the fruits of summer

The mission of the cocktail journey, though far from complete, has made blog posts somewhat self limiting.....the more drinks I make and discover, the more I find drinks I like a lot and want to repeat, thus less need for blogging and sharing (over the internet....I always share in person!).  But sometimes a new twist on an old favorite makes a post necessary....and sometimes the fringe use of etoh in other recipes make an appearance too.  

A wonderful friend who also happens to be a culinary genius brought me some fantastic grapefruit infused gin.  She made the infusion with Texas grapefruits from a local farm, and though I did not taste the actual fruits, she assures me they are the sweetest grapefruits she has had.  And she had them in spades.  So, how to make use of an abundance of grapefruit?  Gin of course!!!!  She juiced the fruit, boiled with some sugar, and then combined the gin, juice/syrup and the zest.  After infusing for some time, straining the zest/rind out and voila - amazing treat!  The infused gin is thicker than straight gin, has a light pink color, and I mixed it with a bottle of fever tree light tonic. which is not particularly sweet so combined well.  I added a dash of Angostura bitters and made the singularly best summer drink of 2012.  Thank you Kate!

In a tall glass with lots of cracked ice, pour 2 oz infused gin and 1/2 oz plain gin.  Add 3-4 oz (or to taste) fever tree light tonic.  Dash or two of bitters (I used Angostura).  Enjoy!