Acqua Santa Spritz #SummerCocktails #SundayFunday

Summer is almost here and the Sunday Funday crew is celebrating with summer cocktails and mocktails to get you ready for lounging by the pool or on the beach.

Stacy of Food Lust People Love, Sue of Palatable Pastime, Rebekah of Making Miracles, and Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm coordinate this low-stress group; we only participate when we are inspired. Stacy is hosting this week. Here's our virtual #SundayFunday bar menu...

• 2 Ingredient Strawberry Slush by Amy's Cooking Adventures

• Acqua Santa Spritz by Culinary Cam (you're here)

• Dirty Bloody Mary Martini by Food Lust People Love

• Elderflower Martini by Karen's Kitchen Stories

• Meyer Lemondrop Martini by A Day in the Life on the Farm

• Pink Lemonade Vodka Cocktail by Sneha's Recipe

Foraging Elderflowers

Before I get to the cocktail - and Acqua Santa, my version of the Italian Elderflower-Lemon Liqueur - I need to start with my annual elderflower foraging.

Each summer, when we head north to visit the greater Mann clan, I pluck bunches and bunches of elderflowers from the trees around Blue Lake. I bring up vodka and start my homemade acqua santa (Italian-style elderflower liqueur).

Acqua Santa

While the readily available St. Germain is a commercially-sold elderflower liqueur from France, I make the Italian-style every year. It's so fragrant and I love that its aroma and flavor reminds me of our time with our extended Mann clan. I don't measure for the infusing process, but do measure for the finishing.

• organic elderflowers

• vodka

• zest from organic lemons

• water

• sugar

• Also needed: lidded jars for infusing, bottles for gifting

Infusing

Place elderflowers - trimmed from the stems as much as possible - in a sterile jar. The jar should be filled at least halfway up with the blossoms. Add the zest from two organic lemons. Fill the jar with vodka. Place the jar in a dark, cool place for a minimum of six week. This batch was infusing for nine months because I forgot about them. Whoops. The aroma was amazing!

Bottling

Strain out the flowers and zest. I ended up with four cups of infused vodka. Make a simple syrup. For four cups of infused vodka, I used four cups water and three cups organic granulated sugar. Place sugar and water in a pot. Bring to a simmer and swirl to dissolve the sugar. Once it's completely dissolved, raise the heat and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and let cool completely.

Stir in the infused vodka. Use a funnel to pour the acqua santa into individual bottles. Now it's ready for gifting and cocktail making. Here's first summer sipper I made with it.

Acqua Santa Spritz

Spritzes are a simple summer sipper that you'll find all over Italy. The most common is an Aperol Spritz. But I recently heard about the Hugo Spritz. This is my approximation, made with my homemade acqua santa. The traditional recipe uses prosecco. I used a sparkling skin-fermented wine from Two Shepherds Wine here in California.

• 1 ounce acqua santa (or other elderflower liqueur), chilled

• 3 ounces sparkling wine, chilled

• zest from an organic lemon

Pour the elderflower liqueur in the bottom of a serving glass. Drop in the zest. Top with sparkling wine. Serve immediately. Cin cin!

Other Libations

Summertime definitely has me making more cocktails for sipping on the patio. I recently made a Lavender Haze, inspired by one of the cocktails served during the on-going Taylor Swift concerts. This lovely drink also includes Acqua Santa.

Infused simple syrups are an easy way to add unique flavors to summer sippers. Since rose is a flavor that only I really like, I made a Cardamom Rose Cocktail just for me. With summer stone fruit season coming up, I will be making my Peaches and Cream Cocktail again soon. And blue butterfly pea flower, sometimes called blue matcha, is a great ingredient to whip up a cocktail that changes color. It's mixology magic! Read about it in Magical Blue Matcha Cocktail.

Cheers!

That's a wrap on my cocktail offering for the #SundayFunday event. I can't wait to try the other bloggers' creations. The group will return next week to celebrate National Rotisserie Chicken Day. Stay tuned!