Rosè & Elderflower Cocktail with Wild Strawberries

Posted by Rowena Dumlao Rowena Dumlao - Giardina 7/21/2013

Rosè & Elderflower Cocktail with Wild Strawberries

To entertain themselves during the long drive home, both my kids were playing a role-playing game pretending to be in a restaurant. One orders what he/she wants and the other one takes the order. I was hearing the usual drinks like water, Coca-Cola, aranciata (orange soda), thè (tea), chinotto (chinotto soda) and limonata (lemon soda) to mark the beginning of their game and then I heard Hugo. I was laughing quietly on my seat. Hugo is a cocktail drink that originated in South Tyrol where we just spent our holiday. You can see my post from last year about it if you click here.

I guess I had too much of Hugos while we were vacationing. It's my favorite and everytime we make a pit stop in a bar for refreshment or gelato, I order one while the kids get the potato chips it comes with. And we also spoke extensively about it once because I received an e-mail from a cafè owner in Germany asking for permission to use my Hugo picture for their summer special menu. Click here to see it. So Hugo remained in their memories. And it also did with me when we arrived home until a few days after. How I missed relaxing with a glass of it!

I could have created a Hugo but I didn't have anything sparkling like prosecco or champagne at the moment so looking for alternatives, I got the bottle of rosè we bought from our trip, the bottle of elderflower syrup (Of course, you can create your own.), a handful of very red fragoline (wild strawberries) from the kids' plants that had accumulated while we were gone and some fresh mint leaves from my plants. It was an experiment with Hugo on my mind. And it came out well, really well.

So I had a Hugo - inspired cocktail in hand with my husband beside me as we stared at the sun setting with the view of our garden. Not really the Dolomites but it's the drink and company that made it special.

Cin cin!