Use botanicals in your cocktails to bring the floral flavor of gin to life.

13 Recipes to Elevate Your Beloved Gin & Tonic
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We won’t ever get tired of the classic gin and tonic. It’s a staple of cocktail menus worldwide.

We’ll always love our G&Ts, but perhaps they deserve a bit more experimentation. In its most basic form, gin can taste of juniper, pine, and florals, which means there are countless ways to enhance those innate flavors when mixing a beverage at home.

Gin generally pairs well with floral flavors that you’ll find in rosewater, rosé, even actual roses. Another significant pairing is with mint, basil, and thyme, incorporated as garnish or muddled into the drink. Finally, what’s a gin cocktail without a drizzle or quarter slice of citrus? It adds a zing of flavor to the drink and is an easy but impressive addition to at-home cocktails.

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Try using flowers, herbs, plants, and botanicals found in your own garden to spruce up gin cocktails for friends. Cassie Winslow’s floral take utilizes roses and plums. Matthew Biancello’s cocktail from Eat Your Drink: Culinary Cocktails uses muddled arugula for a grassy and earthy taste. Some of our favorite gin cocktails range from rosemary-infused gin with grapefruit or an elevated G&T with Kaffir lime leaves, to gin infused with a butterfly pea flower that makes the drink change colors. Talk about a show stopper at your next dinner party!

You may be well-versed in what to order at a bar to get a tasty gin cocktail. By the end of this list, you’ll have plenty more ideas to enhance your at-home bar skills. Here are 13 recipes that will elevate your beloved G&Ts.


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