Infuse gin with lemon or add lemonade to provide alpine drinks with a cool, icy quality.
While many kinds of drink recipes try to capture the flavors of the tropics, the essence of cool, crisp mountain climates can be captured in cocktail form as well. A broad range of cocktail ingredients evoke the evergreen trees, cold winds and snow-covered peaks of an alpine landscape. With a bit of experimentation, you can develop an alpine ice cocktail recipe that brings back the feeling of a day on the slopes. Does this Spark an idea?
Gin
Flavored with the oil of juniper berries, gin has a taste and smell that make it a well-suited ingredient for alpine ice cocktails. Use gin as the main alcohol to ensure that your alpine ice cocktail recalls the scent of a pine-tree forest.
Juniper Berries
Create simple syrup flavored with juniper berries if fresh juniper berries are available and the aim is an involved, sophisticated cocktail. Cook down juniper berries with the syrup and use it to sweeten alpine ice drinks. Substitute vodka for gin if using juniper berry syrup to avoid over-flavoring.
Forest Berries
Infuse your drinks with the flavor of other berries that are reminiscent of winter or forested areas. Options include blackberries, cranberries, salmonberries or huckleberries.
Sorbet
Wintry drinks are often blended to reflect the icy quality of snow. As an alternative blended ice, use sorbet. Sorbet will give cocktails a richer texture while bringing in another layer of flavor. Make homemade sorbet or purchase store bought. Viable sorbet flavors include mint and lemon.
Advocaat
Add advocaat to give your cocktails a custard-like creaminess that is akin to Christmas eggnog. Advocaat originates in Holland and is made with brandy, eggs, vanilla and sugar.
Lemonade
Finish alpine cocktails with lemonade when a mixer is required. The mint or juniper taste will complement the citrus flavors, accentuating the drinks refreshing iciness.
Tags: alpine cocktail, alpine cocktails, alpine drinks, drinks with, juniper berries