I had my first basil martini on my honeymoon in Vietnam (sorry – blatant place-drop there) and the herby hint was subtle but delicious.
T
he purple basil works particularly well because it gives the cocktail a lovely colour and also tastes more like the oriental herbs they have in Indochina, rather than the Mediterranean basil we are more used to.
What you’ll need
Makes 2 cocktails:
- small bunch purple basil
- 140 ml vodka
- 3 tsp sugar syrup (Dissolve 100g caster sugar in 120ml water over a low heat then leave to go cold and store in fridge)
- juice 1 lime
- ice cubes
- garnish: basil leaves, lime zest, edible flowers
Method
Dip the rims of the martini glasses into some sugar syrup and then dip in sugar to coat the rims.
Bruise the leaves in a cocktail shaker then add the vodka. The longer you leave them to infuse, the stronger the flavour and colour so if you’re organised you could leave it in the fridge to chill.
If you are a spontaneous cocktail mixer then just crack on.
Add the lime juice, sugar syrup and ice cubes, shake then strain into martini glasses.
Choose your garnish and enjoy!
Purple Basil Martini
Tastes as good as it looks.
MLH found the glasses a tad short on quantity, but great for a summer's evening ahead of MLH 'volunteering' to "do supper."
MLH found the glasses a tad short on quantity, but great for a summer's evening ahead of MLH 'volunteering' to "do supper."
94%Overall Score