Moontails: Gemini New Moon Vertigo Cocktail

This light, refreshing, after-dinner drink may become your new summertime fave. Relatively low on the alcohol front and filled with bittersweet, botanical yumminess from the Amaro. The layered aspect and gradual blending of this cocktail lend themselves beautifully to the twin energy of Gemini.

Vertigo cocktail recipe featuring Amaro, ginger ale, and lemon juice.

Vertigo Cocktail

Ingredients

4 oz ginger ale

2 oz Amaro

1/2 oz lemon juice (~half a lemon)

Ice

Ritual

Fill a high ball glass (or, in my case, a mason jar) about 2/3 with ice.

Squeeze lemon juice into the glass. I have a nifty lemon squeezer that keeps the seeds out. Use a fine-mesh strainer if you’re hand squeezing. Pour the ginger ale in and give it a swirl.

The trick here is to float the Amaro on top of the ginger ale and lemonade.* Then, as you enjoy your refreshing cocktail, the Amaro begins to gradually fuse with the ginger ale giving you a slightly different experience with each sip.

*As you can see from my photo, I managed to somehow float the Amaro to the bottom of the drink despite my best efforts. It’ll be easy, they said. Simple bartender trick, they said. Lies. Honestly, not even sure how this is possible, and I feel like it might be an Erin Special™. But, here we are. If you miraculously end up in a similar position, go ahead and stir that cocktail up.

This blog post was the most detailed and helpful that I found on layering cocktails. I’ll continue to perfect this art and possibly update the photo down the road. A girl can only try so many times in one day.

Magical Properties

I loved this cocktail for the Gemini new moon because it plays with the two sides of the twin aspect while honoring the liminal space also inherent with Geminis as the cocktail transforms with each sip.

Amaro is a traditional, Italian after-dinner liqueur based on a recipe from the Benedictine Monks that was more along the lines of a bitters. Each Amaro has its own blend of herbals and botanicals, which can vary widely from brand to brand.

As you enjoy your cocktail, reflect on how you embody your different sides. We all have more than one side, and embracing all of our wonders is essential to discovering the full capacity of the magick within us. Much like Gemini, we’re composed of these seemingly disparate parts and all the spaces in between.