Caff & Chill
This is the Spring of Strawberry. Don’t say you weren’t warned. This one is a sipper but is still bright and on the refreshing end of things, complex but all too easy to enjoy. The predominant flavors are strawberry (easy syrup, see below), coffee (incredible liqueur from @tempus_fugit_spirits), and mint (Braulio, fernet). The base is a split of Irish whiskey and reposado, bringing vanilla and gentle oak notes— here, it is more of a foundation for the primary flavors and is intentionally not assertive.
Berry Versatile
It’s officially the Summer of Strawberry. For one, little kids go through more fruit than several grown men, and currently we’re on a strawberry kick in our house. This inevitably means the occasional batch of strawberries about to go bad, which is actually the best kind for syrups and the like. To that end, I made a strawberry rhubarb ginger shrub that is amazing (full recipe on my website, link in bio) and good in everything I’ve tried it in so far.
Violet Crown
I have a fruit-forward Springtime drink to share today! The strawberry tarragon syrup has been a huge hit and is nearly gone, so here is one more drink featuring it. This one includes a beautiful purple gin kindly sent by @mcqueenvioletfog that is flavored with berry/hibiscus. The strawberry was a natural pairing here with the berry notes. I added a bit of tequila because I love the hibiscus/agave combo. Bitter bianco brought some depth and balance to the build. For being a fairly straightforward Tom Collins riff, this one was highly touted by my (albeit gin-loving) wife.
135 Reasons
One of my favorite things about gin (there are many) is just how diverse the category is, especially with the semi-recent revival of more localized gins showcasing the essence--nay, terroir-- of the area. The more gins I try, the more I appreciate their diversity, as well as the importance of pairing the best gin for the job at hand.
Strawberry Forest
This is actually a revamp of a reaally old post using a standard Negroni format starring cedar-infused gin. Wait, what?? Yeah, cedar wood. It’s really not too crazy when you think about it— barrel aging is a wood-infusion of sorts. Cedar is a highly fragrant wood whose oils impart a noticeable (and pleasant) flavor, and quickly at that. The gin infusion below was ~1 square inch of a cedar plank (which costs like $2 at the store) in ~4oz of gin infused for 36-48hr.