Liquid Assets

The Drink: Midnight Karma

The Location: Zengo, 781 7th St. NW, (202) 393-2929

The Price: $10

The Skinny: I’ve always wanted to go to the opera, but the price tag has kept me away. So when a friend tipped me off to a way to win free tickets, I was excited. When I found out it involved cocktails, I was out the door. The Washington National Opera is holding a Macbeth Cocktail Contest—three area restaurants are inventing cocktails inspired by William Shakespeare’s play. By voting for the best one, you’re entered in a drawing to win a pair of tickets. I headed to Zengo—the Chinatown-based, Latin-Asian fusion eatery co-owned by Plácido Domingo—for “The Bloody Dagger,” a red wine, sake, brandy, Asian pear, and Fuji apple concoction. But when I asked the bartender about it, he seemed baffled. And a little frightened, I think. (Calls to Zengo seeking clarification have not been returned.) After inspecting the mint-heavy cocktail list for a second choice, I settled on the Midnight Karma, a beautifully balanced mix of Tanqueray Rangpur gin, blueberries, and lime. The gin is distilled with rangpurs (a fruit that looks kinda like a mandarin orange but tastes more like a lime) and makes the drink. Unlike all those fruit-infused liquors out there, which usually taste artificial, this Tanqueray still tastes like gin—crisp and junipery. Plus, it’s strong enough to cut through the blueberries. The texture of the mashed blueberries is the drink’s only downer; they’re chunky enough that you have to chew-drink each sip. But at $10, maybe it helps justify drinking your dinner.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 27th, 2007 at 4:25 pm and is filed under Food & Drink, Liquid Assets, Opera. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.