"Menoume Spiti" means "We Stay Home" in Greek, as you may know. It's also the campaign the Greek Ministry of Health has been using to get people to stay home during the coronavirus outbreak. 

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And if staying indoors for potentially weeks on end with the restaurants and bars closed for the foreseeable future doesn't make you want to drink, I don't know what will. So to commemorate all this and have a way to help you cope with being cooped up, I created this and named it the "Menoume Spiti". A little tart, a little sweet, a little bubbly. Hope you like it!

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Due to the restrictions on going out, I've been limiting my shopping, so I had to make this with what I had on hand. I'd have liked to have tried this with a squeeze of lime juice and lime for garnish, as lime and cherry are a nice cocktail combo, but all I had were lemons. I did NOT like the version I made with a bit of lemon juice, but garnished it with a lemon slice anyway because it looked nicer. A Luxardo cherry on a slice of lime would have been perfect, but ya use what ya got when you need to stay home.

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The cocktail is made with Haraki Honey and a delicious Greek sour cherry juice called visino. I toyed with naming this drink the Visi-No Touching Your Face or the Visi-No Large Groups, but quickly came to my senses. 

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Haraki Honey is made from a clear spirit known as tsikoudia from the island of Crete, and this version has honey in it, which gives it it's lovely golden color. 

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Visino many of you may know from the spoon sweet of the same name, which is also made with sour cherries. 

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If you can't find Haraki Honey, you can make it less Greek but even more delicious by using vanilla bourbon. 

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Menoume Spiti recipe

serves 1

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2 oz Haraki Honey

4 oz Visino Greek sour cherry juice

tonic water 

ice cubes for shaking and for the glass

 

Put three ice cubes, Haraki Honey and visino juice into a cocktail shaker and shake vigorously.

 

Pour into an old-fashioned glass with some ice. Fill with tonic water and enjoy. 

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