I have what you might call an accidental garden. When we renovated this house we had no idea what was going to sprout in the yard. It turns out that much of what we thought were weeds are actually coveted bushes. We had dug up some stuff that hadn’t reached its prime bloom, unbeknownst to us. I have a brown thumb (literally and figuratively). Friends and neighbors mocked helped us. We decided to sit back and let Mother Nature surprise us this year. We have copious herbs, with mint overtaking the small plot, and there’s thyme and some other unidentifiable things. It’s fun to be a serendipitous gardener!
All that mint has been beckoning me. I also happen to have a whole mess of lemons on hand. I’ve decided to whip up a lemon mint gin and tonic. Lemon and mint compete with the old standbys as food pairing extraordinaire. The combination flavor profile is sublime, even more so with Death’s Door gin.
Lemon Mint G & T (makes two cocktails)
- 3 ounces gin
- 4 slices of lemon
- juice of one lemon
- handful of fresh mint
- tonic
Fill cocktail shaker with ice. Pour in gin. Add lemon, lemon juice, and mint. Shake until your fingers freeze. Strain into rocks glass. Top with tonic.