Pride Garden Granita
HAPPY PRIDE 2020!!!
Starting last year, one of the best humans on the planet (NOT EVEN hyperbole), Dan Magro, created a lovely Pride Month drinkstagram campaign called #pridepour. Basically, it was a way for us Instagram cocktail creators to celebrate and support Pride through our cocktail art skillz, and at the same time, raise money for/donate money to LGTBQ-focused charities. SIGN ME UP. Dan utilizes this campaign to raise funds and awareness for The Trevor Project, which is a phenomenal organization that provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer & questioning (LGBTQ) young people under 25. To honor Dan, and this wonderful organization, I enthusiastically jumped onboard with the #pridepour campaign last year, with the Rainbow Flower Fizz:
The Rainbow Flower Fizz is basically a typical gin fizz, made with 2 oz. of violet butterfly pea flower-infused gin (such as Empress 1908), 1 oz. lemon juice, .5 oz. marigold syrup, and 1 egg white, shaken up, then topped with club soda, a few drops of lavender bitters, and a very ridiculously extravagant flower crown garnish.
Additionally, I created this special-edition Pride Rooster t-shirt available for sale on #ShopDWC, from which 100% of profits will be donated to The Trevor Project:
Click here to buy.
As you can tell from last year’s cocktail, my #pridepour jam rests very heavily upon floral garnish, and…more specifically, flower confetti. WHEN IN DOUBT, THROW SOME FLOWER CONFETTI ON IT.
So it’s absolutely no surprise that I fell back on my old ways this year, and created the Pride Garden Granita, is it?
Furthermore, I felt inclined to plant an actual Pride Garden this year:
And I’m thinking this is going to become a yearly tradition. Why aren’t Pride Gardens more of a thing? They need to be more of a thing.
Anyhow, the Pride Garden, shockingly, really inspired this frozen, boozy beverage. Layers of colored, frozen gin all smoosh together to create a tangy, floral-y, summery glass of joy. All topped off with a dash of flower confetti. IT’S SO GOOD, YOU GUYS. It makes my heart happy.
You will, however, need a few fussy ingredients, but if you don’t already have these items in your home bar, I highly recommend you go ahead and stock them: Indigo Gin, Aperol, Hendrick’s Midsummer Solstice Gin, Passoa Liqueur (this might be a tricky one to locate, so if you can’t find it, go with a raspberry liqueur such as Chambord), and some sort of limoncello. It’s a layered slush. You gotta have layers.
PRIDE GARDEN GRANITA
Makes two servings.
Purple Layer:
4 oz. butterfly pea flower-infused gin, such as Empress 1908
2 oz. fresh lemon juice
1 oz. floral honey simple syrup (instructions below)
2 oz. club soda
Mix all ingredients together and place in a low, flat dish and freeze overnight.
Yellow Layer:
3 oz. fresh lemon juice
2 oz. limoncello
2 oz. club soda
Mix all ingredients together and place in a low, flat dish and freeze overnight.
Orange Layer
2 oz. Aperol
2 oz. fresh lemon juice
2 oz. club soda
Mix all ingredients together and place in a low, flat dish and freeze overnight.
Pink Layer:
4 oz. hibiscus tea brewed as per instructions
1 oz. fresh lemon juice
1 oz. Passoa Passionfruit liqueur
Mix all ingredients together and place in a low, flat dish and freeze overnight.
As for the honey syrup: mix an organic wildflower honey (I used this one) in a 1:1 ratio with hot water to create a syrup (so to make exactly enough for this recipe, mix .5 oz. honey with .5 oz. honey). Stir to dissolve thoroughly, then refrigerate until ready to use. Can you use any type of honey? Yes. Can you use just plain simple syrup? Yes. Can you use something like lavender simple syrup, or orange blossom simple syrup? YUP. Any type of floral simple syrup would work beautifully! Might I suggest: Royal Rose Co. Lavender Lemon, Rose, or even Jasmine syrups? TRY THEM ALL.
Once you have frozen everything overnight and are ready to build your granita, take the various frozen layers outs of the freezer, and then use a fork to scrape them into a loose snow. Layer them in a large coupe glass, starting with the purple layer, then top it with the yellow, then the orange, then the red. Top with a sprinkling of edible, organic flower petals if you have them. Serve immediately, cuz it’s gonna get shmelty.
You know what goes really great with this boozy pride cocktail? A Pride Rooster t-shirt that benefits a really great LGTBQ cause. Luckily, I know just where you can get you such a thing: here.
While you’re at it, go give @danmagro a follow cuz he’s the bee’s knees.
Happy Pride, my friends. #LOVEISLOVEISLOVE