cucumber - Girl & Tonic

Summer Sipper | A Fresh Green Tea Cocktail with Cucumber-Infused Vodka

by corrie.pennington / September 1, 2020

The Summer Sipper is a green tea cocktail with cucumber-infused vodka, mint, lemon, and tonic water.
It's bright, refreshing, and not too tart or too sweet-- perfect for warm afternoons.

This Summer Sipper is the perfect cocktail to cap off the summer. It’s got all the refreshing flavors of the season: mint, citrus, cucumber, and iced green tea.

So many people out in this God-blessed country are celebrating FALL and even HALLOWEEN already. My season-honoring, calendar-following heart just can’t take it. The Autumn Equinox is September 21st. That’s three weeks away. I just can’t do it. Despite the fact that #summer2020 has been the longest summer in existence, I wanna relish these next few weeks.

Plus here in Texas, summer weather lasts well into ~~October~~ November sometimes. It’s hard to get in the cozy recipe mood when going to check my mail gives me immediate face sweat.

I was talking with some friends this morning about how crazy the weather can be here in Texas. Sometimes it’s freezing cold and snowing in April and sometimes wait… What am I doing? Have I devolved into talking about the WEATHER on a cocktail blog? Slap me the next time I do that.

I still have soo many summer-y cocktails I want to post though before the season ends so I need to get a move on. But I’m currently limiting myself to 2 recipe posts per week because running a blog is a lot of work. Creating the recipes, testing them, photographing the drink, writing the blog post, promoting it on social media is a lot of work. I don’t know if people realize it, but it is a lot of work. Have I mentioned how much work it is? Okay, I’ll stop. It is though. Fun work that I enjoy doing but it does prevent me from feeling like I can explore evverryyy cocktail idea that enters my mind.

Today though I’m bringing you a cocktail idea that entered into my Insta friend Casey’s mind. You can see Casey’s original Instagram post here. It really is the perfect way to cap off the end of summer. This is actually the second cocktail of Casey’s that I’ve made. I also mixed up her Mezcal in Maui and loved it! Several of you really enjoyed it, too. If you’re into smoky drinks and tropical vibes, I highly recommend it.

I actually made this drink at my friend’s house, as you may notice from the different setup. Our toddlers are becoming little friends & it’s adorable. We both also really enjoy a good cocktail. She suggested we enjoy “a good summer’s last hurrah cocktail” and the Summer Sipper is definitely that.

We ended up tweaking the recipe a bit (Casey’s calls for club soda but we used tonic water) and we also ran out of room for the rest of the green tea so we adjusted the amount. It turned out soo well! Perfectly bright and refreshing. Not too tart either, despite the fact that there is no sweetener in the drink. I think the earthiness of the green tea really grounded the whole drink. Well done, Casey! Thanks for sharing your cocktail with the Instagram and now blog world!

One interesting note. The recipe also calls for cucumber-infused vodka, which we made. But my friend also bought some *real* cucumber vodka so we could do a side-by-side comparison. Y’all. We both preferred the homemade cucumber-infused vodka! It tasted fresher and smoother— can you believe it? I’d say they both had the same level of cucumberiness (made that up). And while the Effen bottle is absolutely gorgeous, you can’t beat a cheapo bottle of Smirnoff.

In addition to the fact that the homemade cucumber-infused vodka was smooth as silk, using it in the Summer Sipper recipe made it taste like gin. Which I luurrve so wins all around.

If you want to invest in a bottle of cucumber vodka, go for it. Just know that homemade tastes equally as good (if not better) and is cheaper.

Here’s the recipe:

Homemade Cucumber-Infused Vodka

1 bottle of cheap vodka (750mL)
1 large cucumber

Peel the cucumber. If the cucumber is especially seed-y, try removing a lot of them. The seeds and the peel can add bitterness to the vodka that you might not want. Chop the cucumber into smaller pieces. The more surface area of cucumber that comes into contact with the vodka, the faster it’ll infuse.

Add the vodka and chopped cucumber to a large bottle or huge lidded Tupperware container. (You can also divide it into smaller containers or halve the recipe if you want.)

Allow the vodka to steep 24-48 hours. We actually enjoyed ours at 22 hours and it was great.

