Lavender Honeybee

I don't really have any entertaining stories behind this cocktail--just the thought that I wanted to do a lavender and honey cocktail, and I thought rosemary would be a nice accent to the mix.  This is honestly probably in my top five favorite recipes of my own...the balance of flavors is really beautiful.

Also, while I have your attention:  I know some of you follow my personal Facebook, but I've started a page to move much of my bar rambling away from that.  If you're interested in keeping up with my blog updates, contests and events I'm involved with (or you might like to be involved with), and just interesting news in the bar world in general, you should head over and "Like" the Alcohol Alchemy Facebook page.

Lavender Honeybee

Glassware:  Large cocktail glass

Garnish:  Burned rosemary sprig

Method:  Shake and Strain

Ingredients:

2 oz Plymouth gin

.25 oz Simple syrup

.5 oz Lavender syrup

2 oz Fresh lemon juice

2 sprigs Fresh rosemary

.5 oz Smoked honey */**

Add ingredients in a mixing glass with ice.  Shake well and strain into glass.  Garnish with a burned rosemary sprig.

* I smoked the honey for around an hour using hickory wood.  If you're using a smoking gun you'll probably want to have the honey spread out as thinly as possible on a baking sheet or something to make sure all the honey gets the chance to catch the smoke since it's so viscous.

** I generally add the honey as the final ingredient, and give it a little stir before I add the ice so that it doesn't end up A) stuck to the bottom of the glass or B) as a cold clump attached to the ice in the tin after shaking.

Herbal Summer Lemonade

This lemonade recipe is actually not one of my own.  Someone I know tried it last spring at a food show up in Cleveland, and I had a lot of fun adding an alcoholic twist to it.  I haven't attempted to figure out the ratios of liquor to make a large batch, but it's delicious with or without, and leaving it non-alcoholic makes it appropriate for gatherings with kids, too.

To make the lemonade

Yield:  About 2.5 gallons

Build:

24 oz Fresh squeezed lemon juice

24 oz POM Wonderful pomegranate juice

4 cups sugar*

144 oz Cold water

Add:

4 oz Fresh Dill

4 oz Fresh Mint

4 oz Fresh Basil

2 oz Fresh Rosemary 

Let steep to desired strength**.

* I've discovered that dissolving the sugar in the lemon and pomegranate juices before adding the water seems to work best to dissolve it as entirely as possible.  After that, I add the water, stir to blend, and add the herbs.

** Personally, I think about 24 hours is perfect, though you can generally start serving it after just a few hours of steeping, and you're not going to want the herbs in there much past a day and a half or so.

Alcoholic Version:

Method: Build

Glassware: 10oz Collins

Garnish: Edible orchid bloom

Ingredients:

1 oz Hendricks gin

.5 oz St-Germain elderflower liqueur

Add ice, fill with steeped herbal lemonade, and garnish.   

Death's Lady

First and foremost:  Sorry I've been so lax on posting this month!  I swear I have about five recipes I've been meaning to post.

This past weekend, the husband and I tripped up to Kalamazoo, Michigan for his sister's wedding.  We had a fantastic time with all of the families (I love my in-laws!  And even my in-laws' in-laws!), and I loved being back home and visiting my friends, and I got to pick up some gins to play with that I haven't been able to find in Ohio but have been dying to work with.  The two I snagged were Death's Door from Washington Island in Wisconsin (hey...I just realized how apropos that is.  His sister and her new husband recently moved to Wisconsin), and Knickerbocker from the distilling division of New Holland (yes, the brewing company).  I haven't quite decided what I want to do with the Knickerbocker, but I definitely had ideas of blueberry with both of them.  I picked up some blueberry preserves for the Death's Door, and in working on the build I basically ended up with a twist on the White Lady.   Between the gin used, and the drink invoked, it pretty much named itself.

P.S. to the state of Michigan:  Your liquor prices have become insane. $42 for a fifth of Cointreau?  SERIOUSLY?!?  Insane.  Retail around here is in the low $30s.

I have this pictured in a small cocktail glass, even though it's mixed for a large cocktail glass.  I forgot to photograph it before I sampled it out, so some of it was already sampled...ha...oops.

Death's Lady
Method: Shake and Strain
Glassware: Large Cocktail
Garnish: Sugared rim, and fresh blueberries

Ingredients:
1.5 oz Death's Door gin
.75 oz Cointreau
.75 oz Simple syrup
1 oz Fresh lemon juice
1 barspoon blueberry preserves

Build ingredients in a mixing glass and shake well with ice.  Strain into a large cocktail glass rimmed with sugar, garnish, and enjoy!

Note:  Since I don't have Death's Door at work, I thought I would also try this out with Plymouth gin.  It was a little bit sweeter, but worked very well anyway, and is a much more widely available gin.  You could probably bring the simple syrup down a bit to cut that sweetness and bring out the botanicals in the Plymouth a bit more.  Since sweeter tends to sell a bit better at the restaurant anyway, I didn't bother experimenting much further.

Spellbound

I thought to myself, why not start this blog with what I consider my signature cocktail?  To start, I must warn you that I'm one of those people you can't tell "not" to do something...because I'll probably go right ahead and try to make it work.  This recipe is a perfect example of that.  How, you might ask?  I shake a carbonated soda in with the other ingredients.  shhhh! *grins*  While this is not exactly a widely-encouraged practice, sometimes compromising the integrity of the bubbles/carbonation is EXACTLY what you want to do with a mixer (beer cocktails tend to be another example of where this is a reasonably acceptable practice).  I consider this my signature because every single element of the drink screams "That's so Lindsay!"--just ask my husband.  This one is a little summery, but still has enough substance to make it drinkable any time of the year, and it uses an ingredient you don't really find behind the bar--which I always love the idea of.

The inspiration for this cocktail was actually a creation at one of our favorite dinner places last summer: Sung Korean Bistro on 7th and Elm.  They tend to have some lovely and imaginative bar selections (and a fantastic Pimm's Cup in the summer!  Right now you need to go in and try their Hibiscus Garden cocktail...trust me).  Their version used muddled strawberry, balsamic syrup, and some type of vodka.  I loved the base idea (who doesn't love strawberries marinated in balsamic vinegar?), but I am not a vodka fan (to put it mildly), so I was inspired to come up with a different take on the same theme.

First...I'm a gin girl at heart.  I've particularly loved and promoted Hendricks passionately since I was introduced by a former manager of mine about six years ago (Thank you, Josh, if you ever read this!)--and I've even converted non-gin drinkers to loving it.  Sadly, I didn't think Hendricks would be the proper gin for this job.  I needed something with a little more oomph to hold its own against the balsamic syrup, but nothing with too much juniper.  This thought led me to Tanqueray No. 10 (not my favorite, but just what was needed for this!).  From there...well...here's the final recipe:

Spellbound
Glass:  Large cocktail (in the 9-10oz range)
Method: Shake and double strain
Garnish: Unnecessary, but a thin slice of strawberry or a leaf of basil floating are quite lovely

Muddle in mixing glass:
1 strawberry, cored and quartered
3 average-sized basil leaves
1 tsp balsamic syrup
.33 oz simple syrup (I use a 2:1 sugar:water ratio in mine, you may need to finagle if yours is different)

Add:
2 oz Tanqueray No. 10 gin
2 lime wedges (squeeze and discard)
2 oz ginger ale (I prefer using Canada Dry, nice and not overwhelming)

Shake (yes, even the ginger ale...flattening it a bit through shaking gives a more balanced and even flavor to the cocktail) with ice and double-strain into a large cocktail glass.  Garnish, if desired.