Looking for a drink to celebrate the fact that you've got a new job/it's sunny/it's the weekend? Sadly our budget doesn't stretch to champagne and if we're honest that dusty bottle of sparkling *something *we bought from the corner shop we got last time isn't going to cut it. Luckily the clever clogs over at Grey Goose have come up with a winning alternative - the Grey Goose Le Fizz. What is it we hear you ask? Well, we had a quick chat with Grey Goose's ambassador and super talented mixologist Joe McCanta and he told us all about it.
Firstly, what's a Grey Goose Le Fizz?
It's a sparkling cocktail that was inspired by the celebrated French 75 cocktail, created by legendary bartender Harry MacElhone in 1915. It uses Grey Goose vodka, St-Germain elderflower liqueur, freshly squeezed lime juice and soda water. In fact - here's the recipe.
Ingredients
1 1/2 Parts Grey Goose Vodka
1 Part ST GERMAIN elderflower liqueur
Quarter of a lime
2 Parts soda water
Instructions
Build all the ingredients apart from soda water in a mixing glass
Top with cubed ice
Shake hard for about 20 seconds to chill the liquid really well
Fine strain into a chilled flute
Top with chilled soda water
What does it say about you if you order one?
That you're elegant and refined.
**Excellent. That's exactly the look we're going for. Can you explain this whole '1 part liqueur' '3/4 part lime juice'? What is a part? We've basically never understood and been too worried about looking like an idiot to ask. **
A 'part' is the way we make all of our recipes more global because in the UK we refer to milliletres, in the US it’s ounces, etc. If a recipe refers to 'parts', so long as you keep the ratio between all the ingredients right you’ll have the perfectly balanced drink. If you’re at home and all you have is an egg cup or large tablespoon, use that as a '1 part' and make sure you get the quanitities right in relation to each other.
How long have you got to shake it for? Can you cheat and put it in a blender? Our arms get tired and also I don't have a Boston glass.
Shake for a slow count to ten- even if your arms get tired that shouldn’t be too long and the effort is well worth it. Drinks, like cooking food, pay off by not taking any short cuts. Definitely don’t blend!! We need to shake the cocktail because when you shake you dilute the drink (which is adding ice). If you blend a drink you dilute it way too much and it becomes watery. If you don’t shake, there won’t be enough dilution and the cocktail will taste too tight. If you don’t have a Boston Glass using a simple mason jar or jam jar works fine- just pop the lid on and give a shake.
Why'd you put the soda water in last? Also, can this literally just be fizzy water or does it definitely have to have a soda water label on it?
The soda water is put in at the end because if you add it before you shake, you would shake the soda water and that would cause the drink to erupt out of the shaker. Soda water makes the fizziest Le Fizz because it has more carbonation than just sparkling water-so I’d recommend soda.
For more great cocktail recipes you can make at home download the Mixed Cocktail app.
Follow Jess on Twitter @jess_commons
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.