This is a festive drink which works wonderfully as an aperitif before a lavish dinner. I created it for our last Christmas dinner. I had made a large portion of the lychee sorbet only a week before as intermediary course for a dinner with friends and started experimenting with other uses. Through trial and error, I gradually arrived at this recipe.

Sanni

Ingredients:

• 1.5 shots (30 ml) of spiced nashi or pear sirup
• 1 scoop of lychee sorbet
• juice of 1/2 lemon (1 shot of 20 ml)
• 1 shot (20 ml) of gin
• 1 to 2 drops Angostura
• 1/2 scoop of crushed ice
• champagne
• For decoration: slice of nashi or pear

Preparation:

1. Prepare your own sirup or use pre-made sirup in which case you should watch out your drink does not get too sweet (dilute the sirup with juice). Infuse with spices such as anise seed, vanilla and cinnamon. Here is a recipe for preparing your own sirup: Bourdaloue Tart with Frangipane (Tarte Bourdaloue à la Frangipane). I kept the sirup from the poached pears (alternatively nashi) and it kept me going for a while.
2. For the lychee sorbet, check the following recipe: Lychee Sorbet.
3. At least 1/2 hour before preparing the cocktail, put the silver cups into the freezer.
4. Put all of the cocktail ingredients – except for the champagne – into a shaker and shake very well. The sorbet should dissolve completely.
5. Strain into the ice-cold silver cups decorated with a slice of nashi or pear.
6. Fill up with just enough champagne to create a nice froth on the top of the drink. (This is not meant to be a champagne cocktail, so the champagne should not dominate the taste and/or consistency of the cocktail.)

Enjoy!