SFist Drinks: Sonoma Pomegranate Sparkler
by Tiffany Maleshefski
We're a little sad here at SFist that so many of our pals are facing layoffs this holiday season. We were always taught that this was the season of giving, not taking away. So, instead of succumbing to this tidal wave of negative energy, we're going to be so effing optimistic and against all odds, make lemons out of lemonade.
Actually, we're going to do something even better: We're going to take all those angry tears shed and the sweat from your overly furrowed brows and make a champagne toast. Rather than raise our middle fingers to all those corporate party wreckers, dismal economic forecasts, and lack of promising jobs on Craig's List, we're raising our glasses. Join us for a special toast that recognizes this current climate might be crappy, but we're San Franciscans dammit, and we can make ANYTHING fun, cool, and above all kitschy. Here's to California's Employment Development Department, from who so many will (or currently) receive their checks. Here's to all those volunteer hours you can now clock because before, you just didn't have the time. Here's to jump starting your fitness regimen by making use of all of the city's fine and entirely free parks and super cheap rec centers. (You can go swimming at any of the pools for 4 bucks!) Start booking all those free tours of the local breweries, distilleries, and chocolate companies. This champagne-inspired cocktail hails from the venerable Drew Munroe, sommelier for Charlie Palmer's Dry Creek Kitchen in Healdsburg. It's simple to put together, can be as fancy or as luxurious as you'd like (depending on your choice of bubbly), and pretty to look at too.
Sonoma Pomegranate Sparkler
2003 Iron Horse Aureole Cuvee, Green Valley
Pama pomegranate liqueur
Pomegranate seeds
Lemon wedge
Sugar
Lemon twist
Cut a slit down the lemon wedge and place on the rim of the glass and rotate the wedge around the glass to moisten it. Place the glass upside down in small pile of sugar and rotate the glass so that the sugar coats the rim in an even strip. Mix 2 parts Pama with 3 parts sparkling wine in the glass. Place a few pomegranate seeds in the glass to garnish in addition to a lemon twist on the edge of the glass.
The Pama should be mixed to taste but the idea is for the drink to be as sweet as the pear. The above sparkling is a brut but an off-dry sparkling wine would work just as well.
Do: Keep your internal spirits up, and those external spirits on a continual descent into your mouth.
Don't: Let the man keep you down.