Eye Candy Cocktail
Ingredients
1 sprig mint (fresh)
1/2 ounce elderflower liqueur (St. Germain)
Garnish: mint sprig
Directions
Gather the ingredients.
Add a splash of club soda and garnish with a sprig of mint.
Serve and enjoy!
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Tips
Though the recipe recommends Bombay, any London dry or juniper-forward gin will work just fine in this cocktail. You will find it best with a premium gin, though, so don't be too cheap at the liquor store.
With all the fresh ingredients, be sure to use fresh-squeezed lemon juice, too. The average lemon yields 1 3/4 ounces, so you'll have more than enough for a few drinks.
Simple syrup is easy to make at home and it's much more economical to DIY it than buy premade syrup. You'll use it all the time in cocktails and all you need is sugar and water, so there's really no excuse not to make it.
When you bring mint home (or cut it from your garden), place the stems in a vase of water to keep it fresh. It's a simple trick and doubles as a fragrant bouquet in the kitchen.
For the ginger, you'll find it best to cut slices that about 1/8 inch thick. This will give you enough flesh to muddle and produce a nice amount of extracted juice.
Recipe Variations
If either your mint or ginger is starting to go bad, preserve the flavor and incorporate them into a simple syrup, then use that to make the cocktail. Ginger simple syrup requires about 1 cup of the sliced root; mint syrup is best with about 1/2 cup of fresh leaves. You could even combine the two ingredients for a ginger-mint syrup.
Any light soda will work just as well as club soda in the eye candy recipe. Consider using ginger ale or any citrus soda and add more than a splash if you want it more effervescent.