Happy Hour: Rhubarb Cocktails
Anna Bond
I love rhubarb for a lot of reasons: its place, alongside asparagus, as a harbinger of summer’s bounty; the gorgeous rosy pink color it imparts to dishes; and most of all, its sweet, sour, slightly vegetal flavor. But as someone who tries to avoid going down the dessert path too often (especially, I hate to admit, in swimsuit season), I find my rhubarb-consumption options limited. Sure, there are rhubarb chutney and rhubarb pickles, but I want more rhubarb in my life.
Luckily, I love cocktails, and cocktails seem to love rhubarb. And why shouldn’t they? Its sweet-tartness and lovely hue make it a natural for cocktails, and it’s versatile enough to mix with your favorite tipple, whatever that may be.
Gin fans will love Houseboat Eats’s “rhubarberol” cocktail (pictured up top), which pairs homemade rhubarb syrup with Aperol, an Italian aperitif, for just enough bitterness to add complexity; Giovannas Trifles uses muddled rhubarb itself for a twist on a classic gin and tonic; and The Whole Kitchen adds fresh basil and a squeeze of lime to the mix, for the ultra-seasonal Rhubarb Bloom.
As a Sazerac devotee, I was excited to find some options pairing rhubarb with rye—Recipe Relay mixes homemade rhubarb-strawberry compote with rye and ginger ale for a not-too-sweet salute to spring; my only recommendation here would be to stir up a pitcher of these at a time–at least if you’re inviting me over. Seattle Met’s Rhubarb 'n' Rye (from local farm-to-table restaurant Tilth) uses my favorite, Old Overholt, along with homemade rhubarb-and-lemon verbena syrup for the cocktail that’s just taken over the top of my personal cocktails-to-make list.
And of course, summer wouldn’t be summer without margaritas consumed outside on sultry evenings. I’m by no means a traditionalist, and think either this rhubarb syrup-based margarita from Recipe Relay (again!), an even “rhubarbier” edition from Happy Hour In The High Peaks, which uses syrup as well as cooked rhubarb puree, or the more complex Ruirita from A Dash Of Bitters, which is a bit of a cheat because it uses premade rhubarb bitters rather than the fresh stuff, but sounds so tasty I wanted to include it.
So get seasonal in your mixological experiments—and, um, bottoms up!
