Jitterbug Juice

My love affair with the Sidecar began as a pesky case of insomnia. This unorthodox way to find the drink of your life came through a sleep doctor’s sleuthing about for reasons why I could only sleep for three hours each night. He discovered the usual sleep apnea and too-late-in-the-afternoon caffeine during a stint at the sleep clinic. But, there was also the revelation of ‘jitterbugness,’ or Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS), those achy legs that have to stay in motion to keep the pain at bay. Upon keeping a journal about the times when the restless legs were the most troublesome, I discovered that certain types of alcohol, particularly tequila, played a role in amplifying the RLS symptoms.

Date Nights with my husband took on the dismal feeling of a member of the den watching the alpha dog eat first from the food bowl. There I sat with my water, wine, or secondarily acceptable beverage while Steve drank Javier’s Top Shelf, the best margarita in the city of Dallas. Chips and salsa just weren’t the same without an icy cold ‘straight up’ margarita, light on the salt. During a Mexican dinner with clients one evening, I remarked over the equivalent of my having drawn a genetic short straw. One of our dinner companions didn’t miss a beat, “you need a Sidecar,” Tom bellowed and told the waiter to bring one over. It turns out that this old Parisian (or London, still a subject of debate) drink was invented during WWI by a good captain who was driven to and from his favorite bar in the sidecar of a motorcycle. The daquiri and margarita are both derivatives of this lovely cocktail. It is my good fortune that neither cognac nor brandy intensify the jitterbug in me. So I give you my version of The Sidecar:

JITTERBUG JUICE (A BLOOD ORANGE SIDECAR)
* One part brandy or Cognac
* One part triple-orange liqueur (Cointreau or GranGala)
* One part citrus juice (2/3 lemon juice; 1/3 blood orange juice)

Served shaken in Martini glass rimmed with sugar, garnish with slice of blood orange and sprig of fresh mint.

Preparation: Mix the ingredients in a shaker half full of ice. Strain and serve in a sugar-rimmed glass. Garnish with a slice of the blood orange and float mint in glass.