Smile & Blush
Some of you may have seen Green With Envy, a sad-faced drink I posted on Valentine’s Day. It seemed only right to balance the Mood of my page with a happier face. While this face isn’t an accurate depiction of mine (I go much lighter on the makeup😉), this drink was delicious and definitely made me smile.
This cocktail uses gin infused with dehydrated pear and apple from @rindsnacks, reinforcing my discussion from 4/1 re: ingredients that are high in water content often infuse much better when dehydrated. Here, I threw in a few pieces of dehydrated fruit with 4-5oz gin for 24hr, then strained through superbag (to squeeze the alcohol out of the fruit for better yield), then strained through coffee filter.
For the rest of the build, I reinforced some of the flavors found in the bag of fruity snacks: pear (brandy) and strawberry (shrub). Aperol was a nice way to tie these flavors together and there was a hint of vegetal pepper here that was a wonderful counter to the fruity notes. Seriously, get yourself some dehydrated ingredients and get to infusing— it’s so easy and works really well!
Recipe
1.5oz pear/apple infused London dry gin (see above)
0.5oz pear brandy
0.5oz Aperol (@aperolusa)
0.5oz lemon juice
1 large egg white
Peychaud’s bitters
Combine all ingredients minus bitters and shake with ice until chilled. Strain ice, dry shake. Fine strain into chilled coupe. Garnish with a few drops of bitters and dehydrated fruit, depending on your mood. Cheers!!
