Drink 173: Frah-gee-lay?

The other day we received a Facebook “like” from Fragoli Liqueur. This was exciting for a number of reasons.  First, we always are happy to get a “like” since it boosts our self-esteem and helps us gain on Lady Gaga.  Secondly, Fragoli is the first company to publicly proclaim their fondness for TBIAW.  It is one thing to have your friend do it, but a company is another level.  I wonder if the Fragoli board of directors unanimously approved the "like" or if there was some dissent? Did they battle it out like in Twelve Angry Men?



Perfection, thy
name is Fragoli



Hmm, I guess there were only two reasons it was exciting, but two is a number, too.  One thing I’m sure of is that we received their coveted “like” because of the blog’s outstanding content. There was no way it was simply because they have some automated bot that spotted the word “Fragoli” in our Economic Stimulus sidebar and just gave us the “like” in the hopes that we would like them back and possibly link to them in our blog.  We frown on that kind of self-promotion. We would never expect them to link back to a post of ours just because it mentioned their product repeatedly and glowingly.

 I also hope that Fragoli doesn’t think that we will compromise our editorial integrity when reviewing their product just because they “like”d us.  We cannot be bought that easily.  Please note that we can be bought.  Just not that easily.  I implore you to keep that in mind as we talk for a moment about Fragoli, an Italian strawberry liqueur. It is a must to discuss since it is an ingredient in our latest drink the Strawberry Sunrise. 

Since we have never had Fragoli before, we tried some straight before putting it in the drink.  I can say without bias that Fragoli is the best tasting thing I have ever tried.  It was the perfect combination of sweetness, strawberry flavor, and alcohol bite.  It was like a strawberry patch exploded into my mouth and I used alcohol nectar to extinguish the flames. Fragoli even has these cute whole wild strawberries in the bottle.  Can you imagine anything more perfect?  I surely can’t. 

We combined the Fragoli with grenadine and orange juice in our Strawberry Sunrise even though we aren’t quite sure Fragoli was the proper ingredient.  You see, the recipe called for strawberry schnapps, not fine delicious Italian strawberry liqueur. Since schnapps is just sweetened flavored liqueur, we decided to use Fragoli since it meets the criteria. Really, you’d have to be crazy to use plain old schnapps when Fragoli is available. We are a lot of things but we are not crazy.

It is sad that you can
barely make out the
Fragoli in this picture

Unlike the L.A Sunrise, the Strawberry Sunrise actually looked like a sunrise with a nice separation of the orange juice from the red ingredients.  Separate, though not equal.  As far as flavor, the drink was quite good.  It was almost like a cocktail version of a strawberry and orange Julius. If there were any complaints, it was a little too sweet.  This was undoubtedly due to the ½ ounce of grenadine and not the Fragoli.  The Fragoli’s sweetness was perfect and it remains blameless in any of the drink’s shortcomings.  The Strawberry Sunrise  also was a bit weak, coming in at just over 7% alcohol.  In this case the recipe takes the blame, since it called for a lot of OJ and not enough Fragoli. 

To conclude, Fragoli.

Overall Rating for the Strawberry Sunrise

Taste: 4

Presentation: 5

Ease of Preparation: 5

Drinks Until Blackouts: 12 – 7% Alcohol

Ingredients

2 oz Strawberry Schnapps – We highly recommend Fragoli

0.5 oz Grenadine

Orange Juice