When it comes to creating a new holiday cocktail, many bartenders immediately reach for the whiskey (or if your bartender frequents Pinterest, he or she might immediately reaches for candy canes). And while whiskey can certainly make a great wintery drink—no one is arguing the contrary—it leaves the rest of the spirits behind the bar unloved and lonely during this time of sharing and coming together.
Portland’s Korean-American restaurant Bluehour rectifies this problem with its simply named Plum & Clove cocktail. For starters, the cocktail’s boozy component is gin, which is likely the most holiday-ish spirit out there since it’s made with juniper—a coniferous evergreen plant in the same family as pine trees. Bar Manager Gigi mixed the herbaceous and floral flavors of gin with the fruity flavors of plum and lemon and balanced it out with a little bite of clove.
“I wanted to make a wintery plum cocktail, mixing complex flavors but was torn between bourbon and gin,” Gigi says. “Once I decided to pair clove with the plum, I chose gin because all the botanicals play gently with the plum, but help tone down the clove. The splash of soda helps round it all out.”
Check out the recipe for the Plum & Clove cocktail below. For more holiday cocktail recipes from our installments of Holiday Cocktail Central, click here for the Fremont Fog, here for the Gingerbread Flip and here for the Toffaha Toddy.
Plum & Clove
Ingredients:
2 ounces gin
1 ounces plum puree
1 ounces lemon juice
¾ ounces Clove Syrup
Directions:
Shake with ice, strain into a glass full of ice and add a splash of soda.
