Wet Bar Wednesdays – Apricots

Our neighbor has an apricot tree planted next to our shared fence.  Each summer there are multiple branches that hang over into our yard, and we glean them and have to figure out what to do with them.  While apricots are fine, they aren’t my favorite fruit to eat plain.  I much prefer them in other things, so why not cocktails?

This past Sunday at happy hour I blended up some frozen apricots (our freezer is packed with them now!) along with some of our fresh mint that is growing like crazy  in anticipation of some experimentation.  Since some of the apricots were not ripe yet, the pureed result was a lot tarter than I expected.  Simple syrup would be fine to offset that, but we had some white grape juice on hand so I used that instead.  It offset the tartness while still allowing the basic apricoty-flavor to remain intact.

I made two different concoctions.  The young folks preferred basically an apricot and white rum concoction, while I opted for apricot and whiskey.

Mix two parts apricot puree to one part of your liquor of choice.  Sweeten as necessary.  I tried adding some club soda to the rum concoction but this seemed mostly unnecessary.  The result in both cases is a nice fruity drink with a bit of kick from the liquor.  Using fresh fruit in a cocktail is usually a great idea, and just requires some experimenting in terms of which liquor to use.  I could have added some limoncello to the whiskey mixture, or I could have added Chambord or some other fruit cordial to the rum mixture and it would have added more flavor elements to the drink.  But I think sometimes simple is best – and easiest.

Have any fruit cocktail concoctions you’d like to share?  Please do, so we can all enjoy!