Abigail Gullo, creative director of Bar Loa, envisioned Mona’s on the Bayou as an homage to a New Orleans creation, Lebanese iced tea. Invented by the owners of Mona’s restaurant, the tea is based on Jallab, a Lebanese drink of date molasses and rose water. They combined Jallab’s flavors with ubiquitous Southern iced tea. Abigail uses orange flower water instead of rose (both are traditional Lebanese flavors), while Pedro Ximinnez (PX) sherry evokes the earthiness of date molasses. The cocktail is perfect for batching. “The hardest part,” she noted, “is the tea.” Abigail’s iced tea game is aces, thanks to childhood visits to her grandmother. “One of my core memories is opening up the back fridge and seeing her giant heavy pot filled to the brim with tea bags and lemon halves.” Those lemon halves kept her tea both sweet and tart. “It was perfect. Iced tea never lasted long in grandma’s back fridge,” she said. We bet this cocktail won’t either.
Mona’s on the Bayou
1/2 ounce PX sherry
1 1/2 ounces cognac like Pierre Ferand
3 ounces of Mona’s Tea (see recipe)
Garnish: Pine nuts, lemon slices, mint
Add cognac, sherry and tea to a shaker with ice and briefly shake. Pour all ingredients, including ice, into a Collins glass. Sprinkle pine nuts on top. Add lemon slices and mint.
Mona’s Tea Recipe
Enough tea bags for one gallon of black tea. Luzianne’s Rose and Mint tea is an acceptable substitute.
1 cup sugar
2 ounces orange flower water
1 teaspoon citric acid
Prepare tea. Dissolve sugar while tea is still warm. When cool, add orange flower water and citric acid.
NOTES:
- Feel free to swap in rum for cognac or replace cognac and sherry with vodka, or leave out the booze and serve the tea as a non-alcoholic option.
- Citric acid, available online, is a handy pantry item for when you are out of lemons or limes and still want that tart, citrus flavor. A little goes a very long way. Tea made with citric acid keeps longer than tea made with lemons.
- PX sherry is delicious sipped on its own or used in place of sweet vermouth in cocktails like a Manhattan.
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