Remember when I promised I’d stop posting so many recipes using rosemary? I lied; I’m sorry. Here’s just one more.
This is more a fun project than a recipe, if that helps any.
A few months back I explored adding aroma to cocktails by way of a Smoke Tincture. Today while we’re in the depths of winter I thought that a lovely, woodsy aroma would bring some warmth to our drinks.
Capturing essences for use as an accent to cocktails opens up the possibilities by adding another level to drinks. Even if those drinks are as simple (or for some not so simple) as a Martini. A Gin Martini is only as good as its base ingredients, but add another level with the deep sweetness found in rosemary and you’ve got something special. You could easily play off a London Dry for a more straightforward rosemary accent, or add to something as busy as Uncle Val’s gin and your senses are getting hit with both vegetal, floral and earthy notes. No need to go the simple route too. A gin fizz or, hell, you could pair some rosemary accents with a tequila or mezcal cocktail to highlight those notes.
Before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s make the tincture first.
Rosemary Tincture
1/2 cup grain alcohol (151 proof)
1/2 cup rosemary leaves, cleaned and de-stemmed
Combine alcohol and rosemary in an airtight container. Let sit for 7 days in a cool, dark place, gently agitating once a day. Filter leaves out of the liquid through a fine strainer. Bottle into dropper bottles, or in an airtight container.
*Note: although the color of the tincture will start out bright green, it will naturally settle into a brownish color. Albeit, not as nice, but the aroma will still be present.Â
Rosemary Martini
2-1/2 oz. gin, Fords Gin used here
1/2 oz. dry vermouth
1-2 drops rosemary tincture (recipe above)
In a chilled cocktail glass, add rosemary tincture and rise glass, pouring off excess. In a mixing glass filled with ice, stir gin and vermouth for about 20 seconds. Strain into prepared cocktail glass.
Here the subtle rosemary is a great companion for the juniper and citrus notes in the gin. It’s a pretty bright martini and that woodsy accent helps round out the drink.
 which I’ve been perusing as of late. Besides a multitude of more complex cocktail recipes, which are projects I always love, there were also the smattering of more approachable recipes that one is drawn to since it can be done with ingredients you probably have on hand. Today’s drink stems from one of those.
Los Angeles has their first full-blown cocktail happening starting tomorrow, January 28th. 
. It had more character than I had experienced in other tonic waters and added a nice, spicy flavor profile to a G&T. In making my own, I wanted to capture some of that spiciness, but also introduce more bolder flavors into the mix. The tonic ingredients moved away from what I thought of mostly as “Indian” spices (cardamom, coriander) and moved more into the broader category of “Southeast Asian” (kaffir lime leaves, ginger).
, make sure you hone your paring knife before every use. Believe me, once I tried this out it made cutting citrus zest SO much easier since I had a nice sharp blade to work with. You can pick up a sharpening steel for relatively cheap online, and save yourself the trouble of having to go and constantly replace your paring knives. Saving money, that’s my gift to you all. 
) ice cube and found that the slow dilution kept this balanced the whole time I sipped it.
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