If you love cherry blossoms, you’re going to go wild over this floral gin cocktail that blends Kazuki Gin, Dry Vermouth, and Maraschino Liqueur to create a fragrant floral cocktail just in time for cherry blossom season!
Spring on Vancouver Island is always a spectacular explosion of flowers. After a couple months of grey skies, it's always exciting to see the cherry trees blooming. Quickly following cherry blossoms, are lavender and other edible flowers that are not only a visual feast, but they are also delicious. This spring we’re going to help you put some of that floral flavour in your glass.
A Cheeky Spin on the Classic Martinez Cocktail
This is a variation of the classic Martinez cocktail recipe. In this case, we are substituting dry vermouth for sweet vermouth and adding some floral bitters. This brings out the lighter, brighter flavours of spring. This is a spirit-forward cocktail with just four ingredients!
The Story Behind the Ingredients
The base spirit for this cocktail is Sheringham Kazuki Gin. Kazuki Gin is a Vancouver Island gin, but it is inspired by the flavours of Japan. Cherry blossoms and yuzu give this gin a delicate floral and citrus character. The flavour is rounded out with green tea leaves and flowers grown on the island at the Westholme Tea Company.
Dry Vermouth from Esquimalt Vermouth Co. complements the floral and citrus notes of the gin with bright botanical flavours of its own. Esquimalt Vermouth Co, uses their own wildflower mead made with Vancouver Island honey and they blend it with wine and spirits made here on the island.
Luxardo Maraschino liqueur is one of those great, but unfortunately misunderstood classic cocktail ingredients. It is too often confused with the artificially coloured and flavoured cherries found on top of ice cream. Maraschino liqueur is made from marasca sour cherries grown in the Veneto region of Italy. They make for a delicious funky sour cherry liqueur.
How to Make a Cherry Blossom Gin Cocktail
Making this Cherry Blossom Gin Cocktail is as simple as it gets. Everything goes in the mixing glass with ice.
Stir, strain, and garnish.
For the garnish, you can keep it simple with an orange twist, but we’ve added a cherry blossom sugar rim as well.
Serves 1
Ingredients
- Cherry Blossom Sugar for rim
- 1 1/2 oz Sheringham Kazuki Gin
- 1 1/2 oz Esquimalt Wine Company Dry Vermouth
- 1/4 oz Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur
- 2 dashes Angostura Bitters
Instructions
Fill a mixing glass with ice and add Sheringham Kazuki gin, Esquimalt Dry Vermouth, Maraschino liqueur and bitters. Stir until well chilled. Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish.
