Welcome To Wonkette Happy Hour, With This Week's Cocktail, The Azalea!

A smooth, crushable country club sipper.

Yes, it is as refreshing as it looks.

Greetings, Wonketeers! I’m Hooper, your bartender. I’ve been getting pretty wild with my cocktails recently, so let’s get back to a straightforward country club classic. The original recipe is a little basic for modern cocktails, but I know a trick or two to make it more interesting. Let’s make an Azalea. Here’s the recipe:

Azalea

2 oz Tito’s vodka

1 oz fresh lemon juice

1 oz limoncello syrup

½ oz pomegranate juice

Soda water

Shake all ingredients except the soda water with ice and strain into a pint glass filled with ice. Top the cocktail with soda water. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Limoncello Syrup

2 cups sugar

1 cup water

Zest of 1 lemon

2 4” sticks of lemongrass

Chop the lemongrass finely. Add zest, lemongrass, sugar, and water to a small saucepan. Simmer over low heat for 30 minutes. Strain and store in a glass container. Keeps refrigerated indefinitely.

It’s commonly accepted that the Azalea is the unofficial cocktail of The Masters tournament, although the actual history of the drink is muddy at best. I’ve seen a few versions of this drink, the most basic being a hard pink lemonade — vodka, lemonade, and grenadine. Pineapple juice and gin make their way into fancier versions. The recipe for an Azalea isn’t sacrosanct; fiddling with the basic concept is completely acceptable.

The only “must” about this cocktail is the color — it needs to be as pink as an azalea bush in full bloom. Every version of this drink I’ve seen uses commercial grenadine as the coloring agent. I’m not a fan of Rose’s grenadine. It’s red food coloring, corn syrup, and not much else. True grenadine is pomegranate-flavored, tart, and rich. I’ve made house grenadine for this column before, but this time I wanted some extra tartness and deeper color instead of adding a second syrup to the glass. Pomegranate juice does the job nicely and offers some extra tartness in a sweet cocktail.

Some of the recipes for the Azalea found online seem to lose the plot. Several versions use pineapple juice and gin as the foundation. Pineapple is a tricky beast to work with; too much and it completely overwhelms the flavors in a glass. Two ounces in this cocktail completely ruined the delicate lemon flavors of the syrup. Similarly, attempting to color pineapple juice pink with pomegranate juice was ... less than pretty. Maybe the artificial color of Rose’s grenadine would do the trick, but I couldn’t see the point.

A good gin like Hendrick’s can work wonders in this cocktail. But I’m very aware that Tito’s is the golfer’s booze of choice these days. We go through cases of the stuff every week at the country club. In my mind, a “country club” cocktail without Tito’s is missing the point. There’s something about the flavors in this glass — tart, lemony, and mild — that hits the sweet spot. When my spouse tasted it, she commented, “What’s the alcohol in this?” That’s the ideal country club drink — smooth, tasty, and eminently crushable. It’s easy to toss back two or three of these sitting on the patio or relaxing by the pool.

Let’s talk ingredients:

Ingredient shot. The cocktail disappeared moments after this photo was taken.

Tito’s Vodka: There really isn’t much difference between vodka brands. Use your favorite. Skyy Vodka has been a firm supporter of Pride Month in the past, but they’ve cowered in the face of Donald Trump’s bullying. At least Tito’s is adamantly politics-neutral. Hendrick’s gin is a great fit for this drink. If you splurged and bought Hendrick’s Oaisium for the Airport 77 cocktail I ran a few weeks back, you’re in for a treat. Use it here.

Lemon Juice: Always fresh, especially in this cocktail. Lemon has a starring role in this glass. Don’t skimp.

Limoncello Syrup: I wanted to boost the lemon flavor in this drink without increasing the acidity. Adding lemon zest and lemongrass to simple syrup produced floral lemon flavors reminiscent of limoncello. I’ll be using this syrup again.

Pomegranate Juice: Use 100 percent pomegranate juice, not a pomegranate “cocktail.”

Soda Water: Use what you like. Club soda contains a touch of salt, unlike sparkling water, but the difference is minimal.

In summary and conclusion, drink well, drink often, and tip your bartender – donate to Wonkette at the link below!

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