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Hi all

So this weekend I'm going to do some cocktails for a taste testing - at a bachelorette party.
Had some good ideas but yesterday a SMS ticked in - Could it be cocktails where they have to guess the ingredient?
Perhaps something with herbs.

So I have been thinking and thinking and not really coming up with anything good.

But all you good folks out there, making so much good spirits, perhaps some of you also make cocktails?

Lavender?

Geoff

Gin is made with many different taste/essences you could play around with

Perhaps grab a few different herbal infusion bag samplers, all the rage atm, easy way to find potential favour combinations and they can have fun guessing what they were.

my old lady made an infusion with lavender and lemon grass, it is really good

you can start with a vodka base and make samples with ginger, lemon grass, star anise, cinnamon, clove.....you could also use teas for flavor

Edit: looking at the OP date and it appears we are a couple weeks late. So how did it go?

A cocktail from a local brewery it’s Mother approved to… was “friggin’ delicious-0”

Rye Whiskey
Lemonade
Lavender Bitters
Honey
Club Soda
Garnish with a sprig of Rosemary

Go easy with the bitters.
Warm the honey up to make a syrup before adding it, otherwise it kinda clumps up.

Cheers

Bachelorette party? I mean 95proof panty dropper isn’t too obvious?

-j

jonnys_spirit wrote: ↑Fri May 06, 2022 4:03 pm Bachelorette party? I mean 95proof panty dropper isn’t too obvious?

-j

I can't keep that stuff on the shelf. Almost need a dedicated set of half gallon jars to keep some going at all times.

A simple drink would be to mix some high % ABV neutral with a jar of maraschino cherries diluted to 80 proof. It looks good and tastes good too.

This is my favorite drink. I start with a 1.75 liter bottle of vodka. I add 1-1/2ml of LorAnn Lemon Natural Oil and 1-1/2ml of LorAnn Key Lime Natural Oil and shake it up very well. I pour 4-5 oz of flavored vodka into a bottle with approx 24oz of cold carbonated water (club soda) and serve with ice. It tastes just like Sprite, but zero sugar. It can be sweetened too if you want. These go down easy. I carbonate my own water using a Co2 tank/regulator and modified bottle caps, but club soda

LorAnn has many different natural oils that can be used to make a wide variety of flavored drinks. They also have a huge variety of artificial flavorings too.

CasperH wrote: ↑Mon Apr 25, 2022 2:22 pm ...... going to do some cocktails for a taste testing - at a bachelorette party.
.......they have to guess the ingredient?
.......Perhaps something with herbs.

A little late for the bachelorette party but maybe useful for future experimentation.

A few days ago I was browsing through an old field manual, written 50 years ago by a once famous naturalist named Euell Gibbons. (So your notion “herb cocktails” reminded me of that). In this book (Stalking The Healthful Herbs) Gibbons devotes several pages of text to Nepeta Cataria (the herb Catnip - originally from Europe). Catnip is a member of the mint family and while the plant is ecstasy for a cat to roll around in, it has been used in pleasant tasting herbal decoctions since long before the English began to import tea from the Orient. In some cases it is still preferred. I won't go into the high vitamin content, or the pharmacopoeias and dispensatories that Gibbons mentions for this influential herb, but they are numerous.

Elsewhere he discuses Peppermint and Spearmint; explains that they have been among the “most famous and highly appreciated of all medicinal and flavoring herbs”, since ancient times. And even elsewhere he discusses another herb, named American Pennyroyal (or Squaw Mint); which he claims “is a sweet-smelling herb that makes one of the most flavorful teas of any wild plant”.

These four plants mentioned are perennials, meaning they should grow back, year after year. These are the type of herbs that should be potted or planted around the perimeter of the house. If not for their homeopathic value, then for their aromatic and flavoring qualaties. It is said that mice despise peppermint, won't go near it. Supposedly repels flies too. The typical Tom Collins cocktail is garnished with a cherry and an orange or lemon slice, but I see no reason why it can't be enhanced by swapping the cherry with a sprig or two of crushed mint (as used in a Mint Julep cocktail). You could put clippings of these herbs into a gin basket to make an “infusion”. But making a “tincture” would be more colorful and perhaps better tasting.