It’s Valentine’s Day, a day that’s all about pink and red hearts. I’m not so into those, but I can’t turn down an excuse for a pretty cocktail, and this Raspberry and Chocolate Valentine Cocktail looks gorgeous! My love for raspberries and chocolate is well-documented, and I can’t say no to combining them into a pretty pink cocktail with sprinkles. I’m imagining sweet, fruity, and creamy goodness in a martini glass. With sprinkles 💖 How good does that sound? I can’t wait to start on this one, so let’s get into it!
Raspberries are combined with chocolate liqueur, half and half, and vodka for a beautiful, romantic Valentine’s cocktail.
The Ingredients
This recipe doesn’t have many ingredients, but I only had a few. I had a bottle of Mozart white chocolate liqueur leftover from making a White Chocolate Gimlet recipe a while back. And sugar, of course, plus some white sprinkles from a Full Moon Martini for last Halloween. I even had red sugar sprinkles, but I can’t remember what from.
That left me to buy the vodka, half and half, and raspberries. The latter two were easily found at my regular grocery store. The vodka was just a matter of a quick trip to the liquor store.
The Process
This Raspberry and Chocolate Valentine Cocktail is made in 2 steps: raspberry syrup then the cocktail itself. Here’s how my time was spent:
- 10 minutes to prepare the raspberry syrup
- 5 minutes to chill the glasses
- 2 minutes to rim the glasses
- 3 minutes to make the cocktails
- 20 minutes total
My total time was 5 minutes longer than the total listed on the recipe. However, I used large 8.3-ounce martini glasses and had to make 1.5 times the recipe to fill both.
Making the Raspberry Syrup
First up is the raspberry syrup. I expected it to be similar to making simple syrup, but there was an important difference: no water.
That’s right, there is no water in the raspberry syrup. Instead, heating the raspberries caused them to break down and release their juice and dissolve the sugar. The result was a more concentrated raspberry flavor. And if that wasn’t enough, I added some raspberry liqueur after removing the raspberry mixture from the heat.
There were tons of seeds in the syrup, so the final step is straining it. I used my large mesh strainer and pressed the raspberries with the back of a wooden spoon. A few seeds escaped the strainer, so I did a second strain using a fine mesh strainer specifically designed for cocktails.
I refrigerated the syrup for a few days before I actually made the cocktail. It was pretty cool after being strained, but life happened, and I just couldn’t get to it right away.
Making the Raspberry and Chocolate Valentine Cocktail
I mixed the red and white sugar sprinkles while the glasses chilled. I simply poured a little white chocolate liqueur into a saucer and the sprinkles into another. Then I dipped the rim of each chilled glass into the liquid followed by the sprinkles. The results were perfect!
Lastly, I added all the drink ingredients to a cocktail shaker filled with ice, shook, and strained the pink mixture into the prepared glasses. I happened to find some heart-shaped marshmallows and used them as a garnish with long bamboo cocktail picks.
