Colorful Gin Sour variations
Sours are available in countless variations, with a wide variety of spirits. Classics are the vodka sour, whiskey sour, pisco sour or the gin sour. They are so popular because you don’t have to have taken a cocktail course to mix them, but at the same time they can easily outshine many complex drinks in terms of taste. “5 – 3 – 2” is the basic formula for a classic sour. 5 units of spirit, 3 units of acid, 2 units of sweetness. Shaken on ice and ready. In this blog we will introduce you to a few delicious gin sour variations that you can easily mix at home and that will delight both the palate and the eye.
For these Gin Sour recipes we have used our three gins (Munich Dry Gin, Wanderlust Gin & Rough gin) infused with various flowers, spices or herbs. You can find out how to easily infuse gin at home in our blog “Make your own infused gin“.
The strong, colorful colors are not due to chemical dyes, but solely to colors from nature. The yellow in the Saffron Gin Sour comes from saffron threads that we have inserted into our rough gin. To get the pink in the Hibiscus Gin Sour , we infused our Wanderlust Gin with hibiscus flowers. The purple in the Pea Tea Gin Sour is caused by the Asian butterfly flower, which we have already written a separate blog article about. You can get details about the miraculous petals and other recipe ideas here: “ From blue to pink – gin cocktails in fantastic colors“. You get the juicy greens in the Basil Gin Sour by muddling or shaking basil leaves vigorously.
In addition to the beautiful color effect, the infusion of the gin used also has an impact on the taste of the gin sour - with some infusions more, with others less. Depending on how much you want to change the taste of the original gin, more or fewer flowers, herbs or spices can be macerated in the gin. In the case of the four infusions used here, this particularly applies to saffron and basil, as they give off a lot of their own flavor to the gin. Hibiscus and pea tea flowers are much more reserved and only add a slight additional flavor.
Of course, you can also infuse other spirits and use them to create sours or other colorful drinks. For example, we also have one Hibiscus Vodka Sour with our LION’s Vodka mixed. Feel free to use other herbs, spices, flowers or even fruits - you don’t always have to infuse a whole bottle of gin. Simply infuse the amount of gin for one or two drinks and experiment a bit. Lavender, raspberries or cinnamon, for example, can also give your gin sour an exciting twist.
Here are the recipes for our four colorful Gin Sour variations.
Pea Tea Gin Sour
5cl Pea Tea infused THE DUKE Munich Dry Gin*
3 cl lemon juice
2 cl sugar syrup
1 egg white
Butterfly Pea Tea flowers
Basil Gin Sour
3 cl lemon juice
2 cl sugar syrup
10-15 fresh basil leaves
1 egg white
Saffron Gin Sour
5cl Saffron infused THE DUKE Rough Gin*
3 cl lemon juice
2 cl sugar syrup
2-3 strands of saffron
1 egg white
Hibiscus Gin Sour
5cl Hibiscus infused THE DUKE Wanderlust Gin*
3 cl lemon juice
2 cl sugar syrup
1 egg white
Dried hibiscus flowers
Have fun mixing – cheers!
Many thanks to Pascal Herliczek for the beautiful pictures!
