Almost all of last year, I posted on my Instagram each month for the Home Bar Awards. I love the idea, and I think I got better and better at bringing out the theme as the year went on. So, this year, I’m going to compliment my Instagram posts each month with a (short) blog post that expands on the drink and the theme a bit as I start to take this competition a bit more seriously!
This year, I want to bring the overall theme of this blog a bit closer to home; I won’t just focus on seasonal ingredients, but specifically ingredients that grow in my backyard. I can do this because we have a house now (!!) in Arizona where the right things grow like crazy. I’m planning to incorporate that theme into my HBA entries as much as possible. So, when the theme for January was announced (What the G*rnish?) I started looking around the yard for the most ridiculous thing I could put in a drink.
I thought about something really crazy like an orange tree branch, massive bunch of basil, or a palm frawn. I ended up settling on something a little more germaine that I could actually execute well; the idea of the theme this month is that the garnish can’t add anything to your drink, but that doesn’t mean it has to be completely insane. So, when the rose bush closest to our patio went wild last week, I knew what I had to do.
I’ve always been surprised by this fact, but Arizona is serious rose country. My father-in-law obsesses over his, and it shows; they’re gorgeous. I don’t know what we did to make this particular bush so happy, but I’m certainly not complaining. Flowers generally make popular cocktail garnishes, especially because so many are edible. But those are dainty flowers that add some unique oils and aroma to the drink. I wanted to use a full rose, which definitely isn’t edible, and these don’t really even have much aroma. So, it really is just a big flower in your glass. Pretty, but totally useless.
Since there’s going to be a huge flower in the drink, I wanted to play with flavors that complement something more floral. I started with the base idea of a classic Gin & Tonic, and then quickly moved on to something more unique. Instead of packaged tonic water, I grabbed my new SodaStream (this will also be a theme this year – I love the thing) and carbonated some filtered water.
Then, I grabbed my Tonic Bitters from Ms Better’s which add that tanic, quinine-y, sour not you associate with tonic water without any of the sugar. So, for the sugar, I used a light ginger syrup that I had made earlier in the day. I boiled some sliced ginger with 2 cups of water for about an hour, strained the resulting tea, then re-boiled with a cup of sugar. It’s not overly-sweet, and the spicy ginger flavor comes through really well. I also grabbed some orange bitters to add some citrus notes, some sage tincture from Addition to add a bit of depth, andt my trusty Bombay Sapphire gin.
The drink is mostly just pure carbonated water, and there’s a big rose on it, so I’m calling it the Rosewater. First, fill a glass with ice and add a straw. Here’s the recipe for the drink:
- 1.5oz Gin
- 0.75oz light ginger syrup
- 4 dash tonic bitters
- 3 dash orange bitters
- 2 dash sage tincture
- 3oz soda
Add everything into the glass with ice and give it a stir. Then, drop a big ol’ rose in there and you have the cocktail! It’s quite light with some good bite and earth as well. It’s more delicate than most G&Ts out there, but it also has more happening under the surface. I really enjoy the drink, and I think it fits well having a massive flower in it. Cheers!
