There is no better time to try a new cocktail recipe than on Valentine's or Galentine's day! This easy to sip gin cocktail is anything but ordinary. For a decade, gin has enjoyed comeback kid status in America. Traditionally made with juniper berries and associated during American Prohibition with a strong, easy to make cheap spirit, the gins of today are more complex, subtle and easy to love botanically inspired distilled spirits.

Since the 1700s when England had over 7000 legal gin shops in London alone, gin has been the U.K.'s most beloved spirit. During the food revolution in Spain during the early 2000s, the country turned the humble gin and tonic into an art form. Today, hip gin tonic bars in Barcelona stock over fifty brands of gin and serve the cocktails with elaborately garnished concoctions of herbs, spices and flowers. Whiskey worshiping Americans are still early in their courting of gin. With our typical rebel approach, American gin producers break many centuries old gin making rules. Rather than copying the juniper forward notes of London dry gin (almost perfect as is), American gin is creative and imaginative (dare we say romantic?) in its approach of using citrus and florals as the backbone of many of its craft gins. For this cocktail we mixed Uncle Val's Botanical Gin (Uncle Val’s presents a complex and subtly pleasing sensation of flavors. Raise your glass and you’ll notice crisp aromas of sage and juniper. Your first sip will bring out a bright lemon taste, which gives way to a warm, spicy, lavender finish, softened by the coolness of cucumber. Each sip bolsters the botanical flavors, along with a continuous presence of piney juniper) with EL Guapo Love Potion bitters for smoothing out the cocktail and giving it a more complex profile. The elderflower tonic adds sweetness to this cocktail and makes the drink, well, even more drinkable. Get ready to fall in love!
cuisine American
difficulty Easy
makes 1 cocktail
season Spring & Summer

Ingredients

  • 1 ounce Uncle Val's Botanical Gin
  • 3 ounces elderflower tonic water
  • 1 dash El Guapo Love Potion bitters
  • 1 large ice cube
  • Floral garnish (rose petal, lavender sprig, etc.)

Directions

  1. Chill the cocktail glass in the freezer for at least 20 minutes prior to serving.
  2. Just before ready to drink, add one large ice cube to the chilled glass (a large ice cube works best as it provides less surface area for the ice to melt).
  3. Pour the gin over the ice cube. Add a dash of the El Guapo bitters and fill the glass with the elderflower tonic water. Stir, garnish, and sip.