Orange Blossom

• 2.0 oz. Cognac
• 0.5 oz. Pavan
• 0.5 oz. orange blossom honey syrup*
• 2 dashes orange flower water
• 2 dashes orange bitters

Stir with ice. Strain into a snifter.

* 1:1 water and orange blossom honey, reduced by half

For the final cocktail in The Secret Garden series, I grabbed another floral liqueur I had on the shelf, Pavan, which consists, among other things, of orange blossom essence. I’ve always liked orange with brandy, so I went with a Cognac base. That alone with the Pavan didn’t have the depth of sweetness I would have liked, so I thought a rich honey syrup would help with that (and in keeping with the orange blossom theme). The drink at this point was pretty sweet, so I added some orange bitters in there. The orange flower water is probably a bit unnecessary — I couldn’t detect it in the final drink — but I kept it in the recipe nonetheless.

The name is not the genus of flowering plant, as in the other drinks in this series, as the flower is actually the blossom of the orange tree, and naming the drink “Citrus” (the orange tree genus) just didn’t sit right. In looking for a picture of “orange blossom,” though, I was faced with several images of a My Little Pony, which really gives a whole different twist to the drink. Still, Orange Blossom it was, and the garden was complete.

And if anyone ever casts me in a My Little Pony stage musical, I am already one drink ahead.