Blood Orange Sinister Chocolate Martini

long name for a truly delicious martini. If you love orange and you love chocolate - this martini mix will be well worth the effort.

Ingredients

• 5 ounces of Charbay Blood Orange vodka
• 1 ounce of chocolate syrup
• 2 blood orange twists (approximately 2 inches x 1 inch)
• 6 toasted almond slivers
• 1 ounce chilled, freshly squeezed blood orange juice

The mix

• Pour the Charbay Blood Orange vodka into a shaker 3/4 full of cracked ice and shake for a full minute - or longer, until freezing
• Carefully drizzle 1/2 ounce of chocolate syrup into the bottom of 2 freezing martini glasses
• Gently add a 1/2 ounce of the blood orange juice into each glass - so it is floating on the chocolate syrup
• Gently strain the freezing vodka into each glass
• Add 3 toasted almond slivers to each glass
• Flame 1 blood orange twist onto the surface of each cocktail*

*Flaming an orange twist is a skill developed with practice - and care! Flaming an orange twist caramelizes the oils that occur naturally on the skin of citrus fruits, and adds a nice flavor to a drink. Flaming a twist is also an impressive skill that is well worth the effort to perfect. Again - be very careful.

• Select a brightly skinned blood orange & place it on your cutting board.
• Slice a small, quarter-size piece of the orange rind, trying to get as little of the white pith as possible, and absolutely none of the orange itself - this rind is the "twist."
• Take the orange twist and with the skin side out, hold it over your martini glass.
• Light a match, or a lighter, and gently warm the outside (skin side) of the twist.
• Now your twist is warm, ripe and ready to be flamed. Gently squeeze the twist in the direction of the flame, and over the drink, so that the oils from the rind fall directly into the drink.
• Now rub the skin-side of the twist along the rim of your martini glass, and drop into the cocktail with the pith (inside) side down.