Hi, there. I recently visited the Venus Spirits tasting room in Santa Cruz to see what they had on offer. Boy was I impressed. They have a nice selection of Gin, Bourbon and more with some seasonal offerings. Anyway, I decided to make a cocktail from their Gin #02. As I wanted to keep this local, I used Lo-Fi Brand Gentian Amaro out of Sonoma (also wonderful). This cocktail is really fantastic if you enjoy a kind of complex, slightly bitter, citrusy, tad smoky, and moderately sweet straight-up drink.
To a cocktail shaker half filled with crushed ice add
- 4 oz Venus Spirits Gin #02
- 2 oz Lo-Fi Brand Gentian Amaro
- 2 oz Orange Juice
- 2 oz Cranberry Juice
- 1 oz lemon-thyme simple syrup
Shake and strain into two chilled cocktail glasses. Garnish with a twist of orange peel and a twist of lemon peel.
To make a lemon-thyme simple syrup add several good sized sprigs of lemon-thyme to a 1:1 ratio of water and sugar. Bring to a low boil, reduce to simmer and cook for 20 minutes. Once cool strain into a glass container. Keep in the refrigerator.
Cheers!
