I dearly love pomegranate martinis in the summertime -- cool, refreshing, just sweet enough . . . yum. However, a few years ago, after an unfortunate encounter with a drink that was made with Everclear, I suddenly and alarmingly found myself unable to tolerate vodka. Even the slightest swallow of it would make the room spin and send me straight into the Room Of The Great Porcelain God for a few intense hours.
Okay, fine, I'm stubborn but not stupid, so I quit drinking vodka. For a while I was content with my Cruzan rum and juice, and gin martinis (dirty, please), but the idea that vodka had triumphed over my hitherto hard head just bugged me. I wanted to know WHY. And I wanted a pomegranate martini.
I did some research and found out that not all vodkas are created equal. Some are made with grains, some with corn, and some with potatoes. Perhaps, I thought, a change in ingredients would be the ticket. Most popular vodkas are grain-based, so I set out to find a potato vodka. Tito's, a VERY good Texas-made vodka, is potato-based, but since this was an experiment, I wanted to keep the cost down in case this didn't work.
One of the specialists at Total Wine helped me out, though not without a few furtive and puzzled looks. We read labels and finally landed on Luksusowa, which is potato-based and reasonably priced.
Tonight was the big night: I had a shot before dinner (after a glass of Running With Scissors cabernet sauvignon sipped slowly and appreciatively while watching the sunset), and waited to see what would happen. I made dinner. I ate dinner. [Cue Elton John's "I'm Still Standing."] YEAH! This may have worked. I felt a little tipsy, but not dizzy.
Bring on summer!
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