Food

10 BEAUTIFUL SUNRISE COCKTAILS TO CELEBRATE THE DAWN

Courtesy of A Cocktail Life. Cantaloupe Melon Martini.

Today, we are sharing some beautiful ways to quench your thirst at dawn… or perhaps help to beautifully blur the lines between the night before and the morning after.

1. CANTALOUPE MELON MARTINI

Cantaloupe melons show off one of the key colors of dawn. And, they are beautiful breakfast fruits. Anita of A Cocktail Life, devised this gorgeous cocktail that would be a perfect accompaniment to a Beautiful Dawn, the Cantaloupe Melon Martini. Full of floral loveliness, with Elderflower and ripe melon, this one is a real treat.

Cantaloupe Melon Martini

Per Serving:

Ingredients:

1 1/2 oz. Vodka
2 oz. Cantaloupe puree
1/2 oz. Lemon juice
1/2 oz. Simple syrup
1/2 oz. Elderflower liqueur
1/4 oz. Melon liqueur
2 Mint leaves

Instructions:

1. To make the puree, peel and chunk about half a cantaloupe melon and blend it in a food processor until smooth. Half a melon should yield about 6-8 oz. or enough for 3-4 drinks.

2. Add the vodka, 2 oz. of the melon puree, the lemon juice, simple syrup, elderflower liqueur, melon liqueur and mint to a cocktail shaker. Muddle the mint with a muddler or the back of wooden spoon. Fill with ice and shake well. Pour through the strainer into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a few melon balls, if desired.

2. HOT COCOA MARTINI

Nothing better to greet a cold winter’s dawn with than a hot cocoa… except maybe Anita of A Cocktail Life’s Hot Cocoa Martini! We’ve adapted the recipe. Ours uses real cocoa, vs a mix. And ours is really hot vs chilled.

Hot Cocoa Martini

For 2 Servings:

Ingredients:

1 cup of your best cocoa, heated to optimal hot cocoa drinking temperature
3 oz. whipped cream vodka
1 oz. Buttershots caramel liqueur

Instructions:

1. Mix all ingredients together.

2.Pour into cocktail glasses. Note: make sure you have a metal spoon in each glass before you pour to prevent the glass from cracking as you pour your hot liquid in.

3.Garnish with either whipped cream or marshmallows, if desired.

3. STRAWBERRY MANGO TEQUILA SUNRISE

Susan Palmer, of Girl in the Kitchen, developed a beautiful new Tequila Sunrise to help celebrate Earth Day. It is brighter than most, in both flavor and color.

As she is extremely focused on sustainable living, Palmer, changed out orange juice and Grenadine, with more seasonally and locally available fresh mango and strawberry purées.

She mixes in Casa Noble Tequila, the super-premium organic tequila brand part-owned by Carlos Santana. In Crystal or Silver, Casa Noble plays well with the fruits and bodes well for the planet. Check out the recipe.

4. BITTERSWEET SUNRISE

The Original Dinerant in Portland, Oregon, conjured a signature sunrise cocktail, called the Bittersweet Sunrise, that plays to the bittersweet aspects of dawn, as the beautiful night before is ending.

It begins with a shot of Aperol, one of our favorite Italian aperitifs, flavored with bitter orange, rhubarb, cinchona bark, and gentian. Find a gorgeous handcrafted bitter orange soda to add, unless you live close enough to The Original to pop in for some of their housemade -- theirs is redolent of elderflower and mirror’s Aperol’s flavor notes .

They complicate it with a shot of Benedictine, pour over ice, and garnish it with the a curled lemon rind.

5. SEASIDE SUNRISE

The Seaside Sunrise cocktail by Shannon, of A Fork in Each Hand, is a perfect hello to a day at the beach whenever summertime is happening for you.

Made with pineapple, orange-mango, and cranberry juices, mixed with passion fruit rum, a little grenadine, and topped with some prosecco.

6. SUNRISE SMOOTHIE

Sunrise Smoothie, by PARTY PATISSERIE, is another mango - berry combo. This one, made with raspberries, rounded out with orange juice and mellowed out with milk, can be further mellowed with some lovely golden rum.

