Tag: lemon

mocktail

Cardamom Citrus Coffee Spritzer | A Unique 4-Ingredient Sparkling Iced Coffee Drink for Craft Cocktail Lovers

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Revamp your afternoon pick-me-up with this Cardamom Citrus Coffee Spritzer, a delicious & refreshing sparkling iced coffee drink with a layer of complexity and warmth thanks to the cardamom simple syrup.

This Cardamom Citrus Coffee Spritzer recipe from Recipe Fiction is dang good. I was on the fence about all the sparkling iced coffee drinks I’ve been seeing but when Recipe Fiction’s recipe showed up in my Pinterest feed, I knew I had to give it a shot.

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! 

I’ve seen recipes* that claim to be “the cocktail for coffee lovers!” but this, my friends, is the sparkling iced coffee drink for cocktail lovers. It’s the perfect bridge to carry you from your morning coffee to your evening cocktail.

*It’s me. I’ve claimed it. Check out these coffee cocktails: the White Russian & the Colorado Bulldog.

This Cardamom Citrus Coffee Spritzer has got the elements of a well-crafted cocktail– the citrus, the flavored simple syrup, the bubbles– plus the caffeine kick of java. It’s the best of both worlds. Well, it doesn’t have alcohol and I’m sure some folks would definitely include that in the category of “best”. That can easily be remedied by adding in some vodka and/or coffee liqueur.

For a lower ABV drink, just add 3/4 oz of coffee liqueur. If you want it ~actually~ boozy, add in an ounce of vodka in addition to the coffee liqueur.

Revamp your afternoon pick-me-up with this Cardamom Citrus Coffee Spritzer, a delicious & refreshing sparkling iced coffee drink with a layer of complexity and warmth thanks to the cardamom simple syrup.

You could use this same recipe as an outline for other coffee spritzer variations but personally, I love this one. Cardamom is one of my favorite flavors and I’ve long loved it paired with coffee. I lived with a Mexican-American family in a Tibetan village (long story) for a time and one of my favorite memories is enjoying freshly roasted coffee with a few crushed cardamom pods tossed in. If you’ve never had cardamom before, it’s got a beautiful warm complexity to it. I’d describe it as a little fennel-y, a little clove-y, and even a little fruity. If you’ve ever had chai tea before, you’ve had cardamom. You can read more about this unique spice in this short post.

Purchasing pre-made cardamom simple syrup is an option, but if you’ve got the patience to wait for an Amazon Prime package, 5 spare minutes, and enjoy saving a few bucks, I highly recommend you make your own.

If you’re not into cardamom, you can still try making a delish coffee spritzer by using demerara simple syrup, honey simple syrup, or even lavender simple syrup instead.

Have you had a coffee spritzer? What flavors have you tried? If you try out this Cardamom Citrus Coffee Spritzer, be sure to let me know in a comment or by tagging me on Instagram!

Revamp your afternoon pick-me-up with this Cardamom Citrus Coffee Spritzer, a delicious & refreshing sparkling iced coffee drink with a layer of complexity and warmth thanks to the cardamom simple syrup.

Ingredients for a Cardamom Citrus Coffee Spritzer

  • 4 oz cold brew coffee
  • 1/4 – 1/2 oz freshly-squeezed lemon juice
  • 1 oz cardamom simple syrup
  • sparkling water or club soda

How to Make a Cardamom Citrus Coffee Spritzer

Add ice to a highball glass. Pour in the cold brew coffee, lemon juice, and cardamom syrup. Top off the rest of the glass with sparkling water. Stir gently to combine. Garnish with a fresh or dehydrated lemon wheel.

Cardamom Citrus Coffee Spritzer

Revamp your afternoon pick-me-up with this delicious & refreshing sparkling iced coffee drink with a layer of complexity and warmth thanks to the cardamom simple syrup.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 3 mins
Course Drinks
Servings 1

Ingredients
  

  • 4 oz coldbrew coffee
  • ¼-½ oz freshly-squeezed lemon juice
  • 1 oz cardamom simple syrup*
  • sparkling water or club soda

Instructions
 

  • Add ice to a highball glass.
  • Pour in the cold brew coffee, lemon juice, and cardamom syrup.
  • Top off the rest of the glass with sparkling water.
  • Stir gently to combine.
  • Garnish with a fresh or dehydrated lemon wheel.

