(Version 1, because I may mess with it again later.)
Rose Lalonde…her mother drinks gin martinis but it sounds like Rose, when she starts following in her mother’s footsteps, goes for weirder stuff. Rose syrup for Rose; gin to acknowledge her mom’s influence; Lillet because it’s sweet with the tiniest bite on the edge; dash of bitters and/or rosemary for just a little complexity. (This is actually a variation on the lemon-tart Vespa, so if you like this, give Vespas a try; thanks to M.B. for the suggestion when I complained about not liking martinis all that much.)
The dark cherries for an element of something sweet and just slightly rotten…
2 oz Lillet (a sweet wine)
1 oz gin (a London dry or whatever you prefer)
1/2 oz rose syrup (recipe below)
dash of cardamom or other non-fruity, non-Angostura/Peychaud bitters) and/or sprig of rosemary (optional)
2 cocktail cherries, as dark as you can find, to garnish
Equipment: cocktail shaker and strainer, regular ice cubes, chilled coupe or other smallish fancy glasses.
The colder the ingredients, the better. You can put gin in the freezer and it won’t freeze solid, by the way. Advise putting wine and syrup in the fridge to cool, and the coupe glasses in the freezer.
Pour everything but the cherries into a cocktail shaker full of regular ice cubes, shake until the shaker is Very Cold, then strain the drink into a chilled coupe glass.
Place two cherries into the bottom of the glass, along with some of the dark syrupy sludge in the jar, if you like. Serve cold, drink soon.
Rose syrup:
1c sugar
1c water
1/2 c food-grade dried rose petals
Bring to a boil over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved and the liquid is deep pink.
I don’t recommend using rose petals from a bouquet; you never know what the flowers were grown with, like pesticides. Also, the dried kind is more intensely flavored. I ordered mine online from Amazon.
Non-alcoholic version!
This is a best guess; I just made this up today and haven’t had a chance to test it.
1c fizzy water, ginger ale, sprite, etc.
1/4c rose syrup
1T dark cherry sludge from the dark cocktail cherries
dash of cardamom or other non-fruity, non-Angostura/Peychaud bitters) and/or sprig of rosemary (optional)
1 lime, juiced
2 dark cocktail cherries
Stir the rose syrup, lime juice, bitters/rosemary sprig, and cherry sludge together, then add a little fizzy water to thin it out. Pour over ice cubes in a drinking glass, then top with the rest of the fizzy water and garnish with two dark cocktail cherries.
If you’re like me, you’ll pour stuff into the cocktail shaker, swish it around to extract the last few drops of flavor from the main drink, and then serve the non-alky version on the side of the alky one, for extra yumminess.