The Elixir...

One of the evenings out and about in Milwaukee, Cynthia collaborated with the bartender at The Safe House and created a cocktail that we dubbed, "The Elixir".  Someone else at the bar started ordering them and called it, "That Fairy Drink" and I could totally see fairies sipping this.  It's sweet, floral, and refreshing.  The ingredients are simple:  1 shot of St. Germain, 1 shot of Hendrink's Gin, 1 shot of water, and shaken with ice.  It's apt that I've taken a renewed interest in mixology.  We're reading "The Drunken Botanist" by Amy Stewart for Book Club and she talks about St. Germain and gin.  St. Germain is an elderberry flower liquor.  To me it tastes like lychee fruit, but has hints of citrus and honey.  Gin is composed of several botanicals, including ingredients like juniper berries, orris root, grains of paradise, coriander, cubeb, fennel, ginger, citrus peel, cardamom, bay leaf, and angelica root.  Hendrick's includes the unexpected additions of cucumber, chamomile and rose petals.

Knowing that I've been missing my family, William picked up the ingredients!  It's a spendy cocktail, using top shelf liquors, but it is the perfect drink to sip on while watching fireflies on an almost-summer evening.