Sunrise Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 cup Frozen raspberries
1 cup Frozen mango
1 1/2 cups Milk or milk alternative (my daughter loves Almond Milk)
1 1/2 cups Orange juice

Instructions:

1. Blend the mango and orange juice together until mixed and pour evenly into two glasses filling them halfway.

2. Rinse out the blender and then mix the raspberries and milk.

3. Pour the raspberry mixture on top of the mango mixing a little bit at a time so that the pink and orange blend together, hence getting the rainbow effect.

7. ISLAY DAWN

Islay, known for its smoky salty Scotch, sees the dawn before most of the eastern hemisphere does, as it sits off the Atlantic coast of mainland Scotland. Imbibe Magazine shared a late night - early morning straddler called Islay Dawn.

Created in honor of Burns Night, on/around January 25, celebrating all things Scottish, including, eponymously, Scottish poet Robert Burns.

The briny Islay single malt pairs with pear liqueur, fresh lemon juice and honey and mixes up, just like a foggy Islay Dawn. Click here for the recipe.

8. TANGERINE & ROSEMARY GIN SUNRISE

When Barrett Bridenhagen, of Dirty Laundry Kitchen, wanted to make a mimosa for brunch, but had no champagne, she whipped up a creative, and delicious alternative. Check out her tangerine, gin, and rosemary concoction. She calls it a spritzer, but we think it is more than that.

Made with one of our favorite gins, Hendricks, muddled fresh rosemary, and fresh-squeezed tangerine juice, then topped with sparkling water and a drop of vanilla, it’s a beautiful Tangerine & Rosemary Gin Sunrise! Check out the recipe here.

And, if you’re looking for something really cool to have for breakfast along with this beautiful dawn cocktail, check out Bridenhagen’s super-creative Savory Olive Bread French Toast with Bacon Marmalade.

9. TROPICALISTA SUNRISE COCKTAIL

The Cocktail Whisperer, Warren Bobrow, is bringing whisky back, with his latest book, Whiskey Cocktails: Rediscovered Classics and Contemporary Craft Drinks Using the World's Most Popular Spirit.

While we love each of his 75 handcrafted cocktails, incorporating the complex notes of top end bourbon and scotch, we gravitated to his particularly beautiful Tropicalista Sunrise.

Tropicalista Sunrise Cocktail

Ingredients:

3 ounces (90 ml) Grilled Pineapple Juice
1/2 ounce (15 ml) Homemade Grenadine Syrup
2 ounces (60 ml) wheat whiskey
1/2 ounce (15 ml) dark rum
3/4 ounce (22 ml) freshly squeezed orange juice, strained
1 ounce (30 ml) freshly squeezed grapefruit juice, strained
Pinch of sea salt
2 ounces (60 ml) club soda

Instructions:

1. Mix it up.

2. Garnish with a grilled pineapple wedge and a lemon curl.

Note: Bobrow recommends that you try this with a “twelve-year-old rum aged in bourbon oak casks, if at all possible; the deep vanilla-smoke flavors in each sip are too good to miss.”

Excerpted from Whiskey Cocktails by Warren Bobrow.

“One of the best new whiskey books of 2014,” says TastingTable.com.

10. TEQUILA SUNRISE SORBET

Sorbet for breakfast? Why not? This Tequila Sunrise Sorbet, by Alexandra Caspero, of Delish Knowledge, braces you as it chills you. It was originally meant to be dessert, but we think it makes a beautiful breakfast treat.

Try adding a bit more tequila a batch to turn it into a beautiful sunrise cocktail. Either way, with orange and cherry juice, this just bursts with tart fruitiness.

Tequila Sunrise Sorbet

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

2 cups orange juice
4 tbsp. sugar
3 tbsp. tequila
2 tbsp. cherry juice

Instructions:

1. In a high speed blender, puree the orange juice and sugar until sugar is dissolved.

2. Place in the fridge to cool for at least 1 hour.

3. Add the tequila and process with an ice cream machine.

4. Once the mixture starts to harden, drizzle in the cherry juice.

5. Place the mixture into the freezer to harden.

Read more about Beautiful Dawn, as it relates to Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink,Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact including Celebrating the Beautiful Dawn of A New Year and Just In: A Message from the Dawn of Time.

Enter your own images and ideas about Beautiful Dawn in this week’s creative Photo Competition. Open for entries now until 11:59 p.m. PT on 01.11.2015. If you are reading this after that date, check out the current BN Creative Competition, and enter!