Rosa

• 1.5 oz. Cocchi Americano
• 1.0 oz. Courvoisier Rosé liqueur
• 2.0 oz. Cuvée Rosé
• 5 drops rose water

Stir Cocchi and Courvoisier with ice. Strain into cocktail glass. Top with rosé and garnish with five drops of rose water.

For The Secret Garden, I decided on a collection of floral drinks. No, it’s nothing much to do with the show, but having a drink based around cholera or melancholy (melancholera?) didn’t seem very appealing. Although not all of the flowers are necessarily something you’d find in an English garden, I started with one that was not only a flower mentioned in the show, but was also one of the characters, Rose, or, using its genus name, Rosa.

This one was all about the nose. Originally, I was going to make it champagne-based with a rose liqueur that I had on hand. That liqueur ran out before I could perfect the drink, though, and in trying to restock I found the liqueur was no longer available. Enter the Courvoiser Rosé, and building off of that I found a sparkling rosé to replace the champagne. The Cocchi adds a little more sweetness and a necessary bitter component. The final drops of rose water are really what bring the fragrance of roses to the drink.

I suppose I should represent the thorns, not only for the flower, but also for the character. Let’s just focus on the lovelier aspects, though. If you really want to, have a chaser of absinthe. That’ll get ya.