Peppermint Lemon Stick Cocktail

Author Notes

Baltimore is a city of tradition, and one of the great Baltimore springtime traditions (besides the Preakness!) is Flower Mart. Since 1901, precisely 110 years ago this year, on the first weekend in May, the Women's Civic League has sponsored a Flower Mart in the wonderful old cobblestone square of historic Mt. Vernon, near my house in the heart of Baltimore. The traditions of Flower Mart are many: ginormous, over the top, flowery spring hats (Princess Beatrice, eat your heart out!), great food, good music, and plenty of spring flowers to buy for your garden. But aside from these mainstays, perhaps the most loved, and most looked forward to tradition at Flower Mart is something called a Lemon Stick. Simply jam a hollow peppermint candy stick into a well scrubbed lemon as a straw, and you have an instant treat. It's sweet, juicy, sour and minty, and it simply wouldn't be Flower Mart, springtime, or Baltimore, without one. Inspired by its happy simplicity, here is my adult version of the Lemon Stick Cocktail. Like the Lemon Stick that inspired it, it's fast, fun, and simple. Equally good on a summer afternoon or evening, it doesn't require simple syrup, marinating vodka for a month, or hard to find or out of the ordinary ingredients. It's cool, light, sweet, tart, and very refreshing - but be careful - it can sneak up on you! For more photos of this year's 110th Annual Baltimore Flower Mart and the infamous Lemon Sticks, you can go here:

http://www.flowermart.org/may_pix.html —Burnt Offerings