October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. You possibly have a pink ribbon on your lapel. Maybe you walked for charity. We here at Drink of the Week salute you and your efforts to bring attention to and one day end the scourge that has taken many of our mothers, grandmothers, sisters, lovers, wives and friends. So it was cool to hear that the Four Seasons Resort The Biltmore Santa Barbara and its Ty Lounge is offering a special cocktail this month to honor breast cancer awareness. Ten percent of proceeds goes to the Cancer Center of Santa Barbara.
So we set out to investigate. Pink drinks are a mystery to us. I mean, there’s pink lemonade as one option. Pink champagne. Maybe one could use very light cranberry juice … but pink? The answer, as Jennifer Higgins created the drink under the auspices of Four Seasons’ franchise-wide plan for October, is dragon fruit. Yes, that pink spiky football at the farmers market that you always were too scared to try is very pulpy and very pink … some would say even magenta. Mixed into a drink, it’s super pink.
But the Pink Dragon cocktail includes more: tequila, a peach and strawberry shrub , and framboise, or raspberry liqueur. That’s a crazy amount of sweet tastes colliding, right? In fact, while sweet, it’s dry; it’s more about the various fruit flavors colliding with each other. It also comes with a slice of dragon fruit to indulge in and a hibiscus sugar rim. Bonus fact: The “coupe glass” the Ty Lounge uses was designed centuries ago to mimic a breast. No wonder it’s our Drink of the Week!
PINK DRAGON
A recipe for the adventurous … but driving to The Biltmore is easier.
3 strawberries
3 cubes dragon fruit, plus extra slice for garnish
1/2 ounce peach and strawberry shrub (see bartender’s note)
2 ounces blanco tequila (preferably Casamigos)
1/2 ounce framboise (preferably Trimbach Liqueur de Framboise)
Equal parts granulated hibiscus flower (available in dried form at tea shops) and granulated sugar, for rimming
Muddle fruit in shaker with splash of shrub. Add ice, tequila and framboise; shake. Strain into coupe glass rimmed with granulated hibiscus and sugar. Garnish with slice of dragon fruit. Bartender’s note: To make the shrub, combine 3 quarts water and 3 quarts white sugar in pan and simmer to dissolve. Add 2 pint containers of strawberries and 8 peaches, chopped. Simmer for 30-45 minutes. Add 1 star anise (available at most grocers in spice aisle) in the last 5 minutes. Strain and reserve liquid. Pour two 16.7-ounce bottles champagne vinegar and three 16.7-ounce bottles peach normandie vinegar (available online) through the fruit pulp in the strainer; reserve liquid. Combine reserved juice and reserved infused vinegar, stir, seal in plastic container and age in fridge for 1 day.
Yield: 1 drink
Ty Lounge at the Four Seasons Resort The Biltmore Santa Barbara
1260 Channel Drive 969-2261 or www.fourseasons.com/santabarbara/