The Rose Recipe

By
Paul Clarke
Paul Clarke
Paul Clarke blogs about cocktails at The Cocktail Chronicles and writes regularly on spirits and cocktails for Imbibe magazine. He lives in Seattle, where he works as a writer and magazine editor.
Learn about Serious Eats' Editorial Process
Updated August 09, 2018

Let's get this weekend started right. Here's a cocktail from Paul Clarke to kick things off. Need more than one? That kinda week, eh? Here you go. Cheers!

This cocktail has a name, appearance and elegant flavor well suited for Valentine's Day. Unlike its floral namesake, however, this Rose is best enjoyed in quantities of fewer than a dozen.

Rescued from a vintage bar menu by cocktail historian David Wondrich, the Rose enjoyed a brief flash of popularity at the Chatham Hotel in Paris in the 1920s. Good luck finding it since then, which is a shame; soft, floral, lightly sweet and with a titillating aroma from the cherry eau de vie, the Rose is an exercise in delicate decadence, a drink that, like the Widow's Kiss, can put the imbiber in a mindset from a completely different era.

Recipe Details

The Rose Recipe

Prep 5 mins
Total 5 mins

Ingredients

  • 2 ounces dry vermouth
  • 1 ounce kirsch (an unaged, unsweetened cherry brandy)
  • 1 teaspoon raspberry syrup or Chambord

Directions

  1. Pour ingredients into a mixing glass and fill with ice. Stir briskly for 30 seconds and strain into chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry or – go for broke – an unsprayed rose petal.

  2. As with any cocktail, quality counts; be sure you use a freshly opened bottle of decent vermouth (Noilly Prat works well, and is only marginally more expensive than lesser brands), and a good bottle of kirsch: Trimbach and Clear Creek are both excellent options.

More Serious Eats Recipes