Hungarian Greengage Plum and Honey Collins with Fresh Lemon and Soda

Chill two tall collins glasses in the freezer for 10 minutes.

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 6 ripe greengage plums, pitted and quartered (or any ripe green-gold plum)
• 3 ounces vodka or unaged fruit spirit
• 1 1/2 ounces fresh lemon juice
• 1 ounce honey syrup (2 parts honey to 1 part warm water)
• 6 ounces chilled club soda
• 2 lemon wheels
• 2 thin plum slices, for garnish
• Ice cubes

Instructions

1. Chill two tall collins glasses in the freezer for 10 minutes.
2. Put 5 of the quartered plums in a shaker and muddle them firmly for about 20 seconds, until they break down into a rough pulp and release their juice. Greengages are soft when ripe and give up their perfume easily.
3. Add the vodka, lemon juice and honey syrup. Fill the shaker with ice and shake hard for 15 seconds.
4. Double-strain through a fine sieve into a bowl, pressing gently on the plum pulp to extract everything, then discard the solids. Straining twice is what keeps the drink clear rather than cloudy with skin.
5. Fill the chilled glasses with ice cubes and divide the strained mixture between them.
6. Top each with 3 ounces of club soda and stir once from the bottom with a bar spoon to combine without losing carbonation.
7. Garnish with a lemon wheel and a thin plum slice perched on the rim. Taste and add a small splash more honey syrup if your plums ran tart.
8. Serve immediately while the bubbles are lively and the drink is at its coldest.
9. Greengages — ringlo in Hungarian — ripen through late August and are the most fragrant plums grown in the Carpathian basin, sweeter and more honeyed than their dusky purple relatives. Hungary has a long tradition of fruit distilling, and palinka made from these plums is a national point of pride, though a clean neutral spirit lets the fresh fruit speak more clearly in a tall drink like this. A collins is simply a sour lengthened with soda water, which makes it the ideal frame for delicate stone fruit that a heavier cocktail would flatten. For a non-alcoholic version, skip the spirit, add an extra ounce of lemon and top with 4 ounces of soda.

Nutrition (estimated, per serving)

• Calories: 218 kcal
• Protein: 1g
• Fat: 0g
• Carbohydrates: 28g
• Fiber: 2g
• Sugar: 24g
• Sodium: 20mg