Mix Up This Perfect Spring Sip: Lavender Gin Cocktail

I’m a whiskey girl at heart, but give me a lovely gin with florals and citrus notes and I fall right into fun cocktails like this easy Lavender Gin Cocktail – basically a lavender gin sour. I created the cocktail with Highclere Castle Gin – made with botanicals from the estate where Downton Abbey was filled. It’s smooth, light, not overly juniper-forward, and makes a great floral sour.

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Lavender Cocktails

If you’ve been on my site for a while you know I love lavender cocktails. In the spring and summer, I’m reaching for my lavender bitters and making lavender simple syrup constantly. A bag of culinary-grade lavender goes a long way in adding lavender’s floral notes to a cocktail.

What makes it work so well here is that I picked a gin with lavender botanicals in it. It also had lovely lime citrus notes so I immediately thought of using it in a sour.

Is it a Gin Sour or a Gimlet?

The difference between a gin sour and gimlet is that a gin sour is a category of cocktails that includes any sour citrus, a sweetening agent, and gin. A gimlet by nature uses lime as the citrus and adds a sweetener – either a syrup, or by using a lime cordial. 

So the gimlet is a subset of the gin sour. Both are refreshing, but here, because of the lime botanicals in the gin, I wanted to pair lime as the citrus in this lavender gin cocktail.

Gins and Lavender

Many gins, especially London dry gins, include lavender in them and lavender’s fragrance is a beautiful combination with the more piney scent of juniper.

Although I generally use lavender in whiskey sours because of the beauty of a blend of florals and whiskey, this gin lavender cocktail highlights the floral notes from this gin precisely because of the inherent florals in the spirit.

It takes the florals in the cocktail and ramps them up.

How to Make a Fabulous Lavender Gin Sour

To make a gorgeous Lavender Gin Sour, I included an egg white so I would have a lovely head of foam on the top of the cocktail. Since I knew I was using fresh lavender as a garnish, adding egg white gave the cocktail a beautiful presentation.

However, if you’re not a fan of egg white/aquafaba, egg white isn’t required. Without it the cocktail’s mouth-feel and flavor are not as silky, so the florals and the gin flavors pop a bit more. You could even serve this drink on the rocks for a simple lavender gin cocktail. 

But to get that lovely foam, do a wet shake of all the ingredients, including the egg white, then strain into a clean container and use a latte whisk on the cocktail for 10-20 seconds. That generates a lovely, thick foam that floats atop your cocktail. 

If you don’t have a latte whisk, a hard shake for 30 seconds or so with large ice cubes will get you a layer of foam from the egg white.

Other Lavender Cocktails You Might Enjoy

• Lavender Lush
• Lavender Lemon Old Fashioned
• Peach Lavender Old Fashioned
• Chocolate Lavender Sour
• Lavender Orange Highball

Lavender Gin Cocktail

Heather Wibbels

Take your time sipping this easy and elegant Lavender Gin Sour in spring and summer to celebrate the floral scents of the garden with gin, lime, lavender syrup and egg white. I added lime and orange bitters, but those are optional (as is the egg white). The lavender simple syrup in the cocktail adds sweet floral notes that’ll make you wish you made two instead of one. 

5 from 6 votes

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Total Time 3 minutes mins

Course Drinks

Cuisine Gin cocktail

Servings 1

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 1.75 oz gin
• 1 oz lavender simple syrup**
• 1 oz fresh lime juice
• 1 egg white optional
• 1 dash Scrappy’s Lime Bitters optional
• 1 dash orange bitters optional
• Garnish: fresh lavender

Instructions

 

• Combine ingredients in a shaker and add ice.
• Shake for 10 seconds and double strain into a clean mixing glass.
• Use a latte whisk on the cocktail for 10 -20 seconds and pour into a coupe or Nick and Nora glass.

Notes

**Lavender Simple Syrup

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 2 tablespoons dried culinary lavender

Boil the water and add the lavender to it to make tea. Let it steep for at least 10 minutes, or longer if you want more lavender flavor. Strain the lavender out, and combine the warm tea with the sugar until the sugar has dissolved. Store in the fridge.

Keyword bitters, egg white, gin, lavender, lime

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!