Dark Kiss

 The dark kiss cocktail is inspired by this Bath and Body Works fragrance:

About the fragrance

I first purchased this fragrance as a shower gel in 2020. I ordered it online based on a review that said it was similar to Pink Chiffon, which I liked. It is currently available online as a body lotion, body cream, and fragrance mist.

The scent notes listed for this fragrance are:

Black raspberry

Burgundy rose

Bergamot incense

Dark vanilla bean

Plum musk

Designing the cocktail

I used black raspberry flavored Sparkling Ice sparkling water as the mixer. Any raspberry flavored soda or sparkling water would work. I used the same rose petals I used for my Winter Candy Apple cocktail. The bergamot note was trickier to capture at first. Since bergamot is largely associated with Earl Grey tea, I decided to make a small recipe of Earl Grey iced tea concentrate by boiling 1/2 cup water, steeping one Earl Grey tea bag for 10 minutes, adding 1/4 cup sugar, and boiling again until the sugar dissolved. (Note: the author of the blog from which I got the recipe is my mom.) If you are able to locate bergamot simple syrup, it would work in this recipe as well. I used vanilla vodka for the vanilla bean note. I had hoped to use plum rum for the plum musk note, but as plum rum is difficult to find I used white rum and made a plum simple syrup by boiling 1 cup water, 1 cup sugar, and 4 plums, then allowing it to stand for 20 minutes before straining to remove the plums, following this recipe from Martha Stewart. I had to use canned plums because fresh plums are not currently in season, but fresh plums would be preferable.

Recipe

1 oz vanilla vodka

1 oz plum rum

1 oz bergamot simple syrup or Earl Grey concentrate

6 oz raspberry sparkling water or soda

Rose petals

Place two ice cubes in a glass. Add vanilla vodka, plum rum, and bergamot simple syrup. Pour in raspberry sparkling soda. Sprinkle rose petals on top. For a non-alcoholic version, omit the vanilla vodka and plum rum and add 1 oz vanilla simple syrup and 1 oz plum simple syrup.

Note: if plum rum is unavailable, substitute white rum and add 1 oz plum simple syrup.

The finished cocktail

I enjoyed this cocktail. The rum and the fizziness of the raspberry sparkling water caused it to seem like a fruitier version of a rum and coke. The fruit flavors and vanilla all blended nicely, and the rose petals introduced a delicate floral contrast without overpowering the raspberry flavor. I would recommend this cocktail to anyone who likes rum cocktails and fruit flavors.