Getting back (finally!) to my Light in the Piazza cocktails, the next locale featured after Florence is Rome. I happened to have a huge bottle of Sambuca that I have barely touched (like many of my unused bottles, I purchased it for a recipe, but found I generally wasn’t a fan). So my mission here was to make a drink I liked with an ingredient I normally wouldn’t. Thus, the Roman Ruin.
Roman Ruin
- 1.0 oz. Sambuca
- 1.0 oz. Aperol
- 0.5 oz. Espresso liqueur
- 0.5 oz. lemon juice
Shake with ice and strain into ice-filled Collins glass.
Top with 2.0 oz. of club soda.
There are of course the traditional three coffee beans served in Sambuca, so as a nod to that I mixed the Sambuca with an espresso liqueur. Very sweet. The Italian Aperol helped to cut that a bit with bitter, and the lemon juice offered a much needed acidity and brightness. Such a strong drink, taste-wise, is not diluted much — and is actually helped quite a bit — by the club soda to top.
I still won’t be reaching for the Sambuca with any frequency, but when I do I think all roads will lead to this.