Covers & Cocktails: Solar Eclipse

Aw, yeah! It’s cocktail time! It’s also warming up in New England, which means I’m hot all the time and alternating between chugging water and finding new, fruity beers to drink.

This month my drink is inspired by The Idea of You by Robinne Lee, an awesome piece of women’s fiction between a rock star and a gallery owner. Lee is an actress (she’s in the Fifty Shades sequels!) and this is her debut novel.

So let’s get into the good stuff: the description. The heroine, Solène Marchand, is a divorced art gallery owner. She takes her daughter to see one of her favorite bands, August Moon. What Solene doesn’t foresee is being attracted to Hayes Campbell, one of the group’s members and nearly twenty years her junior. What follows is a jet-setting, passionate affair full of sneaking around to evade nosey paparazzi.

Now, I’ve heard this is a standalone but…

I’m calling the drink Solar Eclipse. Given the band’s name of August Moon, I thought it was fitting since the romance between Hayes and Solène “eclipses” Solène life as she’s swept up in his rockstar lifestyle.

The drink is a mix of passionfruit juice and Prosecco. As I mentioned, their relationship is rather intense, hence the passionfruit. As for using Prosecco, I went with what I imagined would be served at a fancy art gallery show. I also rimmed my class with Pop Rocks! Hayes is a rockstar after all and it adds some fun excitement to the drink. Bonus points for how easy it was to put together.

Shopping list:
Passionfruit juice
Prosecco or some other sparkling wine
Pop Rocks

Directions:

1. Rim your glass with Pop Rocks!
2. Fill half with passion fruit.
3. Top off with Prosecco.

EEZY PEEZY!

Modifications and notes:

• I used jelly to get the Pop Rocks to stick to the rim. I figured it’d cause less poppage than using water or simple syrup.
• I was lucky enough to find a Welch’s passionfruit juice in the refrigerated juice section of my grocery store, but please don’t feel obligated to stick to this particular brand.
• Can I just say how much I love these individual bottles of Prosecco?
• The Pop Rocks aren’t a necessity. I went to three places to find them, so if locating them gives you trouble, the drink can go without it. I found mine at Michael’s of all places after striking out at two grocery stores and a CVS.

Cheers!