Sicilian Family Recipe to Local NH Liqueur

For the past few weeks I have been featuring cocktails made with Morécello (Blackberry) Liqueur. I have been enjoying experimenting with it so much that this weeks cocktail featured it as well. I thought I should tell you the story of this liqueur and its creator, Frank Marino. I took some time to chat with him a few weeks ago to get the story so I could share it with you.

I had the pleasure of meeting Frank years ago when he contacted me to have me teach his wife piano as an Anniversary present. I had not taught any piano since leaving Massachusetts and I was really happy to be teaching again. Jo Ann was a joy to teach because as an adult she really cared. and I truly enjoyed her company. She was always so hard on herself which made me feel bad, although that is my personality too. It's always easier to give advice than to take your own though right...do as I say but not as I do. So often when I was leaving after the piano lessons Frank would give me a homemade bottle of blackberry liqueur to take home. I remember him telling me that he was experimenting with his recipe which I just found out came from his Sicilian Grandfather, Frank Marino. This recipe took years to perfect and during that time Frank gave it to friends and family for the holidays and they kept telling him he should sell it.

Frank's day job was patent work and in 2014 when the patent business died he found himself involuntarily retired. It seemed as good a time as any to see if he could actually sell his Blackberry Liqueur which he named Morécello. Frank found a local facility where he could produce the liqueur and over the next two years he applied for all of the Federal Licenses that he would need to produce and sell his liqueur. He called his business and building Black Cove Beverages. Within a year of starting production he was selling his liqueur in 3-4 states.

His blackberries come from Washington State and the climate and weather can affect Frank's ability to get the amounts that he needs for his production. The liquor business is tricky as well. In my past lives I was a wine and liquor rep and there are a lot of rules for distributors and small producers and they vary by state. For many reasons Frank cannot sell the Morécello in some states anymore. Ironically, he is busy with his patent business again, but he hopes to someday find someone with enough distributor experience who can bring the brand to another level and to more people again. For now it continues to sell well in NH. The next time you are at the liquor store pick up a bottle of Morécello! Be creative and come up with a fun new cocktail or use some of the cocktail recipes that I posted in my Seasonal Sippers but you can also just enjoy this perfected family recipe in its purest form as an after dinner drink or digestif! Salute!

Chocolate Covered Cherry

A client and friend gave me an amazing bottle of Cherry Vodka from Idaho that was made with Mount Rainer Cherries. Since my favorite candy is Dark Chocolate Covered Cherries and it is Valentine’s Day this week I decided to create this cocktail. You should be able to find another brand of cherry vodka in your local liquor store. I love the idea of using a homemade hot chocolate recipe for the creamy chocolate part of the cocktail. The best part about it is you can enjoy the hot chocolate and then refrigerate the leftovers to use in this cocktail. If you are dairy free you can make the hot chocolate with any kind of hair free milk. Or, you can just use chocolate syrup and milk and keep it simple. I’m not good at simple.

Ingredients:

2 oz cherry vodka

2 oz Dark Chocolate Liquor (Godiva is the best!)

2 oz cold hot chocolate or chocolate milk

Drop a cherry into the bottom for a sweet surprise at the end

Shake well over ice and strain into a martini glass. Don’t forget the cherry! And if you want to make a pretty presentation you can grate chocolate over the top of the glass.

Homemade Hot Chocolate

Epicurious Recipe from Kemp Minifie

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1 to 2 tablespoons sugar (depending on how sweet you like it)

Pinch of salt

1 cup milk or any combination of milk, half-and-half, or cream

¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

Whisk together the cocoa, sugar, salt, and about 2 tablespoons milk in a small saucepan over medium-low heat until cocoa and sugar are dissolved. Whisk in the rest of the milk and heat it over medium heat, whisking occasionally, until it is hot. Stir in the vanilla and serve. This recipe multiplies very easily but once you get up to a quart of milk (32 oz) you should use 1/4 tsp salt.

The London Violet

I was inspired to make this cocktail because I was finally able to buy some blood oranges at our local grocery store. Although there are many different blood orange liquors on the market I just don’t feel like they taste enough like the true citrus blood orange flavor that I needed for this drink. Since I paired this with our local blackberry liquor I needed the acid and distinct blood orange flavor from the fruit itself to balance and still highlight the blackberry. Sometimes I struggle to come up with a creative name and decided to use the deep purple color of the drink as my inspiration. Color charts call this purple English Violet. Since I used London Dry Gin in the recipe I swapped London for the English part of the name.

Ingredients:

2 oz Bombay Sapphire Gin

1 1/2 oz Morécello Blackberry Liquor

1 oz fresh squeezed blood orange juice

1/2 oz fresh lime juice

1/2 blood orange wheel for garnish

Add all of the ingredients to a shaker and shake well until cold. Strain into a rocks glass with a large cube or a martini glass and garnish with the blood orange wheel.