Strain the cucumber pieces out and pour the vodka back into its original bottle so that you know it’ll have a tight seal. No need to refrigerate and it will keep for several, several months.

Alright, now we can get to the Summer Sipper recipe. If you make this one, be sure to tag both me (@girlandtonic_) and Casey (@citygalcocktails) on Instagram!

If you like the idea of a green tea cocktail, you can check out my Matcha Simple Syrup– it’s the easiest way to add the lovely earthiness of green tea to any cocktail.

Ingredients for a Summer Sipper

1 1/2 oz cucumber-infused vodka
2 oz cold green tea, unsweetened
1/2 oz freshly-squeezed lemon juice
10 mint leaves
tonic water (or club soda)
cucumber slice, to garnish

How to Make a Summer Sipper – A Green Tea Cocktail with Cucumber-Infused Vodka

Add the mint leaves and the cucumber-infused vodka to a cocktail shaker. Gently muddle the leaves; don’t smash them to smithereens or they’ll turn bitter. Add ice, green tea, and lemon juice. Shake well. Strain into a lowball glass filled with ice. Top off the rest of the glass with tonic water. Garnish with a cucumber slice and additional mint.

Summer Sipper – A Green Tea Cocktail with Cucumber-Infused Vodka

The Summer Sipper is the perfect drink for warm afternoons. It's bright, refreshing, and not too tart or too sweet.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 3 mins

Course Drinks

Servings 1

Equipment

cocktail shaker

Ingredients

1½ oz cucumber-infused vodka*
2 oz cold green tea, unsweetened
½ oz lemon juice, freshly squeezed
10 mint leaves
1+ oz tonic**

Instructions

Add the mint leaves and the cucumber-infused vodka to a cocktail shaker.
Gently muddle the leaves with a muddler or a wooden spoon.
Add ice, green tea, and lemon juice to the cocktail shaker.
Shake well. Strain into a lowball glass filled with ice.
Top off the rest of the glass with tonic water.
Garnish with a cucumber slice and additional mint.

Notes

*To learn how to make your own cucumber-infused vodka, check out the step-by-step process written in the body of this post.

**Casey’s original recipe calls for club soda, but tonic also works well.

Keyword club soda, cucumber, cucumber-infused vodka, green tea, lemon, lemon juice, mint, tonic, vodka

mocktail

Mother’s Garden | A Healthy Cocktail or Alcohol-Free Drink Made with Brighter Tonic

by corrie.pennington / August 3, 2020

Mother's Garden is a healthy cocktail or alcohol-free drink made with sparkling apple cider vinegar tonic water, fresh lime juice, cucumber slices, honey, and basil. This bright & refreshing beverage can be made into a cocktail or kept alcohol-free. Click for the recipe and to read about Brighter Tonic, the star ingredient of this drink. #mocktail #healthydrink #applecidervinegar Brighter tonic cocktail recipe | cocktail recipes made with Brighter tonic | sparkling apple cider vinegar drink

The Mother’s Garden is a drink chockfull of fresh, healthy ingredients. It can be made into a healthy cocktail with the addition of vodka or gin, or it can be enjoyed as an alcohol-free drink that’s sure to boost your spirits.

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. If you buy a product via my affiliate link, I will receive a commission. This is at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products I actually like!

There are a lot of cocktails out there that have fresh, healthy ingredients. Gone are the days of heavily-processed syrups and mixes– the American imbiber’s become wiser. We’ve been enlightened to the dangers of trans fat, artificial sweeteners, and pesticides, and we eschew ingredients like artificial coloring and high-fructose corn syrup in favor of those found in nature. Research done by the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2019 shows that Americans are slowly getting better at eating healthy, although this article written by Men’s Health reveals that there’s still a lot of room for improvement.

I think the majority of people do want to eat healthier. So what’s a cocktail-lover to do? Drinking less alcohol is always a good idea. But instead of removing alcohol altogether, there’s another alternative: mix your alcohol with fresh, healthy ingredients.

This is becoming a lot easier for the American consumer thanks to conscientious companies. There are several that forgo artificial coloring, GMO ingredients, and high-fructose corn syrup like my favorite grenadine company, Bar Smith. Having these kinds of syrup and mixer alternatives is a huge step in the direction of a healthier cocktail. But it doesn’t make a cocktail healthy. You’re spared from consuming fake junk, but you aren’t consuming ingredients with any health benefits.

