cocktail

Arugula In My Gin

by whitney on May 15, 2012

Last week, I grabbed a drink at Library Bar at The Roosevelt Hotel. The bartender served me up, what he called, a “Rockette.” Its star ingredient, other than gin, was freshly torn bits of wild arugula. It was delicious! If you’ve never been to Library Bar, all the beautiful produce used in each cocktail is stocked in abundance on the bar for all to see. Just to the right of where I was sitting was a bowl of juicy strawberries. As I sipped my Rockette, I thought ” what if these strawberries were in my drink?”

Boom. Making dreams into reality, people.

I also decided to add a little rhubarb bitters into the mix! Excellent addition, I must say.

I’m not that keen on measuring. A little of this, a little of that, taste as I go along and I end up with what I want and what I find to be balanced. A good rule of thumb for cocktails like this is 3 parts booze, 2 parts sweetness, 2 parts sour. Then you can make as little or as much as you want, for yourself or a crowd. Ingredients: gin, lime juice, agave syrup, bitters (a few generous dashes), torn arugula and diced strawberry. Dice up the strawberry a bit and tear the arugula with the tippy tops of your fingers. Put that in a shaker with ice and then add all liquid ingredients. Shake the crap out of it.

The strawberries sigh out some juice and give the whole thing a lovely blush. I am a crushed ice kind of gal but use a large square cube if you prefer for less dilution. Honestly- I drank it so fast, it didn’t have time to melt.