Cocktails...At home? ...Yes Please!

by Stefanie Seifer

It’s Friday night…You want to have a delicious cocktail but don’t feel like going out? I’ll teach you how to make a tasty cocktail from your own kitchen.

This is what we are making tonight ladies:

The Eastside Cocktail

6-8 mint leaves

4 cucumber slices

3/4 oz. fresh lime juice

3/4 oz. simple syrup

2 oz. gin

Shopping List

Cucumber, mint, fresh lime juice, sugar or splenda, water, ice, & gin.

*If you don’t already have gin at home, check out my Cosmos are so out… blog . You can pick your new favorite gin.

For this cocktail: The Eastside, I would recommend Plymouth (neutral) or Hendricks (cucumber essence). It just pairs best.

Tools

A jigger. Ideally it would be best to have a jigger, but you can measure your ingredients with any type of measuring cup or spoon.

A muddler.An at home variation would be a wooden spoon to break up the mint and cucumber.

A shaker. An at home set (single) or 2 piece set (mixing tin and shaking tin) usually used in bars.

A strainer. If you are using a two piece tin set. If you have a single set, the

strainer is part of the setup.

Prep

First you want to make your simple syrup.

Traditionally simple syrup is made 1 part water to 1 part sugar. Ex. ½ cup of water to ½ cup of sugar. (It always fun to have leftovers). Mix together with a whisk or a spoon until it is completely dissolved and …Voila…you have simple syrup. If you are using splenda…it is the exact same measurements 1 to 1.

Put the simple syrup aside.

Building cocktail

If you have a double shaker, build in the smaller mixing tin. If you have a single shaker, there is only one place to build it.

Place in tin

6-8 mint leaves (no stems)

4 small slices of cucumber

3/4 oz. simple syrup

3/4 oz. fresh lime juice

Gently use muddler or wooden spoon to muddle ingredients until broken up. Do not over muddle, if mint is over muddled it becomes bitter and makes the drink taste off balance.

Then add

2 oz of gin

Last fill the tin with ice, then secure mixing tin into shaker and shake well.

Strain into chilled cocktail/martini glass and garnish with floating slice of cucumber with a sprig of mint going through center of cucumber.

Make it your own

I always say…drink your drinks the way you like them. I like to put my eastside’s in a rocks glass with ice cubes. It makes me drink slower and keeps it chilled.

If you are feeling frisky tonight and have some champagne floating around the house, top off your eastside with a little champagne.

Want to add some bubbles but don’t want the extra kick…add some soda water on top.

Not a fan of gin? Sub the gin for tequila (better to stay with a silver or blanco).

Had a bad night with both gin and tequila…fine..okay you can sub the gin for vodka.

…Hope this helps ladies

Stefanie Seifer

Co-Founder of DirtyandThirty.com. Human/Creator/Actor She loves finding her inner goddess, drinking wine, and you can usually find her on a spin bike or a yoga class 5 days a week. Besides co-founding DirtyandThirty.com, she's an actress and can whip up some fabulous classic cocktails. Although not a fabulous cook, you can find her at the farmers market every Monday and loves to frequent restaurants, bars, and local speakeasies. www.StefanieSeifer.com