Bar Talk: Celebrating month, day for women

I had my first ever lychee martini this week.

In case you didn’t know, this month is Women’s History Month, and Wednesday was International Women’s Day. To celebrate both, I went out to dinner with a few female coworkers to Duemani.

For those of us who enjoyed an alcoholic libation, our boss started the meal off by ordering everyone her favorite drink: a lychee martini.

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A typical lychee martini is vodka, lychee juice or lychee liqueur, and vermouth, served in a chilled martini glass with a fresh lychee fruit skewered in it.

While I don’t know the actual ingredients included in the one served at Duemani, from the taste, I imagine it was close to if not spot on with the traditional recipe.

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After a heartfelt cheers, I took my first sip of this martini variation.

Immediately, it conjured up a taste memory, one that I still can’t pinpoint, but you can definitely get the lychee flavor. It was sweet but not cloying.

There is a very light liquor aftertaste, but it’s definitely not as spirit forward or strong tasting as other martinis.

I can see why my boss enjoys lychee martinis. They are cold and crisp, nice to sip, and a drink that I believe would pair well with most everything, especially the majority of what’s on the menu at Duemani.

Overall, I enjoyed my first experience with a lychee martini and I would absolutely order one again. But for my second cocktail of the evening, I wanted to try one of the costal Mediterranean restaurant’s specialty cocktails.

I’ve been on a tequila streak recently, so out of the six cocktails on the list, I chose the Wanderlust.

Made with Corazon Tequila, passion fruit, pineapple juice, Cointreau, togarashi salt, and fresh lime juice, the Wanderlust is a drink that literally made my mouth water.

It is served in a rocks glass rimmed with togarashi salt — an assortment of spicy, powdered Japanese dried chili peppers — over one big ice cube.

The cocktail has a nice, light layer of foam on top of the pineapple-yellow liquid and is a balanced mix of sour, sweet, tart, and tangy thanks mainly to the pineapple and passion fruit, but I’m sure also helped by the addition of Cointreau. It’s this flavor profile that left my mouth watering after the first sip, encouraging me to take another quick sip.

The fruits are the dominant flavors of the drink as it’s not necessarily spirit-forward but overall a very enjoyable and full-bodied cocktail.

While I was enjoying my two libations, there were some members of our girl gang who don’t imbibe, so bonus points to Duemani for crafting them some beautiful and flavorful mocktails, so they could join in the festive nature of the meal with something more than sparkling water.