Notes

*Cardamom simple syrup: learn how to make it yourself in just a few minutes or purchase some from Amazon.
Keyword cardamom, cardamom simple syrup, coffee, coffee spritzer, cold brew coffee, lemon, lemon juice, sparkling iced coffee

Looking for other ways to use your cardamom simple syrup? Try it out in these recipes:

simple syrup

Oleo Saccharum Recipe | An Easy Step-By-Step Guide on How to Make Oleo Saccharum

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Oleo Saccharum is a sweet citrus syrup that is produced when sugar and citrus peels are allowed to infuse for a short period of time. The sugar pulls the essential oils out of the peel, where all of the rich citrus flavor hides.

Oleo Saccharum is a sweet citrus syrup that is produced when sugar and citrus peels are allowed to infuse for a short period of time. The sugar pulls the essential oils out of the peel, where all of the rich citrus flavor hides.

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! 

The most commonly used oleo saccharum is made using lemon peels, but any citrus can be used. You could even do a mix of lemon, grapefruit, and orange. Oooh. That’s gonna be next on my list.

What do you do with oleo saccharum though? Oleo saccharum can be used in many cocktails and mocktails as both a sweetener and a burst of flavor. You can also use it to amp up homemade lemonade, in hot tea, or to boost the flavor of baked goods like lemon poppy seed muffins or lemon pound cake.

If you’re looking to use it in your mixed drinks, simply use it in place of traditional simple syrup in a cocktail recipe. Orange oleo saccharum is amazing in an Old Fashioned and a French 75 with lemon oleo saccharum gives the classic champagne cocktail and even bigger citrus boost. I’ve yet to try this idea myself, but I’ve heard that lime oleo saccharum is divine in a mojito.

Now that you know what it is and what you use it for, let’s learn how to make oleo saccharum.

Step-By-Step Guide for How to Make Oleo Saccharum

Note: As with all of my simple syrup recipes, I prefer to make smaller batches of oleo saccharum. This recipe will yield about 2-3 ounces, which is great for 3 cocktail recipes. Feel free to double the recipe for a larger batch.

Step One:

Wash 3-4 small lemons, scrubbing lighting. Usually, we don’t wash citrus but since we’re gonna be extracting all the goodness out of the peels, we want to make sure we aren’t extracting any yuckies, too.

Step Two:

Peel the lemons with a vegetable peeler, leaving behind as much of the white pith as possible. Leaving too much pith on the peels will make the oleo saccharum bitter. I used a paring knife to cut off some of the remaining pith on the peels but if your vegetable peeler is real sharp and your lemons are extra firm, you probably won’t need to do this.

Step Three:

Add the peels to a small bowl or mason jar. Sprinkle 1/4 cup of white sugar over the peels and give it a quick stir or shake to coat the peels with the sugar.

Step 4:

Let the peels sit for several hours. After a couple of hours, you’ll notice some oil being drawn out. You can wait anywhere from 3 hours to overnight for this process. The lemon peels were start to look dry and crispy.

For this particular batch, I waited overnight. You can use a muddler or the back of a spoon to really ramp up the oil extraction, too.

Step 5:

At this point, strain the liquid into a lidded container. Don’t toss the peels yet!

Step 6:

Add 1/4 cup of boiling water to the container with the lemon peels. This will pull the remainder of the oils out and dissolve any remaining sugar.

Step 7:

Strain the peels out and discard. Add the hot water to the lidded container that contains the concentrated syrup. Allow it to cool before storing in the fridge.

Oleo saccharum will taste its best within the first week but it will last up to a month in the fridge. Add a splash of vodka to it to extend the shelf life even more.

Oleo Saccharum is a sweet citrus syrup that is produced when sugar and citrus peels are allowed to infuse for a short period of time. The sugar pulls the essential oils out of the peel, where all of the rich citrus flavor hides.
mocktail

Blood Orange and Kombucha Mocktail Recipe | A Healthy Alcohol-Free Drink That’s Full of Flavor

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This Blood Orange and Kombucha Mocktail is a delicious mocktail recipe that packs a lot of flavor and health benefits. If alcohol-free cocktails aren't your thing, easily make this boozy by adding tequila, vodka, gin, or white rum.

This Blood Orange and Kombucha Mocktail recipe is a delicious mocktail recipe that packs a lot of flavor and health benefits. If alcohol-free cocktails aren’t your thing, easily make this boozy by adding tequila, vodka, gin, or white rum.

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! 

I mentioned in this month’s Booze News newsletter that I’m participating in Dry January. For those of you who didn’t read it and don’t know what Dry January is, I’ll explain.

