Bloomin’ Good: 8 Floral Cocktails For Spring

Flower-based beverages may sound like some fun new trend, but they have in fact been around for ages.

Rose water, for example, first emerged in ancient times and became popular throughout Asia, North Africa and the Middle East. Persians would later perfect the distillation process. Hibiscus spread across the globe with the African diaspora, and is a primary ingredient of Caribbean Sorrel, as well as popular hot and cold teas. The roots of the gentian flower can be found in all sorts of European aperitifs and digestifs (Campari, for example), and cocktail connoisseurs are surely no stranger to elderflower-based St-Germain.

So join legions of our forebears, and raise a glass to the coming of spring with these vibrant, flower-powerful cocktails courtesy of bartenders and beverage influencers the world over.

These Violet Delights

Dream of Purple by Mario Seijo Rivera
Mario Seijo Rivera currently manages El Batey, the oldest bar in historical Viejo San Juan, Puerto Rico. Prior to this homecoming (El Batey was also his first job behind the bar), Rivera came up at the San Juan standby La Factoria, as well as Santaella restaurant in the hip Santurce neighbourhood – home to what many consider to be the birthplace of Puerto Rico’s cocktail Renaissance. This cocktail uses a smooth and slightly aged reposado tequila and balances it with the youthful freshness of citrus and crème de violette.

Ingredients:

2 cl Lemon juice
1.5 cl Agave syrup
1.5 cl Crème de violette
4 cl Tequila Reposado

Shake. Double strain, and serve in a coupe glass with a slice of squeezed lemon.

Rose-Coloured (Cocktail) Glasses

Cupid’s Latte by Camille Wilson
NYC-based Camille Wilson is an academic with a penchant for the pen. She followed the age-old adage to “write what you know” and created The Cocktail Snob, with the mission to help anyone to create a fabulous cocktail hour, no matter the size or style of their home. She offers expert advice on mixology, decor, glassware and even food and cocktail pairings.

Spring may be on the horizon, but this cocktail starts with warm and cosy Bailey’s Irish cream for those last chilly nights, brightened with the exotic scent of rose water, and a romantic rose petal garnish.

Ingredients:

23 cl Milk of your choice
3 cl Baileys Irish Cream
1 tsp Rose water
1 tsp Ground cinnamon
1.5 cl Simple syrup
Rose petals, for garnish

Heat milk in a small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the remaining ingredients. Remove from heat. Pour into a mug or heat-proof container. Garnish with rose petals and enjoy!

[Photo by Shannon Sturgis]

Get Your Greens

Greener by Matteo Zed
Matteo Zed currently heads up The Court Bar atop Palazzo Manfredi, directly overlooking the Colosseum in Rome. Author and brand ambassador Zed is also the global pop-up bar star behind Lost and Found (Cyprus), Central Station & Electric Bing Sutt (Beirut), City Space and Maxim Bar (Moscow) and Black Angels (Prague), to name a few.

This cocktail utilises tequila blanco, which is spicy, green and piquant. He accents it  with elderflower, citrus bitters and sweet pea juice for a plant-iful pop.

Ingredients:

3 cl Don Julio tequila
4.5 cl Sweet pea juice
1.5 cl Elderflower liqueur
1.5 cl Malic and citric solution (substitute citrus juice)
2 dashes orange and mandarin bitters

Shake, strain, and serve over ice in a rocks glass. 

In Hi(biscus) Spirits

Aperol Spritz by Mickaël Bellec 
Chief barman Mickaël Bellec heads up the Lobby Bar at Monte-Carlo’s Hotel Metropole. His twist on the perennial Aperol Spritz features a homemade hibiscus syrup for a petal-packed punch.

Ingredients:

4 cl Aperol
1 cl Hibiscus syrup
8 cl Champagne
1 Slice of fresh grapefruit
1 Dried hibiscus petal

Combine ingredients in a large wine glass with ice. 

