I got Edibles

Exploring edible flowers for garnishes

So I wanted to touch on edible flowers. Another love of my is gardening so what else could be better than blending both to make something beautiful. So first things first. Do some research. There are apps available to identify plants by taking a picture. Also, like I’ve said before Google is a good place to start. Here is some charts I found.

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Now let’s explore

So I actually am lucky because I have many options in my yard.  So I did a stroll through my yard and these are what I found:

Now Every body freeze!

So now I have to decide how I’m going to present my flowers in a cocktail. So I went with ice cubes. I’m freezing them. ice cubes can spruce up any drink.

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Now make sure you rinse your flowers and pat them dry. You don’t want to find any surprises in your drinks. Fill the cubes and place the flowers in the way you want them.

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Now you have beautiful garnish with no effort!

Now let’s get dressed up

So what’s the best way to display these beautiful ice cubes. One of the best ways to display them is in a spritz. I decided to do 2 different versions of a spritz:

Limoncello Spritz

• 1 oz vodka
• 2 oz limoncello
• 1 oz fresh lemon juice
• 2-3 oz Prosecco
• Top with Sanpellegrino limonata sparkling juice
• Lemon wheels and flower ice cubes for garnish

Place ice cube in glass. Add vodka, limoncello and lemon juice. Lightly stir. Top with desired amount of Prosecco and sparkling juice. This is perfect for a brunch!

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Next I wanted to change it up and do a twist on a spritz. So here is my twist on an aperol spritz

Aperol Spritz

• 1 oz gin
• 2 oz aperol
• 1 oz orange juice
• 2-3 sparkling rose brut
• Top with Sanpellegrino Aranciata sparkling juice
• Flower ice cube and marigold for garnish

Place ice cube in cup. Add gin, aperol and orange juice to glass and lightly stir. Top with desired amount of sparkling rose brut and sparkling juice. Garnish with marigold .

And that’s not all

So I didn’t want to restrict it to just ice cubes. You can take any item you want to help inspire creativity. I decided to use one of those apps and search my yard for another flower and this is what I came up with:

This color is so deep and reminds me of fall. I want to stay with this color scheme so I chose pomegranate as my focused flavor (not to mention they had some beauties and my local grocery store). I decided to make something a little lighter on the alcohol content so went with Italicus Rosalio Bergamotto Liqueur and PAMA pomegranate liquor for this cocktail.

So I want one additional flavor to compliment the pomegranate so since I going with Italicus I’m sticking with citrus so lemon juice it will be.

It’s just so simple

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So I decided to use 1/2 of my pomegranate for simple syrup and the other half will be Muddled. I used my same simple syrup recipe but with one extra thing:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 pomegranate
• 2-3 drops red food coloring

Boil sugar, water and pomegranate until sugar is completely dissolved. Strain into a container and add gfood coloring!

And of course I can’t resist but to add an egg white because I think the contrast to the red will look beautiful.

Now let’s make a cocktail

You’re the Pom!

• 2 oz Italicus Rosalio Bergamotto Liqueur
• 1 oz PAMA pomegranate liquor
• 1 oz pomegranate simple syrup
• 1 oz fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon pomegranate
• Egg white
• Edible flower for garnish

Muddle pomegranate, simply syrup and lemon juice. Add Italicus, PAMA and egg white. Dry shake for 10 seconds. Add ice shake vigorously for 15-20 seconds. Then strain into glass. Garnish with flower.

So now you can use idea to dress up any cocktail. It’s not in your back yard. Explore your local parks and wild flowers and enjoy a pleasant walk. Cheers!!