SKINNY COCKTAILS FOR A NEW YEAR
Try to forget the sea of mulled wine and eggnog you consumed over the holidays.
It’s a new year — time to stick to that sip-skinny resolution and choose cocktails that are at least a little less naughty. Lucky for you, low-proof cocktails have been the rage at Bay Area bars and restaurants for a few years now. Using naturally low-calorie aperitifs, bitters and shrubs at home has never been easier.
The rest is common sense, according to Jacob Kardon, bar manager at Berkeley’s Gather restaurant, where the “root to shoot” mantra extends to cocktails. When selecting a cocktail, opt for a simple drink with just a few ingredients. Instead of fruit juices, think fruit infusions, such as Gather’s Persimmon of Interest, a seasonal martini.
Kardon soaks persimmons in vodka for a week then strains the mixture and adds a bit of Napa’s Lo-Fi Dry Vermouth, which he prefers for its low sugar content and aromatic warming spices. The result is a gorgeous, light-orange cocktail that has “lovely, subtle sweetness and a round mouth feel,” Kardon says. In other words, you don’t miss a thing.
Over at Leo’s Oyster Bar in San Francisco, bar manager Casandra Salazar is always getting requests for skinny cocktails. Her Skinny Dip, an Aperol and vodkabased drink made with fresh watermelon juice, cucumber and lime, was required sipping over the summer. Right now, everyone’s ordering the Senorita, a mezcal cocktail that gets its fruitiness from Jardesca Rouge, a blend of Sonoma red wines and botanicals, and a muddle of orange and pineapple wheels.
“Everyone’s looking to lose a few pounds after the holidays, so I try to offer a few options,” Salazar says. She might make you her “spa water,” a refreshing mix of vodka, soda, mint and peach bitters. She’ll also recommend agave instead of simple syrup, fresh-squeezed juice over bottled mixes, and soda water instead of tonic, which has 124 calories per 12-ounce bottle.
Owner Ray Tang of Los Gatos’ The Catamount recommends choosing dry spirits, like gin and vodka, which lack residual sugar. At La Rinconada, the stylish bar inside the Catamount, Tang’s staff uses small quantities of inventive, housemade shrubs to add complexity to cocktails, such as the vodka-based Seasonal Mule, which gets its zest from cranberry hibiscus shrub. At home, Tang loves drinking margaritas and recently came up with a tart, skinny version for himself. He cuts the Grand Marnier Cordon Rouge in half and uses fresh lime juice, instead of bottled mixers.
Like the rest of the cocktails shared here, it’s light and highly quaffable.
Seasonal Mule