For those of you not on Instagram (where my US publishers Avid Reader posted a very cool video) I thought I’d share my Delphi inspired cocktail recipe, the fitting culmination of my lockdown cocktail obsession! Its name is a nod to my all-time favourite, the Aviation, and it’s seasonal as UK supermarkets are full of cheap figs at the moment.
The temple of the Delphic Oracle was on the slopes of Mount Parnassus. In caves nearby lived nymphs who were half-woman, half-bee, whilst the mountain was also sacred to Dionysus – the God of wine and song, associated with figs in Greek mythology. The Ancient Greeks knew of citrus fruit too – many scholars believe the tree of ‘golden apples’ in the Garden of the Hesperides, guarded by a dragon, was a lemon tree. This cocktail combines archetypally Grecian flavours then – honey, fig, lemon, thyme – whilst the drop of ouzo introduces a taste of my own Greek holidays, and a hint of mystery worthy of the Oracle herself.
The Premonition ingredients:
– 1 fresh fig
– 10ml honey
– 20ml lemon
– 50ml brandy
– A couple of drops of ouzo
– To garnish: a sprig of thyme
Instructions:
Scoop the flesh of the fig into a shaker and muddle. Add the other ingredients (except the thyme) plus ice then shake hard. Fine strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with a sprig of thyme.
clarepollard 