Enter Brighter Tonic. A beverage that actually delivers the good stuff.

Brighter Tonic reached out to me a few months ago to see if I’d be interested in trying their product. A quick Google search of the company led me to a speedy reply: YES, PLEASE!

Brighter Tonic is a sparkling apple cider vinegar beverage. Apple cider vinegar is known for its acetic acid which promotes healthy digestion and improves mineral absorption. It’s made with raw organic apple cider vinegar, oils from plants, and maple syrup.

With Brighter Tonic accounting for 50% of the volume in the Mother’s Garden recipe, you can see why I can truthfully call this a healthy cocktail.

When I took my first sip of Bright (which I captured on an Instagram story), I was really surprised. The word “tonic” in the name made me think it’d taste like tonic water. But it actually tastes similar to kombucha. Ahh. Tonic as in the true definition of the word: a restorative drink that invigorates or strengthens.

I’m a kombucha fanatic and instantly fell in love with this new, healthy elixir.

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve probably seen me posting about this company. I actually posted a recipe quite similar to Mother’s Garden on an Instagram story. But I’ve been waiting for the day that Brighter Tonic launched their online sales because it didn’t feel right to rave about a fantastic recipe when the general populous had no means to buy the star ingredient.

Friends, that day has come! *cue Hallelujah chorus* You can now get Brighter Tonic shipped right to your door! They have three flavors: lemon lime, blood orange, and lemon ginger turmeric. I suggest getting the sampler pack so you can try them all. I can’t decide which one I like the most so it’s a good thing I’ve got another sampler on the way.

The point of this post has kinda been to talk about making a healthy cocktail, but you can certainly leave the alcohol out and make it a truly healthy beverage. I’ve made several alcohol-free drinks with Brighter. There are many days when I want something fun but I don’t want a cocktail. The bright (no pun intended) taste of Brighter means you won’t be left with a flavorless mocktail. And all of my alcohol-free friends said THANK YOU.

Perhaps the BEST news in this article is that if you use the code GIRL&TONIC20 between Monday 8-3-20 and Friday 8-7-20, you’ll get 20% off your online order of Brighter Tonic. How awesome is that?! Now you really do have to try it. I mean, it’s discounted. Who doesn’t love saving money?

The reason I’m calling this healthy cocktail or alcohol-free drink Mother’s Garden is two-fold:

1) I first made this recipe at my mom’s house using ingredients from her garden. (She’s actually got a great garden blog, with helpful articles about two of the ingredients in Mother Garden’s: cucumber & basil)

2) This is an alcohol-free drink that my mom is actually able to enjoy. You see, my mom is on a strict AIP (auto-immune protocol) diet due to some autoimmune health issues. This means that a lot of commercial products are off-limits to her, making it tricky to find mixers that agree with her body. However, since Brighter Tonic uses maple syrup as a sweetener, it falls on her “good list”! Big thank you to Brighter for using real, high-quality ingredients. You really stand out.

If you try the Mother’s Garden, or even just Brighter, let me know what you think in the comments below!

Ingredients for a Mother’s Garden Healthy Cocktail or Alcohol-Free Drink

1 1/2 oz gin or vodka (omit for alcohol-free or to be AIP-compliant*)
1/2 oz fresh lime juice
1/2 oz honey simple syrup or pure maple syrup
1-2 slices of cucumber
6-8 fresh basil leaves
4 oz lemon-lime Brighter Tonic

*Read this article if you’re curious to see if and when alcohol can be consumed on an AIP diet. Before imbibing, be sure to check with your physician, too.

How to Make a Mother’s Garden Healthy Cocktail or Alcohol-Free Drink

Add the cucumber slices and lime juice to a cocktail shaker. Muddle well, using a muddler or the back of a wooden spoon. Then, add the basil and gently muddle. Add the alcohol (or not), honey simple syrup, and ice. Shake well. Strain into a glass filled with ice. Top the rest of the glass off with the Brighter Tonic. Stir to incorporate. Garnish with a basil spring and a couple slices of lime and cucumber.