At-Home Bartender's Guide to: The Quarantini
I’ve seen the sourdough bread and Nailed It-style cakes you’ve been serving up, internet friends, and I feel like we’re past due for some creative happy hour libations. And I don’t know if you’ve heard, but the quarantini is on special right now! Y’know, the etymology being that so many of us are stayin’ home unless deemed necessary (wah-wah) but also because, martinis (yay!). Now, one might expecting a definitive recipe for such an occasion but here’s the twist (and I don’t mean ‘garnish’): there is indeed one way to make a quarantini, but no one recipe. And what is the way? Keeping the ingredients as local as possible, and using what you have on hand. Allow me to demonstrate!
Featuring: Lost River Distillery, a family-owned, small-batch artisan distillery right here in Saskatchewan. Find it at Sobeys where you get 10% off all local products, at Urban Cellars Cumberland which offers delivery, and at Metro which has curbside pickup.
Quarantini play on a Dirty Pickle
This is adapted from a Guy Fieri recipe but don’t hold that against me. Just don’t free pour the pickle juice! You think you like pickle juice until you free pour. Never thought I’d say this but, Guy Fieri knows best here. For two martinis, you’ll need:
Ice
4 ounces Lost River vodka
1/4 teaspoon dry white wine because you’ve run out of vermouth
1 tablespoon chilled dill pickle juice
pickles sliced half-way down to garnish
Shake everything but the pickles, perch those on your glass, and you’ve got yourself a pickle quarantini.
Kitchen Sink Quarantini
Here’s one I hope at least one person identifies with. Okay. It starts with that bottle of liqeur you bought on a hot holiday. It was in every drink you enjoyed on the beach and hotel bar and you bought it fully expecting to recreate the experience but in reality, it’s just been sitting there for… a year? And oh, you don’t have juice. But you do have a can of pineapples from when you thought you might make homemade pizza. I’ve got a recipe for you! This will make two cocktails.
Ice
3 oz Lost River vodka
1 oz that weird liqueur (coconut?)
soda
splash of pineapple juice
Shake the vodka and liqueur with ice and divide between two glasses (or just eyeball halving the recipe between the two). Pour soda atop, close to the top, and add your pineapple juice. BAM. You’re essentially back on the beach.
Clearly, the point of a quarantini is that we support local businesses who need us to come through for them now. Buying Lost River means that money stays in Saskatchewan, and helps us all to thrive. And another great part about quarantinis? They’re just fine when served alongside a mom bun and your head-to-toe leopard print lounge wear. (This one’s a cosmo made with grape juice instead of cran because that’s what I had.) No need to dress up, no need to wait for Friday if you’d like a Tuesday happy hour, no designated driver... I’ll cheers to that.
xo
