American Madness

Today’s recipe comes to us by way of OverTheHillAndOnARoll (an LA Blog for “Folks… who like livin’ the good life.”), their thoughts on Gin are pretty similar to mine. I haven’t yet had a chance to sample this one, but it sounds super refreshing, especially with the hint of cucumber.

2 oz of Gin
5 oz of Tonic Water
3 cucumber slices
1 sprig of rosemary
1 wedge of lime
Soda Water

Place the cucumber slices at the bottom of the highball glass. Squeeze lime juice into glass and slightly muddle the cucumber. Add sprig of rosemary and fill highball glass with ice. Add Gin, tonic, and finish off with a splash of soda water. If you prefer a less sweet cocktail, add less tonic water and more soda water.

Now, technically, I guess this is kind of a cheat, the rosemary acts more as a garnish then an actual ingredient, but I am guessing it is strong enough to either flavor the drink or acts an an aromatic and influences the taste through scent. Either way this definitely sounds like one to try.

So we would hate for all of that fresh basil you purchased yesterday for 1 drink to go to waste, so we figured we’d help you out with another Basil recipe today… Actually a large number of the recipes I have call for either basil or gin (and some for both.

This one comes to us from Rye in San Francisco (by way of The Kitchn), it is one of their most requested cocktails apparently and super simple to make:

Basil Gimlet

5 fresh basil leaves
2 ounces Plymouth Gin
1/2 ounce agave nectar
3/4 ounce fresh lime juice

Method: In a pint glass, muddle fresh basil, agave nectar, and lime juice. Add ice and gin. Shake vigorously and strain into stemmed glass. Garnish with fresh basil leaf.

So if you are going to whip this up keep a few things in mind- (more…)

So, you may recall that back in October I thought that this summer was going to be all about drinks made with fresh herbs.

Well, the summer is here and I’d like to give myself partial credit. Although it hasn’t been an overwhelming push, there have been a number of summer cocktails I have seen that incorporate herbs (mostly basil, some sage, a couple of others as well).

I was hoping to just collect them together and post them all at once. Instead, I am going to do one a day until I have them all posted, or at least a nice bulk of them, so keep an eye our for the “Herbal Remedies.” we’ll post over the next few days.

We’ll get you started with one I posted a few months back:

Basil Martini
2 oz DH Krahn Gin
1 oz Fresh lemon juice
3/4 oz Simple Syrup
3-4 Fresh basil leave

Put all the ingredients in a shaker with ice, adding the basil leaves last and shake hard to get the basil flavor in there nicely. Strain into a cocktail glass.

Nice and simple. We recommend DH Krahn Gin for this one because that is the gin we first had it with, and David Hughes from DH Krahn provided us with the recipe. We’ll also have a review this week of DH Krahn Gin. So this really works as a nice segue.

A while back, at the beginning of the summer I wrote about Gin being the classic summer beverage, specifically the gin and tonic. At the end of the post I happened to mention that I am not actually a huge fan of gin.

Well, this got the attention of someone who thought maybe I just hadn’t had the right type of gin. My actual problem was that I just had too much gin a long time ago and never really gave it another chance. Regardless, they suggested I try some G’Vine Gin a top shelf gin (maybe even that shelf above the top shelf). I must admit, I was pleasantly surprised. (more…)

As I said earlier today (about 2 posts down) it is summer time, and what better way to ring in the summer then with a nice drink.

I have always thought of Gin* as an ideal summer drink. Its crisp clean taste of juniper berries, how well it mixes with lime, and and how nice it looks poured over ice.

I guess the same could be said about vodka for the most part, except that a spirit made from juniper berries just seem so much more refreshing then one made from potatoes or grains (actually, according to Wikipedia, you could consider Gin a flavored vodka, but I think that is pushing it a bit).

Anyway, the San Francisco Chronicle wrote a piece back in January about Gin having a new heyday as new flavored gins start to hit the market, and, to kick things off right, after the jump we have a few gin cocktail just perfect for a relaxing summer evening.

(more…)