Our monthly Covers & Cocktails post is here, which means it’s time to rage! Or, you know, make a cocktail on a Thursday afternoon and promptly nap with your cat until dinnertime. Everyone rages differently.
This month’s drink is so yummy! Seriously, it’s like candy. I’m calling it a Nothing Serious and it’s essentially a chocolate raspberry martini. It tastes like a chocolate raspberry truffle in liquid form. The book inspiration for this particular cocktail is Disorderly Conduct by Tessa Bailey. I’m a huge fan of Bailey’s romances. They’re modern, fun, and sexy.
So let’s get into my warped sense of explanation on why I didn’t choose to just crack open a cold one and take a picture of it with the book, given that the hero is training to be a cop and not exactly a consumer of fancy drinks.
The hero, Charlie, and heroine, Ever, meet at a bar. They have an intense sexual attraction and Ever makes it clear she wants nothing serious. She just wants to have some fun and fun they have. There’s hot sex in hallway and cop role-plays. I really loved seeing a couple have such an exciting sexual relationship that isn’t being overwhelming by burgeoning feels. And to me, fun cocktails are the ones that seem like they should be a dessert.
Ever is also trying to get her catering business off the ground and I love characters who having something to do with the food industry. The first time there’s a mention of Ever cooking or making something, the scents of chocolate and raspberry emanating from her apartment. What a coincidence because my absolute favorite dessert flavor combo is chocolate and raspberry. A close second is anything with coffee.
This isn’t a drink for sipping while seated in a buttery, leather chair in some dim, smoky study. No, a Nothing Serious is meant for when you want to eat dessert for dinner and engage in some drunken online shopping.
Shopping list:
Vanilla vodka
Raspberry liqueur
Chocolate Milk
Raspberries (optional for garnish)
Raspberry syrup (optional)
Proportions:
2 oz chocolate milk
1.5 oz vanilla vodka
1.5 oz raspberry liqueur
Directions:
- Chill your glass! Definitely pop it into the freezer before you make a liquor store run.
- Put all ingredients in a shaker full of ice. SHAKE IT!
- In the chilled glass and if you want to use the optional raspberry syrup (I only used it because I found it in my fridge), put a little in the bottom or draw some designs on the inside.
- Strain ingredients into glass.
- Garnish with some sugar-dusted raspberries.
Modifications and notes:
- Both the raspberries and syrup are totally for fun. They have zero bearing on the taste of the drink.
- Now, as you’ll notice, I have two nips of vanilla vodka. Not to disparage my local liquor store because they’re always helpful and have a kickass craft beer section, but they had no vanilla vodka in a regular size. They had cucumber vodka, whoopee pie vodka, chili lime vodka…but no vanilla, save for in the teeny travel sizes. So, if you’d rather buy a nip of vodka or that’s all your store has, one tiny bottle holds 1.5 ounces, which is the right amount you need for this drink.
- If you want more booze, you could use half & half + chocolate liqueur instead, but I love chocolate milk and it’s delicious thickness.
- My roommate is allergic to raspberries, so if there are any in the Bitchery with a similar allergy, try another berry. Strawberry or blackberry, perhaps?
Happy drinking!
These days, we all need a cocktail at 4am… Thanks. Looking forward to some drunken online shopping.
This looks awesome! And I have about 5 inches of stoli vanilla cluttering up the freezer for ten years, just moving shelf to shelf, because I never think to use it (I’m a gin or rye person). Will do tonight!
Also, thank you for just saying “raspberry liqueur” and not specifying a specific named ingredient. I’ve been making drinks from the “Death & Co” cocktail encyclical of doom because the spouse bought it for me, and it’s all specific brands. They never say what the generic is like “coffee” or “chocolate” so I’m constantly searching on line to figure out what to use in place of a brand I do not own. Thank you for being general! I actually have “raspberry liqueur.” YAY!
(And do NOT get me started on the abysmally inadequate indexing of Death & Co book or the horrible table of contents with sub-tables of contents INSIDE the middle of the book rather than all in the front. – Have you used it? I’m always ‘one last drink, that’s all I’m making from this useless book’ but the paper feels really nice in my hands so I always try again.)
Ahh, the scourge of inadequate indexing! What is the point of an index if it does not function properly? Grumble. Maybe I need a cocktail, now…
Thank you for this! I love chocolate and raspberry together, but I’m also a fan of chocolate and orange. That’s another flavor option for those who can’t or would rather not do raspberry.
Great post!
I’ll be honest, I came here to say one thing: just saw the headlines about nick and Vanessa breaking up and I blame Elyse that I care at all without her, I would’ve had no idea who they were but now I feel kind of sad and then wondered how Raven felt. This is what drives me to drink
So I made this last night and it was delicious! Thanks so much for the recipe.
I went a shade light on the vanilla stoli – more like a generous 1 oz than 1.5 b/c I knew my sweetie isn’t a sweet-drink guy (he likes a Manhattan) and I’m not a huge vanilla-flavor fan. It was yummy – but I think next time I will make it when I invite a friend over, rather than the spouse. I also used Chateau Monet Liqueur Framboise, again a kind of scant 1.5 oz pour because of worries about being overly sweet (I made a cherry thing a while ago that was way too cloying, so I’m super-careful now).
Crowd-sourcing question: I’m running low on my Chateau Monet raspberry. Anyone have a suggestion for a different raspberry liqueur that they like and I should try?
I endorse storing vodka in the freezer, by the way, if you have the space.A
@Nancy C: I love those break apart chocolate oranges! They used to be popular around Christmastime in the States, but it’s been years since I’ve been able to find one.
@Anna Richland: Have you had Chambord? It’s a pretty great go-to raspberry liqueur and the bottle is really pretty, haha.