A while ago I accidentally bought a bottle of Tag Honey Ginger vodka. (True story – I went to the bottle shop to buy wine, and left with cider and the aforementioned vodka. Don’t ever send me grocery shopping unless you want a clusterf**k for dinner.)
Recently, 52 Cocktails’ CTO (Cocktail Tasting Officer) accidentally bought a vibrant green bunch of mint.
“It was only a dollar,” he said, “and I thought you could make a cocktail out of it.”
“Yes,” I replied, “but did you buy the ingredients for dinner?”
There was the sound of the front door slamming and tyres spinning as he raced back to the grocery shop.
If you’re sensing a theme here, you’re right: the two accidental purchases went really well together to make a Mint Condition cocktail. And we got take-away for dinner.
MINT CONDITION
This is a bright green drink that’s reminiscent of Moroccan mint tea, but with honey overtones and a gentle warmth. It tastes so healthy you could almost swear it’s kale juice. And that’s about as close to kale juice as we like to get.
INGREDIENTS
15ml honey syrup
12 big fresh mint leaves
45ml Tag Honey Ginger vodka
GLASS
Cocktail glass
METHOD
First, make the honey syrup. Combine equal parts honey and boiling water in a mug and stir to dissolve the honey. Don’t use a strongly flavoured honey such as leatherwood as the cocktail will taste too strongly of it. Allow the syrup to cool.
Next, put the mint leaves and honey syrup into the glass part of a Boston shaker. Muddle the hell out it. Don’t just lightly bruise the mint; treat it as if it’s in a mortar and pestle and grind it into a rough paste.
Add the vodka and a generous scoop of ice. Shake it up, baby!
Double-strain into the glass and serve.
DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY
If you can remember which ingredients to buy, this cocktail is proof that it IS easy being green.
RECIPE BY 52 COCKTAILS
IMAGE CREDIT
Dinosaur provided by our friends at Make it Wednesday: https://www.facebook.com/MakeitWednesday
(We don’t know how the dinosaur crept into our photo. It was probably also trying to buy something.)
