I love to create festive cocktails! In this post you’ll read about spring spritzers… and find a recipe for a lively concoction that I made for Desi Arnaz one summer while I was fishing in the Sea of Cortez in Mexico.
Gin and Tonic with cucumber slices, rose petals, and salad burnet, a cucumber scented herb.
Garnish and Flavor Cocktails from the Garden
‘Tis the season of the spritzers…the time to make refreshing coolers and to flavor and garnish them with fragrant sprigs of herbs and colorful flowers. My spring garden is lush with aromatic herbs like lemon balm and lemon verbena, spearmint, pineapple sage, and salad burnet, an herb with pretty serrated cucumber-scented leaves. Rosemary, sage, oregano, chiles, basil and bay add extra flavor to savory cocktails like Bloody Mary’s and Micheladas.
Cheerful purple pansies and johnny-jump-ups make any spritzer special, as do rose petals, spikes of lavender or sunny nasturtiums. My Mexican limes, kumquats, satsuma and Meyer lemons are now dressed in fragrant blooms and I can’t wait for summer when their tangy fruits will flavor margaritas and other summer spritzers.
A Gin and Tonic You’ll Remember
After reading a British murder mystery, my book club has decided to meet this week in my garden for tea sandwiches and Gin & Tonics ...but my version of a G&T is pretty darn special. It’s flavored with icy cucumber slices, rose petals and delicate sprigs of salad burnet. Hope you’ll like it too!
Here’s my article with recipes for this gin and tonic and other seasonal spritzers (including the one I made for Desi) found in Edible Austin, where I have a regular column, La Casa de Buen Sabor.
(Stay tuned for my next month’s article in Edible Austin about May Wine, another of my signature cocktails flavored with fresh herbs, strawberries, and flowers.)
Enjoy a festive spritzer in the spring garden!
