Drink your fruits

Ahhh summer. It ’tis upon us, even though the calendar may argue it isn’t quite here yet.

Summer is perfect for so many reasons – the warm weather, summer dresses, swimming and bbq’s are just a few reasons. Another reason I love the summer is the abundance of summer fruits. While globalization makes strawberries in November possible, there’s just something about strawberries, raspberries and blueberries straight off the local bushes. They’re full of flavour and frankly, not as scary as the genetically modified crops we get in the winter that looks like a berry, but definitely doesn’t taste like a berry.

And while I love eating my fruits in their most simplest forms, I also love them in an ice-cold alcoholic beverage. That might be because I love anything in an alcoholic beverage.

Because I love you I made the ultimate sacrifice for you, dear readers, and created (then sampled) many alcoholic beverages in order to give you the best recipes for incorporating fruits into your patio drinks.

You’re welcome.

I’m pretty sure these count towards your daily fruit and vegetable intake.

Watermelon Mojito

Ok, I don’t actually think this is a mojito since I used vodka instead of rum. By all means, use rum when you attempt this, I can’t ever since an incident I had with rum when I was 21 and now even the smell makes me want to vomit. But vodka… oh vodka… vodka has never let me down. Despite my many attempts to try to get vodka to hate me, it keeps on coming back to me.

Guys…. I think I might be vodka’s abusive girlfriend.

Here’s the recipe:

• 3 oz Vodka
• Cubed watermelon
• 5-6 mint leaves
• Juice from 1/2 a lime
• Club soda
• 1 tsp sugar or simple syrup (optional)

Muddle your watermelon with the mint and lime juice. You can add sugar if you want your drink sweeter, but I find it takes away from the watermelon flavour (which adds a good amount of sweetness itself).  Then add your vodka and fill the remainder of the glass with club soda. Mix that guy up, add some ice cubes and enjoy.

If you need info on how to properly muddle your mint, this is a great resource.

Lavender-Basil Gin Cocktail

Two years ago I made my first ever trek to Salt Spring Island, a small little farming island in British Columbia. While there I discovered lavender. I mean, I knew of lavender as a flower but I had no idea of it’s use in cooking until I visited the Sacred Mountain Lavender Farm on Salt Spring. Ever since then I’ve used it in various baking and random drink recipes, it has been a game changer.

You can find lavender in the spice aisle of most grocery stores. If you’re a Vancouver/Lower Mainland resident, I’ve found it at most Save-On-Foods by McCormick (the bottle looks like this)

For this recipe, you’ll need to make a simple syrup with lavender as follows:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 2 tbsp of lavender florets

In a pot, bring the sugar, water and lavender to a boil over medium-high heat. Once boiling allow the mixture to continue to boil over medium heat for 5 minutes before removing from heat. Allow it to sit at least 10 minutes, then strain the lavender from the mixture. Keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a month.

I added basil to this drink because I currently have a basil plant in my kitchen that is growing like a weed and so I’ve basically added basil to everything. Because why not. It’s basil, nothing could go wrong when you add basil.

Your drink recipe:

• 3/4 oz lavender simple syrup
• 5-6 basil leaves
• 3 oz gin
• lemon juice from 1/2 lemon
• club soda

In a cocktail shaker muddle your basil with the gin and lavender syrup, allow it to sit a few minutes to soak in the flavour. Add ice and shake, then strain into a glass. Fill remainder of the glass with club soda, add ice.

Lychee-Lavender Martini

I could write a novel about my love affair for lychees (or litchi), they are hands down my favourite food in the world. Lychee only comes out once a year, usually around early to mid-June and I cannot get enough of them. They’re sweet and messy, when eating them you have to really commit to getting sticky hands. You can also buy them canned year round so if you develop an addiction such as mine, you can get your fix at other times. There’s also a Lychee liqueur, Soho, that will sweeten up your drinks as well.

For this recipe I actually used the canned lychee and then garnished with a few fresh ones. They can be an expensive fruit, so you don’t want to waste your fresh ones on the juice. For the lychee juice you’ll need to put the canned lychee and their syrup in your blender and liquefy them until you’ve only got the juice. Then, using a fine mesh strainer get the larger bits of lychee that remain and then store in an air tight container for up to a week.

Recipe

• 3 oz lychee juice
• 3 oz vodka
• 1/2 oz lavender simple syrup
• Sparkling water (optional)

In your cocktail shaker, shake up the juice, vodka and syrup then strain into a chilled martini glass. Add sparkling water if you’re not a fan of getting drunk really quickly.

Add some fresh lychee to your drink as garnish and once you’re done your drink you’ve got some booze soaked fruit!

Cucumber Mint G&T

I posted this one on our Instagram account a few weeks ago, but it’s really worth mentioning again since gin and tonics are sent here from the heavens above. This elevates your simple G&T to a refreshing summer drink.

• 3 oz gin
• 5-6 slices of cucumber, thinly sliced
• 5-6 mint leaves
• lime
• tonic water

In a glass, muddle up your mint with your gin and the juice of 1/4 to 1/2 a lime. Add the cucumbers and fill your glass with tonic water and some ice cubes. This part is the trickiest, but allow the mixture to sit a few minutes as the flavours all mix together. Drink up!

Add your favourite summer drink recipes in the comments!