It Came from the Bog
Leopold Bros. restores the cranberry's cocktail cred
When it comes to cocktails, cranberries have had a tough go of it. Last decade's Cosmopolitan craze has left most serious imbibers with a knee-jerk anticranberry sentiment.
But Leopold Bros.' New England Cranberry Liqueur will give the berry a fresh start.
At the boutique Denver distillery, brothers Todd and Scott Leopold load pounds of bog-grown New England cranberries through a small wine press to extract fresh juice, which they then blend with their Silver Tree vodka and cane sugar.
Each 200-bottle batch differs according to the fruit's natural sugars and acidity. The flavor is always clean, pure and pleasantly tart--and not at all cloying.
The liqueur recently won two gold medals for "best fruit liqueur" at the 2009 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, the first American product to receive that honor.
At L.A. cocktail hot spot The Edison, beverage director Aidan Demarest recently added the liqueur to his fall menu. The Pilgrim, a gin-and-cranberry concoction, is a cocktailian's version of the classic Cosmo (click here to download the recipe). And this sip of seasonal redemption is also a great drink to serve your Thanksgiving guests when they arrive for dinner.
