Sup wit dat cocktail

Directions

Pine and Spruce Tincture

1. Combine dried spruce tips and pine needles in a spice grinder or a food processor and slightly blitz.
2. To a non-reactive container, add vodka. Stir in ground spruce tips and pine needles and let sit at room temperature for at least ten days, agitating a few times during the infusion period.
3. When the tincture reaches an intense flavour, strain out solids and bottle.
4. Store at room temperature. This tincture is shelf-stable. To use it, you can measure with a bar spoon or, if available, a medicine dropper. 

Saline Solution

1. Combine grapefruit peels with sugar in a medium bowl. Slightly muddle to release the oils and integrate with sugar. Set aside.
2. In a medium saucepan, toast cloves and allspice berries on medium heat until fragrant (about three to four minutes). Slowly add grapefruit juice, then the sugar with peels and the citric acid.
3. Simmer on medium-low, stirring frequently until sugars are dissolved, about 10 to 15 minutes.
4. Let cool and strain out solids. Bottle and refrigerate for up to three months.

Cucumber Lime Cordial

1. Use a microplane, zest the limes' skin, and place in a medium bowl. Add in the sugar. Mix well and set aside for 15 minutes.
2. Cut the zested limes in half and juice with an elbow juicer to get one-third of a cup of lime juice.
3. Transfer lime juice, cucumber juice, sugar and lime zest mixture into a blender. Blend on low-medium setting until sugar is dissolved (about five minutes).
4. Strain cordial through a fine sieve into a separate container, then seal and refrigerate for up to three weeks.

Cucumber Ribbon

1. Run your potato peeler lengthwise down an entire cucumber and remove the top skin. Repeat the process to have a long strip with skin on the edges and flesh in the middle. Start from one end and slowly roll the strip into itself as if you are making a fruit roll-up. Stop one-eighth of the way down the strip. Take a cocktail skewer and skewer through the middle of the roll to anchor it. Fold the rest of the cucumber strip back and forth into the skewer, making an accordion or wave-like appearance. Do this until the skewer ultimately secures the strip. 

Cocktail

1. In a cocktail shaker, combine all ingredients but the cucumber ribbon. Add enough ice to cover the liquid in the shaker, plus a bit more. Cover and shake vigorously for 10 to 15 seconds. Strain through a Hawthorne strainer into a 12-oz rocks glass over fresh ice cubes.
2. Garnish with the cucumber ribbon. Enjoy!