Blood orange & rosemary gin soda

Alright friends, its cocktail time!  Now to be totally honest, I’ve never been a big cocktail person.  I love wine, I like beer, I love coffee, I like tea…but I go through stages with hard booze.  When I was younger I was a total gin girl, then one day I went to have my usual gin & tonic and just the smell of it turned me off.  Nothing had happened, I didn’t get drunk and throw up or anything, I just wasn’t into it anymore.  The same thing happened with bourbon.  Like three years ago, if you would have asked me what my favourite drink was  – it was guaranteed to be bourbon.  Now, not so much.

These days I’m mostly a beer girl, with a little prosecco thrown in here and there.

See, although I agree that making cocktails is an art – I think things can get a little over the top sometimes.  I find looking at cocktail lists these days a little daunting, because there are so many ingredients in each one.  But, I’m trying to re-open my horizons on cocktails.  So I’m starting things off with a simple, bright and tasty cocktail recipe.

A little blood orange and rosemary gin soda.

YIELD – 2 cocktails

INGREDIENTS

• 4 oz. gin (I used a good local gin, because it has a nice floral hint to it – Eau Claire Gin)
• 1 oz. rosemary simple syrup (click for recipe)
• Juice of 2 blood oranges (minus 2 slices)
• 4-6 oz. gingerale
• 6 large ice cubes

To Garnish

• 2 small sprigs of rosemary
• 2 full round slices

Rosemary simple syrup

DIRECTIONS

1. put ice cubes in cocktail glasses and build cocktail over ice
2. pour gin into glass first, followed by the simple syrup, and then the blood orange juice
3. give the cocktail a good stir and add in rosemary sprig
4. top with gingerale and garnish with orange wheel

Last but not least – drink!

Till the next recipe,

Kristen xo