Today's featured gin infusion comes from Laura, our lovely team member who does so much for our brand behind the scenes. Laura has made more gin than anyone we know, and she is now mastering cocktail photography, I mean just look at that gorgeous photo.
This gin begins with a simple juniper + hibiscus infusion for the first stage. The hibiscus lays down the floral tones before the sweetness comes. Stage 2 involves the removal of the initial ingredients and addition of the fruits of pomegranate and raspberry.
Pomegranate really is the star of this infusion. It is a fruit that is revered for its taste, ability to stain your clothes and healing properties. Pomegranate contains the ever-so-important punicalagins which are anti-oxidants in the body. They’re so powerful that pomegranate juice has been found to have three times the antioxidant activity of red wine and green tea.
What are anti-oxidants? Antioxidants are compounds that stop oxidization in your body. When your body oxidizes it produces these things called 'free radicals' which damage cells in your body. Rusty metal is an example of oxidization outside of the human body. You don't want to have a rusty body, do you?
The three deep red-violet ingredients of hibiscus, raspberry and pomegranate give a romantic and deep wine red aesthetic to the gin, while the juniper base keeps the taste of the forest in your glass.
Cheers to Laura! Queen of garnishes!
]]>Our next featured ginmaker is Eva from Toronto, Canada!
Eva has been infusing her own gin since before she ever heard of the Do Your Gin kit, and when she found out about the product she couldn't get enough of it. She likes to spend fun nights in with her friend making gin - it's a great fun activity to do together.
Here is Eva posing with her gin next to a freshly bloomed hibiscus flower, another one of her favorite gin ingredients.
]]>Passion fruit only came into my life last summer - how could I ever live without it before!? It all started very innocently on a super hot summer day in Berlin. Instead of drinking water, I was inspired by a ready-made drink and mixed passion fruit juice with sparkling water (and ice, a lot of ice!). And so it began - my life was never the same again.
What I love the most about it is that although it is sweet, it's never too sweet. The perfect sweet'n'sour combination. And the most amazing flavour, you can smell it the minute you cut the fruit.
As the weekend is just around the corner, today I mixed up two of my favourite drinks - passion fruit/sparkling water and gin. And you know what? How could I ever live my life before? The cocktail is a total life changer (both virgin and with alcohol - depends on your mood or age).
The recipe is super simple - just mix up passion fruit juice with sparkling water, add ice and gin and garnish with passion fruit slice. The quantity of ingredients is up to you - if you want to make it more sparkling, more fruity, or more gin-ish.
Tip - adding some fresh interior of the fruit to your drink makes it more beautiful and the taste is more fruity.
Remember: depending on the colour of your self-made gin, the look of your cocktail may vary.
Wishing you the very best cocktail weekend, ginlovers!
Cheers!
- Laura from Do Your Gin
]]>This week's special gin comes from Vincent, one of the founding brothers of Do Your Gin!
Making your own gin is definitely fun and exciting, but you don't have to stop there. You can also infuse your gin afterwards by adding fruits and spices to a ready-made gin.
It’s a cold and wet winter in Berlin - a spicy, warm, vitamin-rich cocktail is what you want. What goes better with cold weather than cinnamon!
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Here's the recipe:
Method:
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This week's gin comes from the Mix Mann, you can follow him on instagram at @mixmann. While the beets weren't infused directly into the gin, there was an infusion component and an amazing amount of creativity and skill that went into this cocktail:
LET THE BEET DROP!⠀
60ml Ondina Gin infused with Fennel Seeds & dried marigold⠀
20ml Basil Liqueur⠀
7.5ml Fernet Branca⠀
7.5ml Lustau PX Sherry ⠀
60ml Beetroot Juice (blend 8 x 1cm cubes of Beetroot, 4 Blackberries, 20ml Lemon Juice, 20ml Water and fine strain)⠀
10ml Lemon Juice ⠀
20ml Rosemary Ginger Honey Syrup (1:1:0.5 cups Raw cane sugar to water to acacia honey, 3 slices of fresh ginger and 3 sprigs of rosemary, add the honey in when you take syrup of the heat, leave to infuse for 30mins before straining)⠀
#MsBettersBitters Miraculous Foamer⠀
Combine all in a shaker, reverse shake, strain into a chilled coupe, the add an unbeetable garnish!⠀
The result is a drink quite earthy on the nose from the beetroot, on the palate there a deep fruity combo of blackberry and beetroot, the sweet almost stem ginger taste cuts through with a complex pepper, herb and honeyed finish. A pretty unique taste, funky yet very quaffable!⠀
The garnish inspired this drink yet nearly spilt it, it’s a fine balancing act where in this case I’d prefer the beet to drop it’s flavours and not itself!⠀
Let the cucumber infuse for 3-5 days, shake it well, shake again two or three times per day and strain afterwards. Voila, your gin is ready! Easy as that!
Dill Pickles are actually an infusion too! They are an infusion of the 'dill' herb in with cucumbers. The pickling process generally doesn't happen in alcohol, but rather in a 'brine' made from vinegar and salty water.
Now what didn't we try that now we see we could have, dill pickle gin! Just keep pickling and infusing! Pickle Rick would be proud. Now you can test that out and let us know how it goes ;-)
]]>This recipe is brought to you by Dani and Karolina from Cocomo Chocolates. Follow us on Instagram at @cocomo_chocolates.
We make our own DIY hand-made chocolate kits and workshops here in beautiful Santa Cruz, California.
When we saw what our friends at Do Your Gin were making we knew there was a way to spread all the goodness of cacao infusing into gin too.
We used a pure blend of juniper berries and cacao! We made sure to first infuse the gin and juniper berries together for the first 24 hours, then add the cacao for the second wave of infusion. We have our own source of Organic Fair Trade Ecuadorian Cacao that we ground up in a coffee grinder, then infused those for another 12 hours. Then... cacao gin is ready!
Watch our video here:
Chocolate Cacao Gin by Cocomo Chocolates from Do Your Gin on Vimeo.
- Thank you! With love from Dani and Karolina.
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