of the day for which pretty sparkling and inevitably delicious cocktails are the most in need – we offer our favorite recipe, and below, some tips on variables to make you the best version.
Spritz de Fleur de elder
- 0.5 oz. German
- 3 oz. Champagne
- 2 oz. soda
Make sure that soda water and champagne are well refrigerated. Add ice to a collin glass or a wine glass (gently!) And add ingredients, stirring to combine. Garnish with a bit of mint, applauded gently in your hands to release the oils.
Notes on the ingredients
Elderflower liqueur: It is not an advertisement for St-Germain, I promise it. There are others – st. Elder is drier, Giffard has a good one, but I must say that St-Germain became synonymous with the category not only because it was the first to be a worldwide success, but because it is so good. St-Germain has a juicy and tangy floral quality which earned him the somewhat doubtful praise of “Bartender's Ketchup”, that is to say that it mixes unusually well in many different situations. I recommend it.
As for the quantities. 0.5 oz. From the elderflower liquor will give a sweet floral boost to the flavors of Spritz, present but subtle, with little excess of sweetness. This is what I personally prefer. That said, there is a lot of room for maneuver here for personal tastes; If you like your Sprizes a little sweeter or if you are a particular fan of the flood flavor, you can go ahead and double this and it's always a good drink.
Sparkling wine: Again, everything was quite good, but if you try to make this drink as good as possible, use Brut Champagne. Yes, Prosecco is traditional and tasty, but Prosecco is already shiny fruits and flowers, and therefore even if it and the elderflower do not play exactly the same note, they are in the same octave. Champagne, on the other hand, goes through secondary fermentation in the bottle, so it (with its creator of cheaper brothers and sisters, and an even cheaper cousin cava) have a deep and short quality which looks more like a duo.
We also tried the original Diffford suggestion on Sauvignon Blanc, and it was good, but not as good as champagne. In all honesty, I cannot think of a white wine that would not work in this case. Jeffrey Morgenthaler had the initial instinct of associating the St-Germain with an Oregon Pinot Gris, which, I am sure, was delicious. You can do anything, from Chardonnay to Viognier and it would be good. The flavors, as mentioned, are so good that they are inevitable. We just think champagne is the best.
Soda water: What is soda water doing here? He adds space between the flavors and makes it more refreshing. If you don't have soda water, you can obviously work with wine, but soda helps maintain low proof, high refreshment and flavors to be too intense. It is recommended.
Garnish: The question here is mint against peel lemon, and it is not aesthetic – they make very different end products. Lemon Peel is traditional – Rob Cooper would have asked his team to refuse to serve his signing cocktail unless he has lemon skin – which completes the flavors at work to disappear almost.
Mint, on the other hand, brings something new. Mint is more boring to keep and more boring to manage, but as a bartender, the Mint version is the one that grabs and retains more in a lively way and holds my attention, and the one I prefer.
In other words – they are just as delicious, but mint is more interesting. Take this for what it is worth.
