Evergreen Ginship & Tonic
Gin is such a versatile spirit, and it works so well as a summer refresher, or as a heavier deeper herbal element in winter cocktails. I tend to love herbal spirits and cocktails all year, but the winter seems to lean me more toward them in general. If you are open minded with this one it can be tweaked in many ways to appeal to a variety of moods as well. I used Q tonic for this version, but it works great with soda water, or even prosecco! Enjoy.
Ingredients
- Hollerhorn/Black Button "Ginship" coriander forward gin
- Green Chartreuse
- Q Tonic (or soda water, seltzer, or prosecco)
- Fresh Lemons
- Spruce tip simple syrup (white pine works well too!)
- Cardamom bitters
Instructions
- Begin by harvesting about 1 cup of spruce tips, or white pine tips. Bring 1 cup of water, 1 cup of white sugar, and 1 cup of spruce(white pine tips) to a low boil in a small stock pot on the stove.
- Let it simmer for 20-30 minutes, and cool for 60 minutes before straining out the spruce tips, and straining into a bottle(glass is preferred).
- Begin by placing ice into a collins glass(or similar), add 1-1/2 ounces of Ginship Gin, ½ ounce of Green Chartreuse, ½ ounce of fresh lemon juice, ½ ounce of spruce tip simple syrup, and 2-3 dashes of Cardamom bitters.
- Stir all elements, add Q tonic, and then feel free to add garnish. I used a juniper sprig, and lemon peel.
- This cocktail could work in a number of different glasses, and you could also play with leaving the tonic or soda out of it. Play with the ratio of spruce tip simple syrup if you skip the bubbles, and consider substituting the Green Chartreuse with other similar options….maybe an herbal amaro! Regardless of what you decide your favorite version is, just remember to close your eyes for a few seconds and pick apart all the different elements!
Notes
As we move toward longer days, and the return toward the sun, we also start to see the animals venturing out for longer periods of time to gather food, and to wander in the light. I tend to follow similar rhythms. Many of us are digging deeper into the freezer, and the stocks of canned goods we put up during the harvest months in late summer. I also find this time of year is very creative, and sometimes finding food that was stored from earlier days can spark some fun and inspiring meals. Cocktails are no different, and I like to experiment with new ideas while the work of keeping up with the gardens and lawn is still a few months off. It is in this vein that I stumbled upon some spruce tips that my friend Emily Nicolas had shared with me, and I froze last year. It seemed like a sign, finding those buried among our stored food. Add that to the beauty of the newly fallen snow that had recently blanketed the evergreens, and this cocktail idea just seemed like a perfect fit. I am a lover of Indian food, and coriander forward gins, so that is why we produce a gin in that wheelhouse as a collaboration with Black Button Distilling called “Ginship”.
