Cocktails: The Main Squeeze Revisited

By Brooklyn Bill

I've tweaked my recipe for the Main Squeeze since I wrote about it in February. Specifically, I've added a dash of bitters to make it less sweet and a little more sophisticated.

My buddy Bob likes his MS a little fizzier, so I put 2 ounces of club soda in his. I'm not overly fond of fizziness,* and my friend Jen, Bob's wife, thinks it's fizzy enough without the extra club soda, so I use only 1 ounce in our MSes. Bob says the extra soda makes him less likely to drink it really fast. He's still usually the first one done, though. :-)

Here's my revised recipe, with a few footnotes, for extra cocktail nerdiness!

Main Squeeze

2 oz. St-Germain
2 oz. orange juice,** preferably fresh squeezed
1 dash,*** bitters****
1 oz. club soda

Shake the first three ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Pour, unstrained, into a rocks glass. Add the club soda. Garnish with an orange slice, if desired.

*I'm very fond of fuzziness.
**I bet it'd also be delicious with tangerine juice, which was in my original, discarded-for-being-too-complex recipe.
***Per cocktail guru Dale DeGroff, a dash is six drops.
****I used Urban Moonshine Original Bitters, which is flavored with dandelion, angelica, burdock, and orange peel, among other ingredients.

Cocktails: St-Germain and the Main Squeeze

By Brooklyn Bill

The latest cocktail ingredient I've been playing around with is St-Germain, an incredibly delicious and wonderfully aromatic French liqueur made from elderflowers. It's captivating, beautiful, and elegant—and the perfect combination of fruity, floral, and sweet.

St-Germain is tasty enough on its own, but I had visions of combining it with flavors of orange and honey into a stellar cocktail I had planned to call the Orange Blossom. But that name has been taken. And taken. And taken.

The first version of my cocktail went thusly:

2 oz. St-Germain
2 oz. Cointreau*
2 oz. fresh-squeezed tangerine juice
1 oz. honey syrup**
Club soda

Shake the first four ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Strain into a 12-ounce glass filled with ice cubes. Top off with a splash of club soda. Garnish with an orange or tangerine slice, if desired.