Ahhhhhh, summer! When the sunshine and temperature makes you feel like day drinking is a perfectly reasonable activity… Everyone knows the magic combination of iced tea and lemonade (as popularized by the great golfer Arnold Palmer and the Half & Half from Nantucket Nectars). Now imagine how much better it would be if the iced tea were made with Earl Grey–infused gin… and there you have our perfect summer cocktail!
It is a super easy recipe, as long as you remember to infuse the gin a couple of hours ahead of making the cocktail. This is one of the first cocktails that Nick and I shared with our Wednesday Night Cocktail Club (to great acclaim), and everyone we’ve served since then has loved it. What’s not to like? Fresh-squeezed lemon juice, ample sugar syrup, and a refreshing tea-infused gin! Any gin will do—here we used Beefeater, but we wouldn’t recommend anything more expensive (like Hendricks) as the Earl Grey creates a lovely infusion of bergamot and black tea that makes even a cheap gin (hello, King Robert’s!) taste delicious.
Here’s our recipe (with props to Los Gofres at AllRecipes for the inspiration):
The Perfect Summer Cocktail: Earl Grey–Infused Gin
Ingredients
1.5 oz gin (per drink)
Earl Grey tea bags or loose tea (I recommend one tea bag per two drinks)
0.75 oz fresh lemon juice
1 oz demerara syrup
Method
Infuse the gin 2–4 hours ahead of time (roughly one tea bag to 3 oz gin) in an airtight mason jar, shaking occasionally. Remove the tea bags before mixing.
Combine the infused gin, lemon juice, and demerara syrup in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a coupe or martini glass to serve. Cheers!
