A Cocktail for Inauguration Day: Inaugural Cheer

Inauguration Day is tomorrow! We’re very excited to watch this historic event, and of course we're also excited about the food and drink that accompany a day of historic import, new beginnings, and a whole night full of gala balls. Here's a special cocktail recipe that we received from mixologist Danielle Tatarin. This lovely layered cocktail includes wild hibiscus flower syrup, and it's served in a champagne flute.

The Inaugural Cheer, created by mixologist Danielle Tatarin of The Designer Cocktail Company.

Inaugural Cheer

1/2 cup crushed ice
1/2 oz Wild Hibiscus Syrup
1/4 oz Fresh Lemon Juice
2 oz Hpnotiq Liqueur
2 oz Dry Sparkling Wine or Champagne

Mixing Instructions:

Separate the Flowers from the Wild Hibiscus Syrup. Place 1 Wild Hibiscus Flower standing upright at the bottom of the champagne flute.

Mix Lemon Juice and Hibiscus Syrup together. Pour the Hibiscus Syrup and Lemon juice mixture over the flower. Add crushed ice on top of the Wild Hibiscus Flower and Syrup. Slowly pour in Hpnotiq Liqueur over the ice. Slowly top with Dry Sparkling Wine or Champagne.

How it looks is Red on the bottom, layer of Blue in the middle and the crushed ice floats to the top with the champagne giving the illusion of white.

To make this cocktail in batches make sure to separate the flowers from the syrup. Each 1L Jar of Wild Hibiscus Flowers contains approximately 25 oz. of syrup, which will make 50 cocktails. To pre-mix the Hibiscus Syrup/Lemon Juice add 12.5 oz Lemon Juice to every 25 oz. of Syrup.

For ideas on what to serve for an Inauguration Day meal, check out our ideas for Election Night:

• Election Night Menu Ideas

Does anyone think that the Hibiscus syrup could be replaced with grenadine and still get the same effect? I'm not sure if it would ruin the layering...

posted by futureWHNP on January 19th 2009 at 4:04pm
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Gorgeous! I'm going to add this to my Inauguration Roundup right now!

posted by Rachel@oneprettything.com on January 19th 2009 at 4:49pm
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Any layered drink can succeed if you have a steady hand, and pour the liquer with the greatest density first, etc. Personally, I think Hpnotic is sort of medicinal, but it's blue.

Pour the grenadine first into your measuring glass, and then down the long-handled bar spoon, (the one with the twisted handle lets you control the flow the best) into the drink glass. Then you could add your blue layer, and then top with the sparkling wine.

posted by Palmetto on January 19th 2009 at 5:09pm
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I agree with Rachel, that drink is gorgeous.

posted by Kalinda on January 19th 2009 at 7:12pm
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Very pretty! Over the holidays I used these flowers to float in Prosecco. They were a huge hit!

posted by Dana McCauley on January 19th 2009 at 7:23pm
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Cheers to an fantastic and historic day!

posted by Eve in Hochelaga on January 20th 2009 at 10:23am
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Going with plain old champagne cocktails but I would drink beer or water tonight I am so happy! I can't think of a blue liqueur I really like, unfortunatey. Going with blue frosting on the cake, though!

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posted by linxixi on November 4th 2009 at 10:58pm
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