Pure Petal Power

Spring Forward by Rachel Robbins
Rachel Robbins, @chickologist, a seasoned mixologist behind a number of high-profile restaurant groups, including David Burke, offered this springy cocktail with swirls of hibiscus syrup, rose bitters and grapefruit juice.

Ingredients:

6 cl Vodka
3 cl Hibiscus simple syrup
3 cl Lemon juice
4 cl Pink grapefruit juice
4 dashes rose bitters

Shake and pour over ice on a Collins glass and garnish with fresh sage and a cherry blossom 

Lavishly Lavender

Tom’s Tie Collins by Belinda Kelly
Belinda Kelly – co-founder of Simple Goodness Sisters drink syrups, and head mixologist at the company’s tasting room and café, Soda Shop, just outside of Seattle, Washington – brings us this blueberry- and lavender-scented take on the Tom Collins. The name refers to the lavender-coloured neckties that were popular when this classic Victorian-era cocktail was first invented.

Ingredients:

6 cl Amethyst Lavender Gin or other gin with botanical aromatics
1.5 cl Blueberry lavender syrup from Simple Goodness Sisters
3 cl Fresh lemon juice
6 cl Club soda such as Topo Chico
Ice cubes
Blueberries, to garnish
Lavender sugar or salt rim

Shake the gin, lime juice and syrup in a cocktail shaker half full of large ice cubes for about 15 seconds. Prepare a small Collins glass with the lavender sugar rim by running a lime wedge along the glass’ rim and gently dipping the glass into a dish with a couple tablespoons of lavender salt. Add fresh ice to the glass, and strain the cocktail into the glass, then top with cold club soda. Stir once and add a few blueberries to garnish the top. Serve with a tall straw. 

For blueberry lavender syrup: Combine 1/2 cup of blueberries, 200 grammes sugar, and 235 millilitres of water in a small pan on medium heat until sugar dissolves. Add a tea sachet filled with lavender buds and submerge for approximately 3 minutes, or until the lavender flavour is present but not overpowering. Strain the syrup through a fine mesh sieve. Store in a sterile glass bottle for up to 2 months, refrigerated.

For lavender sugar:  Place 85 grammes of coarse sugar into a glass container and add 30 grammes of dry lavender buds (no stems). Dryness is essential to avoid clumping the sugar. Cap and store for 1-2 weeks. For a stronger flavour, remove the flower buds after 2 weeks and pulse them in a clean coffee grinder with 50 grammes of sugar and add back into the infused sugar mixture. Seal and store in an airtight jar. Use for cocktail glass rimming or as a topping on baked goods.

[Photo by Rylea Foehl Photography]

Spring In The Tropics

The Bellhop by Zach King
This spring sensation comes to us from Zach King who heads up Denver, Colorado’s Curio Bar. Inspired by the fragrances and flavours of a tropical holiday, it starts with a neutral vodka base, blooms with elderflower and strawberry, and finishes with a flash of fizz.

Ingredients:

3 cl Vodka
1.5 cl Lemon juice
0.7 cl Strawberry juice
0.7 cl St-Germain
1 dash Peychaud’s Bitters
Mint leaves, to garnish
Cucumber, to garnish

Lemon slices, to garnishShake, strain and serve on pebble ice with a float of Peychaud’s Bitters (dash, layered across the top of the cocktail), mint leaves and cucumber and lemon slices to garnish. 

Flower Hour

​​Blossom by Gabriela Lozada
Last but not least is this orange-flower-scented libation, intoxicating in every sense of the word. It comes to us via Gabriele Locada, the head mixologist at Mexico City’s legendary all-female-staffed Bar Las Brujas.

Ingredients:

4.5 cl Gin infused with orange blossom flower
1.5 cl Green chartreuse
1 cl Simple syrup
3 cl Lemon juice
1 cl Orange blossom water

Shake and strain, serve in a coupette glass with an orange blossom.