Healthy Cocktails?

If you enjoy going out to eat, you’ve surely noticed the specialty martini craze of the past several years.  My first experience with it occurred in 2001 near Boston at a place called Jimmy’s at the Burlington Mall. In fact, I just Googled Jimmy’s to see if I could view the menu, and sadly, it has been replaced with a Cheesecake Factory. I miss that place—the Steak Tips and Rice Pilaf were my favorites (but so salty I always needed a few martinis to wash them down!).

It was at Jimmy’s that I first tried a Chocolate Martini.  It was a clear drink with cocoa around the rim—and really quite strong. My partner in crime at the time and I would go there on weekend afternoons and indulge, and then stroll around the mall till we could drive home safely. I got a lot of really great clothes that year—maybe dulling some of my inhibitions helped me move my fashion forward a little!

When I returned to New York—Penn Yan, specifically, I had a terrible time finding a chocolate martini. Lloyds served me one that looked like chocolate milk, and although I liked chocolate milk, I’ve never been able to stomach the dairy/alcohol combo. So if I was in the mood for a Tini, I stuck to appletinis there—the first one tasting kind of like a Green Apple Jolly Rancher, and then subsequent appletinis just tasting like drinks.  Most of the time, I reverted to a standard Cape Cod, vodka and cranberry, somewhat out of appeal and partially for nostalgia regarding my old life in MA. There was also a time when I went through a Patron and Fresca phase, thanks to the other Lisa B 🙂

Today, I like the low-on-sweetness-but-not-too-strong-martinis.  If the drink is fluorescent in color, it probably isn’t for me. No Dairy in my drinks, not a fan of Spicy, and only Dirty when I’m in the mood for it!  Pomegranate seems to be my fall-back-on-tini these days. A few years ago while visiting DC, I had a few amazing Watermelon Martinis at a place called Oya—At least I think the martinis were good, or maybe I was just a sucker for the city-feel of the bar.

Currently, I don’t really drink very often, and not heavily when I do indulge. I’d love to feel like I have some options of drinks I can make that don’t feel completely contradictory to the other part of my lifestyle and healthy eating I’m trying to uphold. I wouldn’t go so far as to say a drink could be 100% toxin-free, but I do think there is room to enjoy a cocktail or two in moderation, just like most other things in life.

Stay tuned for what I came up with as my Healthiest Cocktail!