Blood Orange Creamsicle Martini

I’ve been in the dessert martini mood recently, so I challenged myself to create one. My first thought was to start working on something citrusy. With the citrus season underway, I wanted to use something unique. While I was in the grocery store, I noticed they had blood oranges, they're just like regular oranges, just a little sweeter and a deep crimson inside.

After a couple of different ratios, I settled on a dessert martini that isn’t sickly sweet but still feels like an after-dinner drink. The other key here is that it uses only bar essentials for the liquor. You don’t need anything more than the liquors you have on hand.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 oz. Vodka (Vanilla vodka would work great here)

• 1.5 oz. Triple Sec

• .5 oz. Half and Half (or your preferred cream)

• Juice from 1 blood orange (If you don’t have blood oranges, this absolutely can be substituted with a regular orange)

• Ice

Equipment:

• Shaker set

  • (Pro tip: If you don’t have a shaker set and want to make a shaken cocktail, I’ve found that you can use a protein shaker as a substitute)

Steps:

1. In the shake put your ice, triple sec, half and half, vodka, and juice

2. Shake vigorously

3. Double strain into a martini glass.

   1. Use a smaller strainer to catch any pulp or small shards of ice

Try it out next time you need an after-dinner drink and don’t feel like having an espresso martini or coffee. Cheers!