Myth's Notes
This charming recipe came from a glass sold with a bottle of Strega liqueur. It is a wholly modern recipe. Interestingly, the recipe calls for red orange juice, which does not mean orange juice with red food coloring. Generally red orange juice comes from the blood orange. The blood orange is a variety of orange (citrus sinensis) with blood-colored orange fruit. The blood orange, with its sweet, deep red color, was most likely the result of a mutation that occured in 17th century Sicily. Blood oranges are juicy and sweet. They are slightly less acidic than a regular, sunshine-colored oranges. There are three types of blood oranges: the Spanish Sanguinello, the California Moro, and the Sicilian/Italian Tarocco.
The Tarocco is a medium sized fruit and is perhaps the sweetest and most flavorful of the three.
Blood oranges are supposedly great for juicing and can be used as regular orange juice. Many people say the dark red color of the juice makes it an excellent cocktail ingredient. In a pinch, you can substitute common oranges for any recipe that calls for blood oranges, but you will not get the rich, dark color.
It is possible to buy bottled red orange juice or blood orange juice. Organic Volcano Orange Juice brand comes from 100 percent organic Italian blood oranges, which are harvested on the slopes of Mount Etna Volcano in Sicily. Volcano Orange Juice is sold by My Brands, Inc. It is available at some health food stores and at www.Amazon.com.