Dry January started as a public health campaign in Europe several years back. Its purpose was to urge people to forgo alcohol consumption for a month. Now, people choose to participate in Dry January for a variety of reasons. Some do it as a way to detox from excessive drinking over the holidays, some do it to save money, some do it to jumpstart their health goals for the year. I’m participating for a few reasons but one of them is to challenge my creativity. Coming up with fun (i.e. not bland or basic) mocktail recipes is hard! I’ve been wanting to create more mocktail recipe options that my non-imbibing friends can enjoy. 

Unfortunately, a lot of mocktail recipes can be a little dull. It can be difficult to create recipes that pack a punch without the robust flavor of a spirit. That’s why I love using kombucha in mocktails. Kombucha definitely provides some zing and while drinking it alone is perhaps more of an acquired taste, I feel confident to say that more people would easily enjoy it mixed into a mocktail recipe.

This Blood Orange and Kombucha Mocktail is a delicious mocktail recipe that packs a lot of flavor and health benefits. If alcohol-free cocktails aren't your thing, easily make this boozy by adding tequila, vodka, gin, or white rum.

For this particular kombucha mocktail recipe, I used a hibiscus, blood orange, and rose kombucha. I actually went to the store to grab my trusty ginger-flavored kombucha but when I saw one that already had blood orange and hibiscus in it, I knew I had to give it a go. And wow. It is SO good. It’s definitely my new favorite kombucha flavor. It’s amazing on its own but it really sings in this mocktail recipe.

Blood oranges are in season right now, but if you can’t find any at your store, you might be able to find cold-pressed or pasteurized blood orange juice. I used cold-pressed blood orange juice since my grocery store still doesn’t have any blood oranges in stock. But, they did have Cara Cara oranges which are pink on the inside so I used one of those as a garnish.

If you’re looking for more mocktail recipe ideas, you can browse the mocktail category on my site. My last post can easily be turned into a mocktail recipe and I’ve got a few other alcohol-free recipes that are delicious– like the Mother’s Garden and the Grapefruit Rosemary Spritzer. Several others can easily be made to be mocktail recipes by leaving out the alcohol.

If you make this Blood Orange and Kombucha Mocktail, be sure to tag me on Instagram and comment below! Seeing you create and even come up with different versions of my recipes makes my day!

This Blood Orange and Kombucha Mocktail is a delicious mocktail recipe that packs a lot of flavor and health benefits. If alcohol-free cocktails aren't your thing, easily make this boozy by adding tequila, vodka, gin, or white rum.

Ingredients for a Blood Orange and Kombucha Mocktail Recipe

  • 1 oz blood orange juice
  • 1/2 oz hibiscus syrup (check out this hibiscus & rose syrup)
  • 1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
  • 2 + oz kombucha*

*I used a blood orange, hibiscus, and rose kombucha, but any citrus, berry, or ginger flavor would also work well.

How to Make A Blood Orange and Kombucha Mocktail Recipe

Add the blood orange juice, lemon juice, and hibiscus syrup to a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake well. Strain into a lowball glass filled with ice. Top off the rest of the glass with the kombucha. Garnish with a slice of blood orange.

Blood Orange & Kombucha Mocktail

An alcohol-free cocktail recipe made with blood orange juice, kombucha, lemon juice, and sweet hibiscus syrup.
Print Recipe
Prep Time 3 mins
Course Drinks
Servings 1

Equipment

  • cocktail shaker

Ingredients
  

  • 1 oz blood orange juice
  • ½ oz lemon juice
  • ½ oz hibiscus syrup*
  • 2+ oz kombucha**

Instructions
 

  • Add the blood orange juice, lemon juice, and hibiscus syrup to a cocktail shaker filled with ice.
  • Shake well. Strain into a lowball glass filled with ice.
  • Top off the rest of the glass with the kombucha.
  • Garnish with a slice of blood orange.

Notes

*If you can’t find hibiscus syrup, this is a good option from Amazon.
**I used a blood orange, hibiscus, and rose kombucha but any berry, citrus, or ginger kombucha would work well.
Keyword blood orange, blood orange juice, hibiscus syrup, kombucha, lemon, lemon juice
This Blood Orange and Kombucha Mocktail is a delicious mocktail recipe that packs a lot of flavor and health benefits. If alcohol-free cocktails aren't your thing, easily make this boozy by adding tequila, vodka, gin, or white rum.
gin

The Green Bee | A Bee’s Knees Cocktail Made with Rosemary Honey Syrup

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The Green Bee is a variation of a Bee's Knees cocktail but with the extra addition of rosemary. If you love gin, honey, and herbal tones, you'll love this riff.

