Blog

Digging in the Dirt and Jam Session

Garden infusions and fruity preserves!

For these recipes, we are doing some mixing with a few ingredients you may not have used in the past (at least for cocktailing) – Beets and Jam. I come from the Perogy-belt of Canada, so, perogys ARE my jam!

Oookay! Let’s get things shaking with the Jam Session, a simple fizzy delight that makes use of the sweet goodness of preserved fruits. For my recipe, I used Over the Hill Orchards Raspberry Spread, which has a nice balance of tart and sweet.

Jam Session

1oz Saskatoon Berry Vodka from Last Mountain Distillery

.5oz Aperol (my fav to add to cocktails to balance sweetness while remaining fruity)

.5oz Lemon Juice

1tsp Raspberry Jam

Shake ingredients with lots of ice, make sure that jam gets really dissolved in the liquid. Strain over new ice in a LOF (large Old Fashioned Glass) and top with CYBRPUNK Lemonade. This adds the bubbles and punches up the citrus. This cocktail doesn’t need simple syrup, the jam preserves add the needed sweetness to mellow out the liquor and complement the citrus.

Digging in the Dirt

This cocktail requires a bit of forethought – you’ll want to make the gin-fusion the night before, or at least 6 hours before mixing. The earthy flavour of beets is more common in Borscht but with some creative mixing, it makes a delicious cocktail as well!

Beet Gin-fusion:

1-2 medium sized beets, peeled, sliced

12oz Gin, I used Last Mountain Granny’s Gin

1 Lemon, squeezed (this prevents the colour of the beets from browning due to oxidization)

Keep in a sealed jar, shake to combine flavours and let sit in a cool dark area (overnight for best infusion). Strain through a tight mesh strainer into a clean bottle, keep refrigerated. The gin-fusion doesn’t go bad, but the flavour will dull over time, so I recommend using within a few months.

The cocktail recipe…

1.5oz Gin-fusion

1oz Lime Juice

.75oz Demerara Syrup

sprig of dill

Shake with ice, double strain (to remove ice chunks and dill) into a chilled martini or coupe. Garnish with a dill sprig and enjoy!

Dig that colour, dig that flavour!