Cascade Golfer 19th Hole

Summer Sipping South of the Border Style

The Milagro Paloma – Serve with ‘love’ and you can’t go wrong

BY BART POTTER • CG STAFF WRITER

Milagro Silver Tequila with Pamplemousse Rosé is Delicious

The Milagro Paloma is a current turn on a classic, Wielkie says.

The Paloma, the original, has standing among knowledgeable drinkers for its mix of tequila, lime, agave syrup and grapefruit soda.

The Milagro Paloma nods to the classic, but it’s a different drink.

When people ask Wielkie what’s in her drinks, she always answers, “Love.”

No, no, they say, what’s really in it? And maybe they roll their eyes. She doesn’t care.

Her brand-new cocktail starts with Milagro Silver, the tequila with the distinctive blue bottle, distributed by William Grant and Sons. She likes Milagro for its light, easy-drinking smoothness.

She calls it “graceful.”

The second ingredient is Giffard Pamplemousse Rosé, a liqueur that lends a citrusy acidity that’s sightly sweeter than grapefruit. Wielkie tops it off with Q Sparkling Grapefruit.

“I put love in every drink I make,” she says.

Put it all in the same glass, and they blend with a “stunning togetherness,” she says. On the Echo Falls patio, in the sunshine …

“If I were sitting here after a round of golf, what would I want to drink?”

Her answer, this season, is the Milagro Paloma.

At Home Bar Mixology

The Milagro Paloma

By Chrystee Wielkie • Food & Beverage Manager • Echo Falls Golf Club • Snohomish, Wash.

INGREDIENTS

• Two parts Milagro Silver Tequila

• One-part Giffard Pamplemousse

• Top with Q Sparkling Grapefruit

• Pour over ice of your choosing

• Select appropriate glassware

INSTRUCTIONS

Consider mixology preparations for a single cocktail or batched in a larger vessel. Measure carefully and properly for mix and taste. Pour and mix ingredients — stir or shake with tools and vessels available. Enjoy over ice in glassware of your choosing.

Master Mixologist Chrystee Wielkie

Chrystee Wielkie doesn’t mind saying she loves the food and beverage industry. It’s why she’s stayed in it for more than 25 years.

This go-getter loves people, food and beverages and relishes going to work at Echo Falls Golf Club in Snohomish every day, where’s she’s the food and beverage manager.

She’s an East Coast girl and that’s where she learned the game. She worked in fine dining establishments and in taverns. She even took extra shifts tending bar for concerts, which helped the single mother that she was.

The place she worked the longest was the Seneca Allegany Resort and Casino, where she tended bar in the Chairman’s Lounge, a high-roller, high-volume environment.

Wielke experimented at the casino with creating new cocktails and got a good response from patrons.

The love got her through.

She goes so far as to say she’s inspired by Echo Falls, where the bar affords a sweeping view of the island green at 18. Wielkie has fun at work, and she had fun crafting this issue’s 19th Hole cocktail, the Milagro Paloma.

“I think it will be the fire cocktail for the season.”