Drinking Trees
A while back, Alex made a rosemary panna cotta with salted caramel. My brother, as I mentioned in a previous post, is not as much of a fan of said herb. He likens it to eating trees. Now, me, I like that idea – trees taste yummy. Think gin!
Which brings us to today’s first rosemary cocktail*. I spied this Rosemary Gin Fizz a few months back, but it got shuffled lower in my to-do list due to the accompanying write-up identifying it as a Christmas season cocktail. Silly me.
The recipe itself was a little sweet for me, even though I shorted the soda. I want to play around with it a bit, see if another mix plays better. Still, it’s tasty, and certainly worth a try. Nice, very refreshing and certainly suitable for summertime sipping and Christmas parties alike.
- 2 oz. gin – I used Victoria Gin to work with the herbal notes, but a London dry variety would be nice, too
- 1 oz. fresh lime juice
- 0.5 oz rosemary syrup
- club soda
- a rosemary sprig for a garnish
Fill a high-ball glass half-full with ice, pour over the first three ingredients. Stir, then top with the soda and garnish with the rosemary. The fresh sprig gives a lovely herbal scent when you’re drinking, so don’t skip that part. Play around with the ratios to suit your taste – it’s a pretty flexible mix.
Next, a pretty simple variation on a classic: a rosemary gimlet. The gimlet’s my go-to drink. Even when I only drank vodka, it was a standard order. Simple, tasty and well-balanced. So why not play with it?
I started with the ratios from Jeffrey Morgenthaler’s Richmond Gimlet, but instead of simple syrup and a mint sprig, I swapped in the aforementioned rosemary syrup. I’d still like to try that original recipe when I’ve got some mint handy, but this one turned out nicely enough. I tweaked a couple of things to adjust for the ingredients on-hand, so here’s the mix I ended up liking:
- 2 oz. dry gin (I used Plymouth)
- .75 oz. fresh lime juice
- .75 oz rosemary syrup
Add all the ingredients to a shaker with ice. Shake vigorously for those lovely ice shards, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
*Yes, I know it’s not technically a cocktail unless it’s spirits, sugar, water and bitters. But let’s not be pedantic, eh?
