Serious Eats: Recipes
Time for a Drink: Contessa
[Photo: Jessica Leibowitz]
Mojitos and mint juleps are wonderful warm-weather drinks. But sometimes a late-spring or early-summer day requires a drink with a bit of an edge, a spark bright enough to match the waning light of a late sunset.
The Contessa has such an edge, and a flavor that to me is particularly seasonal. Created several years ago by bartenders in Boston, the Contessa is a slight tweak on the classic Negroni, substituting the bright bitter-orange flavor of the Italian aperitivo Aperol for the deeper, more assertive bitterness of the garnet Campari.
With a pleasantly bitter bite and the color of a sunset, Aperol makes the Contessa an excellent aperitif--or simply a refreshing cooler for an early summer weekend. The recipe, after the jump.
Contessa
About the author: Paul Clarke blogs about cocktails at The Cocktail Chronicles and writes regularly on spirits and cocktails for Imbibe magazine. He lives in Seattle, where he works as a writer and magazine editor.
