Each cocktail at this musical venue’s bistro has a musical reference in its title; the holiday-ready “Time of the Season,” with house-infused pisco, is a nod to The Zombies’ 1968 hit.
Justin Morales, manager at the Hartford restaurant and bar, first discovered the Peruvian brandy when he was working at nearby Front Street Bistro. He immediately enjoyed its versatility. “I could do my own things with it, instead of buying a [flavored] vodka,” he says. “Pisco’s been good to me so far.”
Morales recommends infusing the pisco for two days with fresh apples and dried cranberries: 1 apple, sliced into rings, and 1/2 cup of dried cranberries per each 750-ml bottle, plus one tablespoon of brown sugar. To make the cinnamon simple syrup: Break two fresh cinnamon sticks into halves and let them sit in the simple syrup overnight.
>>1.75 ounces apple and cranberry-infused pisco
>>1/2 ounce cinnamon simple syrup
>>1 ounce freshly squeezed lime juice
>>3 mint leaves
>>Cinnamon sugar for glass rim
>>3/4 ounce ginger ale
>>Dried cranberries and thin apple slice for garnish
Mix together the first four ingredients in a cocktail shaker, add ice and shake. Pour into a glass rimmed with cinnamon and sugar. Top with a splash of ginger ale, place apple slice on top and drop a few dried cranberries into the center of apple as garnish. Makes one cocktail.
