Gin Cocktail Recipes

Get all sorts of gin cocktail recipes from the Drinky Drink Project. From floral delights to tangy mixes, I’ve got recipes that will shake up your cocktail game. Get in touch with me for details.

Ingredients:

• Gin
• St-Germain Elderflower Liqueur
• White Wine
• Lime Juice

Today is one of those days when I google a cocktail name to see if it exists. Turns out there are a few cocktails called Wasp, but since I don’t really like banana liqueur, this was the one I chose.

Now, I hope you’re dying to know why I searched for a cocktail named Wasp. It’s because I got stung today! Two wasps got me while I was watering my plants out front. Just like my mom, a retired cop, always says — nobody ever looks up. I didn’t look up. There was a new wasps’ nest in the eaves of the house. I didn’t touch it, but I walked under it. And the wasps were ready for a fight.

I don’t think I’ve ever been stung by a wasp before. It feels like fire! Holy shit, it burns. It is now eight hours later, and it still burns. I got stung once on my arm and once on my back. The one on my back was actually BLEEDING, which only tells me that the little effer was out for blood.

So here is the good news. My neighbor is a firefighter who also does yard work as his side gig. He was here to do my yard when I got stung. He hung out with me to make sure I wasn’t going to have a SITUATION, and he took care of the nest. “Took care of” sounds so nice. He didn’t care for it. He obliterated it. Let’s hear it for cute firefighter neighbors with side gigs!

And the Wasp cocktail might make it all worthwhile! (No, I take that back.) But I’ve made so few cocktails with wine, and this is really nice! The sweetness of the St-G is balanced with the wine and the lime juice. It turned out to be the balance of a standard sour cocktail with the complexity of the wine thrown in. Yes! Maybe I deserve a second today?

Original Recipe:

• 5 oz Gin
• 5 oz Crème de Violette
• 1 Egg White
• 5 oz Lemon Juice
• 5 oz Simple Syrup
• A rinse of Absinthe

Garnish:

• Fennel
• Wormwood (Optional)

This original cocktail, the Fly-Away Day, is in honor of the Eastern Black Swallowtail butterfly who laid her eggs on my fennel plant and let me care for her babies.

I didn’t intend to be a caterpillar steward, but the caterpillars were there, and the wasps were buzzing around, ready to make a meal of them. So, I got an enclosure to keep them safe, and it allowed me to watch as chubby caterpillars turned to chrysalides (cocoons) until the day this drink is named after, fly-away day. I just released the last butterfly a few days ago. Google “Eastern Black Swallowtail” if you’re curious — they are big, beautiful creatures!

I put a lot of thought into this, and I’m glad it turned out tasty. The creme de violette represents the flower part of the cycle, as the grown butterflies eat flower nectar. The egg white is from the eggs lain on my fennel. The rest of the ingredients are there to support the floral theme. The fennel is there because that is what the caterpillars eat, and the wormwood is there because of the Absinthe in the drink.

The whole butterfly project lasted about a month, and I’ll be better prepared next year! I plan to plant a lot more fennel, as well as parsley and dill. I also wanted to get more native flowering plants in my garden to feed the butterflies and the bees.

Thank you for reading this far. It was a lot to read because it’s a special cocktail.