The Green Bee is a variation of a Bee’s Knees cocktail but with the extra addition of rosemary. If you love gin, honey, and herbal tones, you’ll love this riff.

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! 

I love a classic Bee’s Knees. It’s so easy to make (just 3 ingredients!) and really gives the gin a chance to shine. This fall, I’ve been on a big herbal kick. I’ve made my rosemary sage simple syrup three times now and have been using it in just about every cocktail recipe I think it could work in. There’s something so warming about use rich savory herbs like rosemary and sage in cocktails.

I knew that honey and rosemary worked together, so I made a honey rosemary simple syrup. And what better way to use a honey syrup than in a Bee’s Knees?

The Green Bee is a variation of a Bee's Knees cocktail but with the extra addition of rosemary. If you love gin, honey, and herbal tones, you'll love this riff.

To make the honey rosemary syrup, add 1/4 cup of honey, 1/4 cup of water, and 2 sprigs of rosemary to a small saucepan. Heat until the honey is dissolved and turn off the heat. Allow the rosemary to steep in the syrup until it cools. Remove the rosemary and pour into a small lidded container. Store in the fridge.

As I mentioned earlier, simple classic cocktails like the Bee’s Knees give gins a real chance to shine. The limited ingredients won’t overshadow the unique taste of whatever gin you’re using. Choosing a more herbal gin in The Green Bee is a great call because of the addition of the rosemary. But pick what you like. I actually used a botanical rum in place of gin in the drink shown in these pictures.

If you’re a fan of simple, straightforward, and herbal cocktails, this Green Bee recipe is for you.

The Green Bee is a variation of a Bee's Knees cocktail but with the extra addition of rosemary. If you love gin, honey, and herbal tones, you'll love this riff.

Ingredients for a Green Bee

  • 2 oz gin
  • 3/4 oz rosemary honey syrup*
  • 3/4 oz lemon juice, freshly squeezed

How to Make a Green Bee

Add gin, rosemary honey syrup*, and lemon juice to a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake well. Strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with an additional rosemary sprig.

*To make the honey rosemary syrup, add 1/4 cup of honey, 1/4 cup of water, and 2 sprigs of rosemary to a small saucepan. Heat until the honey is dissolved and turn off the heat. Allow the rosemary to steep in the syrup until it cools. Remove the rosemary and pour into a small lidded container. Store in the fridge.

Green Bee

A Bee's Knees cocktail with rosemary honey syrup.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 3 mins
Course Drinks
Servings 1

Equipment

  • cocktail shaker

Ingredients
  

  • 2 oz gin
  • ¾ oz rosemary honey syrup*
  • ¾ oz lemon juice, freshly squeezed

Instructions
 

  • Add gin, rosemary honey syrup*, and lemon juice to a cocktail shaker filled with ice.
  • Shake well, about 20 seconds.
  • Strain into a coupe glass.
  • Garnish with an additional rosemary sprig.

Notes

*To make the honey rosemary syrup, add 1/4 cup of honey, 1/4 cup of water, and 2 sprigs of rosemary to a small saucepan. Heat until the honey is dissolved and turn off the heat. Allow the rosemary to steep in the syrup until it cools. Remove the rosemary and pour into a small lidded container. Store in the fridge.
Keyword Bee’s Knees, black lemon, gin, honey, honey simple syrup, lemon juice, rosemary, rosemary honey syrup
The Green Bee is a variation of a Bee's Knees cocktail but with the extra addition of rosemary. If you love gin, honey, and herbal tones, you'll love this riff.
gin

Gin and Cabernet Sour | A Sophisticated and Easy Wine Cocktail

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A Gin and Cabernet Sour is an uncommon sip. It's sophisticated, simple, and looks beautiful, too. This easy wine cocktail is the perfect drink to serve the next time you're hosting a meal or wanting to pour yourself something special.

A Gin and Cabernet Sour is an uncommon sip. It’s sophisticated, simple, and looks beautiful, too. Next time you’re hosting a meal or wanting to pour yourself something special, make this easy wine cocktail. Your only regret will be not making it sooner.

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! 

I’ve made quite a few wine cocktails lately. The most recent two were made with white wine: the Bishop of Bordeaux and a delicious Mulled White Wine. I thoroughly enjoyed both of them and will make them again in the near future. But red wine has my heart. Given the choice, I will always choose red over white. And of all the reds out there, Cabernet Sauvignon is my favorite. So when I first heard of this cocktail that combined my two favorite alcoholic liquids– gin and Cabernet— I knew I had to try it.

