Pickle blood orange Americano cocktail

Pickle blood orange Americano cocktail is a pickle twist on the Americano highball cocktail. The pickle blood orange Americano swaps out the usual soda water for a fermented blood orange soda, flavoured with cinnamon, made with a ginger bug starter, paired with equal parts of Campari and Sweet Vermouth served over ice and garnished with fresh blood orange, for a flavourful low alcohol cocktail. The pickle blood orange Americano cocktail is a refreshing long highball drink that has a delicious and complex flavour from fermented blood oranges, ginger and cinnamon. This is my celebration of almost the last of the season’s blood oranges, from some of which I made this delicious homemade fermented soda.

What is an Americano cocktail? Ingredients
An Americano cocktail is a highball cocktail using equal parts of Campari and Sweet Vermouth, over ice, topped with soda water and garnished orange for a very refreshing and low alcohol cocktail. For the basic recipe for an Americano cocktail I have referred to Dale de Groff’s The Craft of the Cocktail (2002: 75) and the Cocktail Codex (Day, Fauchauld, Kaplan 2018: 209), both agree that the Americano calls for:

• Campari, and
• Sweet Vermouth – in equal parts
• Ice
• Soda water to top
• Garnish: flamed orange peel (De Groff 2002: 75), orange wheel (Day, Fauchauld, Kaplan: 209)

Origins of the Americano & related drinks: Milano-Torino, Mi-To, Negroni
Simon Difford (2019) in Americano and Punch in their article Milano-Torino recount that the Americano has origins in the Milano-Torino, or Mi-To cocktail, dating from the 1860’s in Milan Italy, where the name referred to the origins of Campari from Milano and Sweet Vermouth from di Torino. The Milano-Torino or Mi-To is a short drink over ice, garnished with an orange slice. Campari and Sweet Vermouth also feature in the related Negroni cocktail where gin is the third ingredient rather than soda water (Day, Fauchauld, Kaplan 2018: 209). Difford (2019) elaborates that the Milano-Torino lengthened with soda water as a highball became popular with American tourists during Prohibition and hence was named Americano.

How to make an Americano cocktail: Build in the glass & stir
Like other highball cocktails such as the Chilcano de Pisco, La Paloma and Gin Buck the Americano is simple and elegant to make by building in the glass with ice, topping with soda water, stirring gently, and garnishing with a flamed orange peel or orange wheel. In the Cocktail Codex Day, Fauchauld and Kaplan (2018: 209) describe how the aroma and flavour of the orange add an important and essential element to the experience of the Americano – a sweetness from the orange offers a wonderful counterpoint to the bitterness of the Campari and complex herbal Sweet Vermouth:

“…the orange garnish is important for this cocktail: it perfumes the nose, and its flavors slowly seep into the drink as it’s consumed.”

How is the pickle blood orange Americano cocktail different?
The pickle blood orange Americano cocktail is a seasonal celebration of blood oranges using a fermented soda made from blood oranges flavoured with ginger and cinnamon and low GI cane sugar paired with the bitter flavour of Campari and sweet complexity of Vermouth. The blood orange soda adds a layer of complex depth to this refreshing cocktail where the usual soda water has been swapped out.

Flavour pairing – Blood orange & bitterness – The importance of orange flavour and aroma for the Americano to act as a foil to the bitterness and complexity of the Campari and Sweet Vermouth have already been highlighted above – this fermented blood orange soda plays and elaborates on this orange theme with tart and sweet blood oranges, cinnamon and ginger that pairs wonderfully with both the Campari and the Sweet Vermouth.

Homemade fermented blood orange soda – Making your own fermented blood orange soda does take some time but is easy to do using a fermented from scratch ginger bug starter. I have in my post on Chilcano de Pisco provided a detailed recipe and tips for starting and maintaining a ginger bug starter. A ginger bug is fantastic for creating your own tea and fruit sodas and ginger beer. I have posted recipes for strawberry, hibiscus, ginger and grapefruit soda and ginger beer that make delicious refreshing drinks and cocktail mixers. The method used for making the blood orange soda is informed by Holly Davis’ (2017) amazing book Ferment. The flavour pairing of blood orange, ginger and cinnamon is my own contribution as is use of this fermented blood orange soda in an Americano cocktail.

Build in the glass, blood orange garnish – The pickle blood orange Americano highball cocktail is built in the glass over ice with the Campari and Sweet Vermouth added first and then topped with fermented blood orange soda and gently stirred. The pickle blood orange Americano cocktail is garnished with a half orange wheel slice in the glass and on top of the glass for added aroma and sweetness and a pop of orange and red colour.