The Sonoran Sunset is a specialty cocktail at the Loews Ventana Canyon Resort in Tucson, Arizona – a town well-known for its love of all things prickly-pear-flavored, as well as its spectacular desert sunsets.
Loews’ recipe calls for Aperol, the sweetest and most approachable of the Italian citrus apéritif family. If you like a bit more bitterness, feel free to use Campari or another brand instead; it does help to cut the overall sweetness of the drink, which may be preferable for some.
When we serve this drink, we intentionally leave the top layers unstirred, so as to preserve the beautiful sunset effect. You can give your drinkers a straw or stir-stick – but it’s actually quite nice to drink it as-is, offering a flavor that grows more concentrated and potent the further down you go.
