We’re fans of creamy, sweet drinks when they’re well-balanced and make use of good ingredients. Sadly, dessert drinks that meet our increasingly-snobby standards are few and far between.
Enter Erick Castro of Polite Provisions, a fantastically inventive cocktail bar in sunny San Diego. This recipe, from the bar’s dessert menu, tempers the sweetness of vanilla syrup (check the ingredient page for a DIY recipe) with fresh strawberry and the bracing bite of cognac. For extra strawberry goodness, swap out the vanilla syrup for homemade strawberry syrup, or go half-and-half with both syrups.
Castro’s recipe calls for the drink to be garnished with a Nilla Wafer, an American vanilla cookie (or biscuit). You can use your own local vanilla wafer brand, or just garnish with a fresh strawberry.