A Hora Incomparável

How to make:

Place a large chunk of ice in the glass. Add soda, Campari and the peanut-infused vermouth. STIR briefly.

History:

Created by Fabio La Pietra, Brasil for Campari.

One of my first memories of my childhood is of me sitting on the kitchen table while my grandmother cooked.

There was a whole ritual to it: my grandmother put on an old record, donned her coarse white apron and finally, the show could begin.

I don't know if you've ever seen an Italian grandmother cooking for all the family: it's like watching God on the third day of the Creation, bustling around at the centre of a whole universe that is starting to take shape.

I remember the fragrant fumes coming out of the pans, the aroma of frying vegetables, tomatoes bubbling like primordial magma. To quote my grandmother's favourite song, one of the songs that we listened to most at that time, that was the 'Ora Senza Pari', the 'Unmatched Hour'.

I heard that song again many years later while I was on holiday in Italy. It was sunset and I was sitting on a terrace overlooking the sea, next to a woman who I was beginning to consider really special. We were drinking an Americano and sharing a bowl of peanuts, passing the time before going to a dinner to which we had been invited.

The sky before us was turning every possible shade of red and when a cool breeze picked up, the moment reached perfection. It was right then that I heard those words again, the 'Ora Senza Pari': someone was playing that song in the square just below our terrace.

We leant over to watch and we saw that the town festival had just begun. A small orchestra was playing and some couples had already begun to dance: there were people of all ages, elderly ladies in their finest clothes, their husbands sitting around, people laughing and joking everywhere...

At that moment, I understood the meaning of the 'Ora Senza Pari', and I reflected that everyone should experience a feeling like that at least once in their life. After the trip ended, I tried to communicate the scents and flavours of that experience in a cocktail. When I realised that I had succeeded, there was only one name that I could give it.

Fabio La Pietra, 2017

Nutrition:

One serving of A Hora Incomparável contains 180 calories