Whew, I’m posting this month’s cocktail just in the nick of time! Only one more day of January left. January’s (what’s left of it) cocktail is the Blood Orange Martini. I’d never heard of a blood orange martini until someone on facebook asked about a recipe. That got me searching for a recipe myself. I love blood oranges, and martinis, so I knew I had to try one.
I heard about a blood orange liqueur and actually found one at a local liquor store. Well, we bought it and it was good, but I was a little disappointed. It had kind of a weird taste to it. I decided to wait until blood oranges were available at the store and make a martini using freshly-squeeze blood orange juice.
Blood oranges are in season right now. If you haven’t had one and like citrus fruits, than I encourage you to try one today! They are wonderfully sweet and have a berry flavor to them. In addition, they are a lovely deep red color. The ones that I used are Moro blood oranges. Blood oranges are special because the substance that causes the deep red pigment (anthocyanin) is an antioxidant. They have more antioxidants and vitamin A than regular oranges.
The fresh blood orange juice was the ticket. So fresh tasting! Here’s the recipe I came up with. Frozen limeade concentrate is my secret ingredient in fruity martini’s. A lot of martini recipes call for fresh lime juice, which I don’t always have. I keep a can of frozen limeade in the freezer and just spoon out some as I need it. It adds a sweet-tart zip to the drink. Now if I could only find frozen limeade without high fructose corn syrup!
Blood Orange Martini
makes 2 drinks
4 oz. vodka
3 oz. blood orange juice
2 oz. triple sec (or other orange flavored liqueur)
2 tsp. frozen limeade concentrate
ice
2 slices blood oranges for garnish
Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker and shake vigorously. Strain into two martini glasses. Garnish with blood oranges slices if desired.
