I’ve found that in these last grinding weeks of papers and assignments, my alcohol consumption has increased dramatically. This isn’t really the most logical way to behave when one has more responsibilities than usual, but it definitely makes things a lot more fun.
So, school’s out… for my liver, at least.
I’ve wanted to make a fancy gin cocktail for a long time and it just so happened I had some lavender lying around from my garden last fall. And if you didn’t harvest lavender last year to make this syrup, you can find it in health food stores and herbal stores. You can also try using a different herb; I can see this cocktail working well with mint, rosemary, or any number of herbs.
Mix it up, enjoy, and stay classy, Camosun.
Honey-lavender raspberry gin cocktail
Note: For those who aren’t cocktail aficionados, muddling is glorified mashing. It involves pressing fruit or herbs with a “muddler” (kind of like a pestle), with the aim to release flavours rather than mash the fruit into a paste.
Also, I used a darker cane sugar for the syrup, giving it a richer taste and an amber colour. Feel free to use whatever kind of sugar you’d like, though.
Ingredients
Honey-Lavender Syrup
1 cup water
1 1⁄2 tbsp lavender flowers (fresh or dried)
1 cup honey
1⁄2 cup sugar
Cocktail
3 oz Bombay Gin
20 raspberries (fresh or thawed from frozen)
3 tbsp honey-lavender syrup
4–6 ice cubes
4 1⁄2 oz club soda
2 mint sprigs (optional)
Directions
To make the syrup, bring the water and lavender to boil in a saucepan. Add the sugar and honey, stirring constantly until the sugar is completely dissolved. Reduce the heat and simmer for five minutes.
Let the syrup cool, then strain out the lavender flowers using a fine mesh strainer or some cheesecloth. Refrigerate the syrup until needed; it will keep for a week or so.
For the cocktail, combine the gin and raspberries in a cocktail shaker or any large glass. Muddle the raspberries with a spoon in the bottom of the glass. Pour in the honey-lavender syrup and stir well.
Get out two small glasses and drop two or three ice cubes into each glass. Pour half of the raspberry, gin, and syrup mixture into each glass.
Top off each glass with an even amount of club soda, stirring to combine, and garnish with mint sprigs, if desired.