After one you’re feeling pretty fly. Two and you’re irresistible. After three? Well lets just say you’re too sexy to handle (and you’re probably on the floor). The Big Sexy Martini at The Stage Resturant is required drinking anytime I set foot in my hometown of Keene, NH and is post possibly one of my favorite drinks on the planet.

The recipe for this concoction has long been a closely guarded secret, and for years I tried to recreate it on my own and always failed miserably. Somehow a few months ago my mom managed to wrangle the recipe and technique from the bartender Sue, then pass it on to me– what unscrupulous tactics she used to accomplish this I don’t even want to know. The one thing about The Big Sexy Martini is that is that if its not made by Sue, then it just not sexy enough. When I attempted to recreate the cocktail on my own, I found this still to be true. Silly me for even attempting! Rather than serve a sad, shadow version of Sue’s masterpiece, I opted to take all the flavors I love about the cocktail – the fruity sweetness of the raspberry and blueberry, the tartness of the pomegranate, and the decadence of the bubbly – and reinvent it into something all my own … the SUPER SEXY MARTINI!

Ingredients:
• 3 oz Citrus Vodka
• 1 oz Blueberry syrup (recipe here)
• ½ oz triple sec or Cointreau
• 6 raspberries, muddled
• Splash pomegranate juice
• Juice from a quarter of a lemon
• Top with sparkling wine & garnish with lemon twist and crushed raspberries

Directions:

Place 6 raspberries in the bottom of a cocktail shaker with the lemon juice and blueberry syrup and muddle the raspberries to a pulp. Fill the shaker about halfway with ice and add the vodka, Cointreau and splash of pomegranate juice. Shake, shake, shake it like you want it and pour into the largest martini glass you have. Top with champagne and garnish with the lemon twist.

Bottoms up!