Hello, friends! Thanks for visiting again. As you may have noticed, we received our first minor snow fall this past week. For those of you who love winter and everything that comes along with it, congratulations. I raise a glass to you. For those who despise the season and everything that comes along with it, I raise a glass to you as well. Whether we drink to celebrate or to mourn, let’s do it together. My most recent craft cocktail, "Winter is Coming", was made for you.

Although I love making complex cocktails with various ingredients, my go-to drink is a simple gin and tonic with lime. I’m not sure why – I used to hate gin, but when you mix it with lime, mint or ginger (or all of those things), the gin is easily manipulated to take on the flavour of whatever you’re adding to it.

This was a fun cocktail-creating week for me, because I got to experiment with gin and my favourite line of old-fashioned craft sodas from Ottawa, Harvey & Vern’s.

Harvey & Vern's sodas are produced by the Ottawa-based craft beer company, Kichesippi. I chose to use their Ginger Beer as well as their Lime Soda. This combination gave the drink just the right level of sweet, sour and spicy.

Local ingredients:

Gin from Top Shelf Craft Distillers in Perth

Ginger Beer from Harvey & Vern’s in Ottawa

Lime Soda from Harvey & Vern’s in Ottawa

Mint from Grenville Herb Farm in Ottawa

This is a great cocktail to transition through the seasons. The lime reminds you of a patio margarita on a hot summer day, while the ginger gets you looking forward to gingerbread cookies at Christmas. If you are in denial about the impending cold and snow, this is the perfect cocktail to ease you into it.

Make Your Own

In a martini shaker, add:

1.5oz Gin

4 mint leaves

Muddle mint leaves to infuse gin with the flavour. Then, add:

3-4 ice cubes

Shake vigorously and strain over crushed ice into a rocks glass, leaving the muddled mint in the shaker. Add:

2oz Ginger Beer

2oz Lime Soda

Splash of lime juice.

Stir and garnish with fresh mint.

Enjoy! 

Paulina Grace Hrebacka

Paulina is an aspiring writer with an interest in philosophy, cultural criticism, journalism, and creative non-fiction. She also enjoys music, film, photography, and astronomy. On a good day, you might find her eating pizza and enjoying an amber ale, or listening to very loud music while driving too fast. She is a true lover of life.

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