With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, you need to have your sweets and drinks all lined up and ready to go! Today we are sharing our drink suggestion with you…the Spiced Grenade cocktail. It’s the perfect, pretty hue of red to celebrate the day of love.

Our Spiced Grenade Cocktail is so named for the French word for pomegranate. French is the language of love, right? 😉 This cocktail was inspired by one we tasted and loved at one of our favorite places, The Shady Lady Saloon.

We used blood oranges for our garnish but you can use any kind of oranges you have available to you. These oranges would be equally delicious as a garnish for a warm cup of tea!

Be sure to visit us next week for our sweet recommendation!

To prepare the garnish, first dust orange slices with ground cinnamon.

Dried oranges (we used blood oranges here) with cinnamon and clove make a fabulous garnish!

Spiced Grenade Cocktail

• 2 oz vodka
• ½ oz Cointreau
• ½ oz meyer lemon juice
• ½ oz spiced pomegranate syrup (recipe below)
• Dried orange garnish (recipe below)

Chill a 5.5 oz coupe glass by filling with ice water and letting sit while you prepare the cocktail.

Measure all ingredients (excluding garnish) and place in a cocktail shaker. Fill the shaker with ice and shake vigorously for 45 to 60 seconds.

Empty the chilled coupe. Strain cocktail into chilled glass. Garnish with prepared orange garnish.

Makes 1 cocktail

Spiced Pomegranate Syrup

• 8 oz 100% pomegranate juice
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• ½ vanilla bean
• 12 bruised cardamom pods
• 10 whole cloves
• 1 small cinnamon stick

Combine pomegranate juice and sugar in a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil and stir constantly until sugar is dissolved. Slice open the vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds. Add the vanilla bean and seeds, as well as the remaining ingredients, to the sauce pan and continue to boil for one minute. Remove pan from heat, cover and let steep for an hour. When completely cooled, store in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks.

Makes about 1 cup.

Dried Oranges with Cinnamon and Cloves

• 2 small oranges
• Handful of whole cloves
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 200° F.

Slice the oranges into ¼ inch slices and place between two kitchen towels or paper towels to soak up excess juice. Poke the cloves, evenly spaced, into the pith around the edge of the orange slices. Dust each orange slice with ground cinnamon. Place the oranges on a baking rack set over a pan lined with parchment paper. Bake in the oven for 2 to 3 hours or until fairly dry. Store any unused oranges in an airtight container in the refrigerator. They’ll keep for a few days.

Makes about 9 slices.