Blood Orange Vodka Spritzer

Blood Orange Vodka Spritzer (Inspired by the Moscow Mule)

I was thinking about the Moscow Mule the other day. It’s a simple cocktail - vodka, ginger beer, lime juice, and simple syrup to taste, over ice. It’s a delicious and refreshing cocktail with just a little bit of bite. I’m a fan, and yet I wanted to make something a little more challenging to the palate and a little more fun. We’re in late winter and that brings a smattering of citrus fruits into season: sumo oranges, tangerines, meyer lemons, grapefruit, blood oranges, and more. I decided that I’d bring in some of these tasty, in season fruits to the forefront of a cocktail inspired by the Moscow Mule. Be aware: you’ll have to think ahead to make this cocktail as the simple syrup is homemade and needs to cool before you can use it!

As you can see - we used New Amsterdam vodka, a fancy lemon juice, our homemade simple syrup, and Reed’s ginger beer.

Blood oranges and meyer lemons are so pretty when they’re sliced open.

Plain white sugar is the perfect choice for this simple syrup.

I chose to use a strainer as during the initial experiment I only used one blood orange and half a meyer lemon.

I used a spoon to press the fruit and extract the juice.

The fruit, after squeezed, is a beautiful color.

As you can see, before it’s heated the sugar is sitting in the bottom of the pot and has not dissolved.

At this point the sugar has dissolved into the juice and water. Boiling is super important after this as it’s needed to reduce the liquid and make it more like a candy.

Here we’re rimming the glass with salt. The salt really brings out all the complexity in the cocktail.

Here we have the ice in the tumbler and it’s ready to be filled with the various cocktail ingredients.

Vodka….

Blood orange simple syrup….

A teensy bit of lemon juice….

And half of the ginger beer needed!

Once everything has been poured in, stir to combine, then enjoy!

Blood Orange Vodka Spritzer

Ingredients for Cocktail:

• 2oz blood orange simple syrup 

• 2oz vodka

• 1/2 oz lemon juice (for cocktail)

• 4oz ginger beer 

• Salt & Lemon juice (to rim the glass)

Ingredients for Simple Syrup:

• 4 blood oranges

• 2 meyer lemons

• 2 cups sugar

• 1 1/2 cups water

Instructions for Simple Syrup:

1. Juice 4 blood oranges into a medium sized sauce pot

   1. This simple syrup recipe will make about 20oz of finished product, so feel free to scale down as needed. We have flip top bottles that we use to store the extra syrup that wasn’t used immediately. If you have extra - refrigerate!

2. Juice 2 meyer lemons into the same sauce pot

   1. Meyer lemons are sweeter than regular lemons but don’t worry if you can’t find the meyers! Regular lemons will work; your cocktail will just end up a little more tart and a little more bitter.

3. Add 2 cups of white granulated sugar to the sauce pot

4. Add 1 and 1/2 cups of water to the sauce pot

   1. Normally simple syrup calls for equal parts sugar and water, however the juice of the citrus fruits throws off this balance. It’s best to reduce the amount of water for this, as well as to strengthen the taste of the fruit in the finished product.

5. Stir the ingredients together and then heat on medium until boiling

6. Boil for 3-4 minutes to thicken the syrup and then set aside to cool completely

Instructions for Cocktail:

1. Take a tumbler and rim the edge with salt

   • If you’ve never rimmed a glass it’s not too hard - dip the top of the glass in lemon juice or water (we chose lemon juice!) and then roll it in a bit of salt. In our house we use pink sea salt as it’s slightly less bitter that iodized salt, but as we’ve said before - substitute as you see fit.

   • Fill the tumbler with ice to the very top

2. Toss in 2oz of vodka

   • We prefer New Amsterdam 80 proof vodka as it’s very affordable and at the same time very drinkable. New Amsterdam has a couple choices: 80 proof, 100 proof, and gluten free - any will work, but be warned that the 100 proof may throw off your flavors and overpower the blood orange.

3. Pour in 2oz of blood orange simple syrup

   • Be warned: this is a VERY sweet syrup.

4. Throw in 1/2oz of lemon juice

   • We chose to go the easy way and used bottled lemon juice. You can absolutely juice another meyer lemon if you’re feeling up to it and don’t mind getting a little sticky again. Expect a significantly sweeter cocktail if you do go with the meyer.

5. Add 4oz of ginger beer

   • This is ginger BEER, not ginger ALE. There is a significant taste difference between the two and you will absolutely be disappointed with this drink if you chose ginger ale. We like to use Reed’s All Natural Ginger Beer in the Strongest variation or Maine Root’s Spicy Ginger Brew. Both are delicious choices: the Maine Root is a little more earthy and feels unfiltered whereas the Reed’s is sweeter and a little thinner. Use your favorite ginger beer!

6. Stir together and enjoy!

   • Garnish with a meyer lemon wedge if you’re feeling fancy ;)