Greek Cocktails & Dreams...

Last weekend, I had the extraordinarily fun opportunity to co-host a Greek dinner. Seven couples planned, and plotted, cooked and created in advance of our wonderful evening of Greek feasting, fundraising and laughter.

The multi-course meal was prepared with recipes that were totally legit! A dear friend, who had the lucky fortune to marry a Greek, assigned us each one or two courses based on her mother-in-law's generations-old recipes.

To accompany the food and wine we served, I concocted two Greek-themed cocktails, which I'm sharing below. Opa!

Greek Mojito
Photo by Kim K.

The Sheepish Sommelier's Greek Mojito (by the pitcher)
Ingredients Handful of fresh mint leaves (more mint for garnish) Two limes, sliced (more sliced limes for garnish) 1 Cup "brown sugar-lime" simple syrup (recipe follows) 2 Cups Ouzo You'll also need 1 Liter of club soda, but that gets added to each drink separately	Method ·         Add mint and limes to pitcher ·         With the back of a wood spoon or a muddler, muddle mint leaves and limes to release flavors ·         Next, add brown-sugar simply syrup and ouzo to pitcher ·         Mix well ·         Fill a high ball/tall glasses with ice, add cocktail mix to about 3/4's full and then top with club soda. ·         Stir, garnish with lime and mint ·         ENJOY!
This recipe follows the 2-1-1 rule: two parts alcohol to one part of each of the other liquids. This allows you scale the recipe up or down. Use .oz instead of cups to make a single drink.
Brown Sugar-Lime Simple Syrup Ingredients 1 orange 2 lemons 4 limes 2 cup loosely packed light brown sugar 1 cup water	Method ·         Squeeze all the citrus juice into a measuring cup. You want to have 1 cup of citrus juice. ·         Add citrus juice, brown sugar and water to a medium sauce pan. Heat over medium high heat until sugar is completely dissolved (about 10 minutes) ·         Allow to cool completely ·         Can be made a day or two in advance



Athens Mule
Photo by Kim K.

The Sheepish Sommelier’s Athens Mule (by the pitcher)
Ingredients 1 bunch fresh mint 2 oranges (juiced) 6 limes (juiced) 8-10 dashes of orange bitters 1 cup pomegranate liqueur (Pama is the maker) 1 cup vodka 1 cup pomegranate juice (from a bottle) You'll also need 4-6 bottles of ginger beer, but that gets added to each drink separately (be sure it’s ginger beer and not ginger ale!)	Method ·         Add everything but the ginger beer to a pitcher and stir. ·         Fill copper mule mugs, or old-fashioned glasses with ice, add cocktail mix to about 3/4's full and then top with ginger beer ·         Stir, garnish o   I garnish with pomegranate seeds and a sprig of rosemary, but lime and mint is a nice garnish too. ·         ENJOY! Makes 10