Gin and Elderflower Tonic

If spring were a cocktail, it would be this gin and elderflower tonic, a refreshing mix of gin, elderflower liqueur, maple syrup, and lemon. Easy to make and even easier to sip.

The trees are finally blooming in my little Vermont neighborhood and I'm more than ready to get back to eating fresh foods from our garden. Recipes like my rhubarb oat breakfast cake and chamomile cookies are high on the list.

Honestly, I'm always a bit surprised anything is able to survive the harsh winters here, so I'm always excited to see things like fresh herbs and flowers popping back up and can't wait to find a use for them in the kitchen.

Last summer we added a few elderberry trees to our growing collection of fruit plants, and I'm happy to see they've sprouted plenty of healthy green leaves this spring.

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• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Substitutions
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• Gin and Elderflower Tonic

Did you know that elderflowers and elderberries are from the same plant? Both the flowers and the berries are useful in cooking and for medicinal purposes.

You've likely heard about or tried elderberry syrup for its ability to combat and prevent colds. The berries are super high in antioxidants. Though the berries are also great for making things like jam and pie. Just be sure you cook them before eating, as they're considered poisonous when raw.

The flowers of the elderberry plant, on the other hand, are just as useful. Elderflower liqueur, for instance, is made with these elderflowers and is excellent in cocktails. It's more of a floral flavor than the berries and that makes sense, considering the flowers are what flavor the liqueur. But I find there's also a hint of sweetness and citrus to it.

Side note, I love to make liqueurs. They're so simple. It's typically just a matter of steeping ingredients in alcohol for a period of time. Last summer I made one with blackcurrants and another with sour cherries. I'll have to make a couple of cocktail recipes with them to share. But you should try making a liqueur of your own. There are so many flavor options you could try as we head into summer, using ingredients such as herbs, flowers, and fruits.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to make my own elderflower liqueur quite yet. The new plants typically don't put out too many flowers or fruits in their first full year and cutting off what flowers we do get means fewer berries later on. I think I'll just let the plants be for now.

Fortunately, elderflower liqueur is easy to find. St Germain is a popular French elderflower liqueur brand, but it's not the only one. I recently picked up a bottle of St. Elder, an American-made natural elderflower liqueur and it's delicious.

I used it to make a simple gin cocktail recipe that's a riff on the classic gin and tonic. It's a refreshing, easy-to-drink cocktail that brings to life that happy feeling of seeing life sprout back up around us each spring. I added maple and lemon to complement the sweet and citrus flavors of the elderflower liqueur.

Ingredients

• elderflower liqueur - such as St. Elder or St. Germain
• a good gin - such as my favorite, Barr Hill
• fresh lemon juice - skip the bottled stuff, please
• maple syrup - such as the amber grade from Baird Farm
• tonic water
• lemon slices
• ice

See the recipe card below for quantities.

Instructions

Making this gin and elderflower tonic cocktail is really just a matter of combining ingredients in a glass with ice and stirring. I don't think you can go wrong. But here's a breakdown.

Hint: It's important to pour the drink into a glass of fresh ice so that it doesn't get watered down from the ice you used while stirring the drink.

Substitutions

• Make it a Mocktail- If alcohol isn't an option for you, leave out the gin and liqueur and try using an elderflower flavored tonic water instead, such as this one from Fever-Tree. Keep the lemon juice and maple syrup as they are.
• Tonic Water - On the other hand, if you're not a fan of tonic water, use seltzer or club soda instead.

Variations

• Lime in place of lemon - I haven't tried it, but I think lime juice and a lime wedge instead of the lemon would be a great variation to this gin and elderflower tonic.