A Timeless Cocktail Recipe for a Trying Time
/Cocktail recipes need to be simple, easy to make, and utterly delicious because we all need to take a major sort of break and indulge momentarily in something simply great. I am a firm believer that in the worst of times you get through with positive thinking, taking breaks from the gloom and doom, and helping to ease the burden on others in any way you can.
PSA: Yes, you ARE still allowed to be happy sometimes!
I am sharing this cocktail with the idea that many of us are getting creative with ingredients we have in our pantry and fridge so you'll see it involves very few. I also want to highlight a spirit that is made REALLY well by MANY talented WA state distilleries: gin. It's not your granddad's gin anymore, it's fresh and botanical and layered and SO good! I will recommend that you use the syrup my sister and I make from Washington grown produce (shelf stable for 18 months until opened, so a great future pantry stable to consider!), but I'll also share a version you can make at home to keep it easy.
Marionberry Mint Southside cocktail recipe
Makes 1
What you need:
2 oz gin- we recommend Amethyst Gin, Heritage Distilling (curbside delivery!) Captive Spirits' Big Gin, Copperworks Gin, Bellewood Acres and Batch 206
1 oz fresh lemon juice (and by the way did you know you can freeze lemon juice? I always do and then I can use it in cocktails later!)
How to do it:
In a shaker, add ingredients and ice and shake.
Strain into a chilled Martini glass
To make your own simple syrup, with or without berries:
1 part sugar, 1 part water heated in a pot on the stove top on medium, stirring all the while to keep it from burning, on medium heat. Once sugar is dissolved add in your berries. At the very end, add mint (if you have it.) Or, since mint is just beginning to pop up in the pots in my garden, make a plain simple syrup and just add a couple mint leaves to the shaker when you're making your drink. This is far easier method to control the taste of the mint (when heated it can begin to taste bruised if you're not practiced at it.)
If you want to make a nonalcoholic version of this, I recommend editing the recipe as such:
1.5 oz fresh lemon juice (and by the way did you know you can freeze lemon juice? I always do and then I can use it in cocktails later!)
1.5 oz Simple Goodness Sisters' Marionberry Mint simple syrup
2 ounces club soda or seltzer (add this after shaking and straining the other ingredients)
