Sunday, March 25, 2012

The Red Fox

I received a ridiculously thoughtful gift this year for Valentine's day. Sarah had remembered me talking wistfully about Italian liqueurs and bought me a bottle of Campari. Add to that Sarah's new favorite soda called Sarsi (a Filipino sarsaparilla) and it was actually a pretty obvious highball:

1/2 shot Campari
1 shot Gin
Top with Sarsaparilla

This is a very dry, herbal drink considering that it's mostly soda. Other sarsaparillas should be just as good as Sarsi, but I'm not so sure root beer is going to work for this. The dryness that distinguishes sarsaparilla from root beer is essential to complement the bitter and oh-so-dry Campari. The name came pretty naturally. It's not totally clear whether Sarah or I invented this one since we both found the combination so obvious, but I'm going to credit her since using gin in a rich, sweet drink would definitely have not occurred to me before meeting her.

Sarah calls the gin-less version of this drink a "Camparsi".