Better late than never? Hope so.
My holiday gifts to clients and office friends became New Year’s Gifts. A bout of the flu and the usual craziness kept my crafting at bay for a few weeks. Around Thanksgiving, I schemed up the idea to make ginger syrup and deliver it with bottles of bourbon and my signature cocktail recipe. As always, my big ideas take a little more time than I think they will and execution suffers.
My “day job” is running a small consulting business. I am fortunate to work with many people in the food industry who appreciate tasty concoctions. Because I planned to make ginger syrup, I thought amber glass would be fun and after finding these apothecary-like bottles from Uline, I was inspired to create prescription-style labels.
I first experimented with this ginger syrup cocktail when I hosted a jewelry party with my friend Jodi. During the summer, I furthered my experimentations while working with Spice Islands, using ginger powder instead of actual ginger. The result was this Minty Ginger Bourbon Cooler. Finally, I have settled on the below recipe and serve it regularly to guests at our house as my signature cocktail!
Since my consulting business is called Goldfish Marketing, I coined the cocktail The Goldfish. As my friend and client Ebony pointed out when she received her gift, it is also fitting that ginger syrup come from a ginger like me. (Translation: Ginger=redhead.)
I suppose it’s a little late for me to be offering you homemade holiday gift ideas but if you keep these bottles on hand (you have to order a case of 12 or 24 at a time), there are many yummy things you could gift in them year round: Homemade vanilla extract, infused oils or vinegars, syrups infused with garden herbs. I have a half dozen amber glass bottles left so my scheming isn’t over yet.
The Goldfish
1 ounce Ginger Infused Syrup
1 ounce fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 ounces bourbon
Shake over ice and serve straight or on the rocks with a twist.
How to make Ginger Infused Syrup
4 cups water
2 cups white sugar
2 cups washed, chopped ginger root
You don’t need to peel the ginger root. Just wash it and chop it until it is in about 1/4 – 1/2 inch pieces. Put sugar and water in a stock pot and bring to a boil. Stir and reduce heat. Add the ginger. Simmer for 45-60 minutes or until it has reduced to a nice syrup. Using a fine meshed strainer, strain out all the ginger.
To bottle it, sterilize bottles and fill with cooled syrup. Keep refrigerated, it will last at least a month if your bottles were sterilized and possibly longer.