The Ophelia Cocktail

Yesterday, the Ophelia Cocktail came to my attention because of this article. And so I looked at several other proximal versions. Most of them seem to use rosemary-infused syrup, some of them use soda water instead of ginger beer. I was stopping at the market anyway, so on the way home from work, I picked up some fresh rosemary and served these with dinner.

They were nice enough, but not the best thing ever. I think rosemary syrup would be a better way to go -- the simmering in syrup would extract more of the herb's flavor, I imagine. Also, I think the ginger beer I used was too sweet and not spicy enough. A real pallet-wrecker of a brew would be better! But I definitely think using ginger beer instead of soda is the way to go -- a little Moscow Muleish, I suppose.

That recipe called for Hendricks or Botanist and I had the Botanist on hand, that's what I used. I think it was a good choice. It has a strong flavor without reminding us of paint-thinner. I think you could use any gin in this recipe and it might even be fun to sub it out for a strong caraway Akvavit. Just use whatever herbal infusion you like -- it's not going to harm the ginger, and probably not the rosemary, these are all flavors that can stand up for themselves.

So, to recap:

• Muddle 1 TBS of rosemary leaves in 1TBS of lemon juice. (I've seen a lot of people muddle with too much vigor. In general I counsel for a light muddle -- you want to express some essential oils, but not all the bitter stuff in citrus rind or fresh herbs. I think in this case, in order to extract enough of the rosemary, you might want to go ahead and muddle vigorously.)
• Strain rosemary-flavored lemon juice onto a chunk of ice in lowball.
• Add 1.5 oz of your preferred gin to the glass.
• Top with 3 oz of ginger beer, preferably a sharp and spicy brew.
• Garnish with a sprig of rosemary. This matters. The muddled herb will flavor things nicely, and the sprig does not. What it does do is give you the nice aromatics for olfaction as you drink.