Pick your poison

So apparently resolutions made in Spring are just as hard to keep as ones made in January.  It has been a while since I’ve taken the time to post anything, but I’ve been more in the mood to read and react to words than to create my own.  I finished the Professor’s House by Willa Cather and The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris.  Both deserve some discussion, but that’s not why I am here today.  Today I am here to talk about what will be my definitive Summer 2011 drink, the Leland Palmer.

The recipe for this drink was featured in the June 2010 issue of Bon Appétit.  The picture made you long to be outside on hot day; maybe enjoying a twilight barbeque with a group of friends, or perhaps just you and your honey, coming back from the pool or beach, with nothing else to do that day but sit back and relax. The limocello-gin-tea mixture was poured into a mason jar filled with ice, condensation forming on the outside of the jar, and a slice of lemon perched atop the rim.  I had never craved a drink so badly before.  Alas, I was seven months pregnant at the time, and when I was finally able to drink again it was not Leland Palmer season.  I had forgotten all about it until I Netflixed Twin Peaks (where the drink gets its name). 

The recipe calls for jasmine tea, but I’ve used Darjeeling and I’m pretty sure you could use almost any fresh brewed iced tea.  I emphatically suggest pouring the drinks into mason jars, preferably out of a heavy glass pitcher.  There’s something wonderfully sentimental about it that sings summer.

The Leland Palmer adapted from Damon Boelte and Bon Appétit

½ cup honey

½ cup hot water

3 cups freshly brewed jasmine tea, cooled completely

¾ cups gin

¾ cup limocello

¾ cup fresh squeezed lemon juice

½ cup grapefruit juice

1 cup chilled club soda

lemon for garnish

Stir honey into hot water until completely dissolved.  Set aside to cool completely

Mix honey water, tea, gin, limoncello, lemon juice, grapefruit juice, and club soda* in a large pitcher.  Pour over ice into six mason jars or heavy glasses.

* If you don’t think you will finish a pitcher in one sitting, you can omit the club soda when you combine everything.  Then, just add a splash of the soda to individual glasses before serving.