Basil

— No. 146 —

Basil Smash

The 4th of July is one of my favorite hol­i­days, and I cel­e­brate every year by host­ing a par­ty com­plete with home­brewed shandy and fresh sum­mer cock­tails. Because my gar­den is usu­al­ly over­flow­ing by this time of the year, I like to take advan­tage of that by cre­at­ing cock­tails packed with fresh herbs. This year, I’ll be serv­ing my adap­ta­tion of the Basil Smash. The Basil Smash was orig­i­nal­ly cre­at­ed by Jörg Mey­er of Le Lion — Bar de Paris in Ham­burg, Ger­many. Accord­ing to Jörg, he …

— No. 135 —

City Paper Cocktail

The Bal­ti­more City Paper con­tact­ed me about cre­at­ing a sum­mer cock­tail to fea­ture in their next issue. Click here for the arti­cle. They want­ed to inspire read­ers to get cre­ative and mix up sum­mer cock­tails that take full advan­tage of the sea­son’s plen­ti­ful herbs. I chose to fea­ture Thai basil and bol­ster its anise tones with the anise fla­vors in Gal­liano and Pey­chaud’s Bit­ters. Since we’re in the mid­dle of a hot sum­mer, I kept the recipe light and refresh­ing using …

— No. 86 —

Lolita

  • 2 oz vod­ka
  • 1/2 oz hon­ey syrup (1:1)
  • 1 oz fresh­ly juiced toma­to
  • 2 water­mel­on chunks for mud­dling
  • 3 basil leaves for mud­dling
  • Cou­ple dash­es of bal­sam­ic vine­gar
  • Gar­nish with a cher­ry toma­to and a basil leaf