Those two words were first spoken together to me by my good Instagram pal @ebbydranks. We were brainstorming different drinks to make together on an Instagram Live fundraising event and the first drink he suggested was a New York Sour. But that’s seriously the only classic cocktail I’ve ever made that I didn’t like. I didn’t even finish it. If you read that recipe post, though, you might see where I went wrong. Anyway, I told him a big fat NO to that idea and he countered with a Gin and Cabernet Sour.

All of those words together intrigued me. So I obliged. And I’m glad I did.

This is now my all-time favorite easy wine cocktail. It seriously tastes soooo good. And it looks stunning, too. There’s no need for a garnish when you’ve got a red wine float. What is a red wine “float”, though? Floating is the bartending technique of carefully layering one liquid ingredient on top of another. Floats only work if the liquid with the lighter density is poured slowly over the liquid with the heavier density.

A Gin and Cabernet Sour is an uncommon sip. It's sophisticated, simple, and looks beautiful, too. This easy wine cocktail is the perfect drink to serve the next time you're hosting a meal or wanting to pour yourself something special.

If you’ve never attempted a red wine float before, or if you have and it didn’t work, these tips might help:

  1. Pour the wine over the back of a bar spoon. This will help distribute it more evenly over the surface of the denser liquid.
  2. Keep your spoon close to the surface of the cocktail without actually touching it.
  3. Pour it slowly.

You can also check out a video of the red wine float I did for the New York Sour here.

I’ll be honest and say that the first time I made this drink with @ebbydranks on IG Live, I just dumped the red wine in the glass. I started off trying to float it and then I lost my patience and plopped it in. But it actually worked out okay because I can now say with full assurance that it tastes great both ways!

This drink is dying to be served in a Nick and Nora glass. Nick and Nora glasses are essential small wine glasses that are used for spirit-forward cocktails. If you don’t have one, a smaller lowball glass will do the trick.

A Gin and Cabernet Sour is an uncommon sip. It's sophisticated, simple, and looks beautiful, too. This easy wine cocktail is the perfect drink to serve the next time you're hosting a meal or wanting to pour yourself something special.

If you’re thinking about cocktails to serve for the holidays, this Gin and Cabernet Sour is a great option. It marries the mixed drink world and the wine world together in one beautiful glass. Plus if someone just really isn’t a liquor fan, they can just drink the rest of the wine. Or if they don’t like gin, simply swap it out for some whiskey and they can have something pretty close to a New York Sour.

Have you ever had a Gin and Cabernet Sour? Will you be trying one soon? I’d love to hear your thoughts about this unique and easy wine cocktail so comment below and tag me on Instagram.

Ingredients for a Gin and Cabernet Sour

  • 1 1/2 oz gin
  • 3/4 oz orange liqueur
  • 3/4 oz simple syrup (make your own!)
  • 3/4 oz lemon juice, freshly squeezed
  • 1/2 oz Cabernet Sauvignon

How to Make a Gin and Cabernet Sour

Add the gin, orange liqueur, simple syrup, and lemon juice to a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake well, about 15-20 seconds. Strain into a Nick and Nora glass or a small lowball glass. Float the red wine on top by slowly pouring it over the back of a bar spoon, keeping the spoon close to the surface without touching it. 

Gin and Cabernet Sour

A simple yet sophisticated cocktail made with red wine and gin.
5 from 1 vote
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 3 mins
Course Drinks
Servings 1

Equipment

  • cocktail shaker

Ingredients
  

  • 1½ oz gin
  • ¾ oz orange liqueur
  • ¾ oz lemon juice, freshly squeezed
  • ¾ oz simple syrup
  • ¾ oz Cabernet Sauvignon

Instructions
 

  • Add the gin, orange liqueur, simple syrup, and lemon juice to a cocktail shaker filled with ice.
  • Shake well, about 15-20 seconds.
  • Strain into an empty Nick and Nora glass or a small lowball glass.
  • Float the red wine on top by slowly pouring it over the back of a bar spoon, keeping the spoon close to the surface without touching it. 
Keyword cabernet, easy wine cocktail, gin, gin and cabernet sour, lemon juice, orange liqueur, simple syrup

Looking for another easy wine cocktail? Check these options out:

Bishop of Bordeaux

Mulled White Wine with Apple Cider

New York Sour

A Gin and Cabernet Sour is an uncommon sip. It's sophisticated, simple, and looks beautiful, too. This easy wine cocktail is the perfect drink to serve the next time you're hosting a meal or wanting to pour yourself something special.