Herb Infused Cocktail ~ Elderflower Smash

     

    Happy New Year, and welcome back to the Oaks Bed and Breakfast Herb Infused Cocktail series.  This year we hope to bring you some new and delicious cocktails that you can enjoy at home or with us, at one of our events.  With 2026, starting off strong we are hitting the ground running with a simple yet sip worthy cocktail. 

    We had a wonderful Holiday season and our cocktail was the hit of the party for several occasions and are welcoming new guests and events for this year, with another great round of seasonal cocktails to enjoy.  

First up is an Elderflower Smash.  Four simple ingredients pack a punch and this drink is definitely one you want to sip and savor throughout the evening. 

Elderflower Smash 

Single Serving

4 - 6 mint leaves

Juice of half a lemon

2 ounces Gin

1.5 Ounces St. Germain Elderflower liqueur

3 dashes of bitter

Add the mint and lemon juice to a shaker cup and muddle to meld the flavors together.  Once muddled, pour in the Gin, St. Germain, and bitters.  Fill shaker cup with ice.  Shake until the outside of the cup is very cold.  Pour into an ice filled glass.  Garnish with a slice of lemon and or fresh mint.

This drink is so very easy to make and just as easy to sip on while drinking.  Enjoy this drink with a delicious meal with friends around the fire pit.  These cooler evenings make for a wonderful atmosphere for friends to join together and make memories.

As always please drink responsibly and have a designated driver. Cheers!

Herb Infused Cocktail ~ Citrus Basil Gin

 

Summer is in full swing, and the garden at The Oaks Bed and Breakfast, is bursting with colors and flavors that remind us regularly of summer.  The tomatoes are slowly turning red, which is amazing considering how much rain we have gotten this Spring and early Summer.  The new herbs are coming in great, and I can hardly wait to enjoy all of them in new dishes and cocktails.

 

               This month I really wanted to feature St. Germain as one of the liquors in our cocktail and set out to find just the right mix to bring out the flavor of the Summer.  Basil is one of our all time favorite Summer herbs and does not disappoint in this mix.  The jalapenos really come out in this drink as well.  The longer you let the basil and jalapeno set in the Gin the stronger the flavor will be.  You could even go so far as to let it steep overnight if you really want to experience the flavor of those two items.

 

               The grapefruit adds a bit of tart to counteract the slight sting of the jalapeno in each sip.  The basil just adds that bit of Summer you are looking for on those warm Texas evenings sitting on the porch or back deck.  This drink is simple to make but complex in the flavors.  You won’t want to miss this one!

 

Citrus Basil Gin

 

2 ounces Gin

3-4 sliced jalapeno

4-6 basil leaves

2 ounces Grapefruit juice

1 ounce St. Germain

Club Soda (optional)

 

Add your jalapeno, basil and gin to a shaker cup and muddle the leaves and slices down to release the flavor.  Let the mixture sit for at least 15 minutes.  Depending on how strong you want the basil and jalapeno to be.  Add ice to your shaker cup, then add in St. Germain and grapefruit juice.  Give it good shake.  Pour over iced filled, sugar or salt rimmed glass.  Garnish with a sprig of Basil.

 

               St. Germain is one of our favorite liqueurs to use, it is smooth and a little sweet.  Since the elderberries are slowly starting to ripen out along the road, I felt it was time to revisit this French creation.  Not only do we have some basil which is a personal summer time staple, we also have the use of the elderflower liqueur, St. Germain.

               We hope that you will enjoy this refreshing summer cocktail and as always drink responsibly and have a designated driver. Be sure to check out our video on how we made this drink on our YouTube channel.  Cheers from the Oaks Bed and Breakfast.

Herb Infused Cocktail ~ Irish Maid

 

    To help with the St. Patrick's Day celebrations we are sharing a cocktail recipe from our friends at Teeling Irish Whiskey.  If you remember we visited their distillery while in Ireland last year and really enjoyed the tour and tasting at the end of the tour.  We wanted to bring back their whiskey in our cocktail this month to help celebrate the day.  

    Teeling's shared this recipe for the Irish Maid from a local bar named the Dead Rabbit, and creator Jack McGarry. We added in the addition mint, since it is an herb infused cocktail.  I thought about dill but felt that would not be the best flavor combination with the St. Germain.  We love St. Germain, and would use it almost every cocktail if we could but alas we much change it up.  The elderberry liquor is just so pleasant to drink or mix.  

    Irish Maid

2 ounces Teeling Small Back Irish Whiskey

3/4 ounces Lemon Juice

3/4 ounce Simple Syrup

1/2 ounce St. Germain

2 Cucumber Slices

4-5 Mint leaves

    Muddle the cucumber and mint leaves in the bottom of a shaker cup.  Add all the remaining ingredients.  Shake and strain into a glass over ice.  Garnish with a cucumber slice and mint. Enjoy!

    This drink is simple to make and fantastic to enjoy.  Each of my taste testers wanted another glass, to enjoy. Make this drink for your friends and they might never leave.  Be sure to check out our video on YouTube and let us know what you think.   

    We hope you enjoy this drink, since it is quick and refreshing.  This is a single served option, adjust for larger batches for more drinks.  As always please drink responsibly, have a designated driver.  We hope you enjoy the Irish Maid this St. Patrick's Day. Slainte!

Herb Infused Cocktail ~ Hugo Cocktail

    

    Our herb infused cocktail for this month is once again featuring St. Germain, an elderberry liquor, that is just so yummy we had to use it again.  The addition of mint, really helps to bring this drink to the top of the list for Spring time enjoyment.  We plan to make these drinks for our Easter dinner celebration later in the month. 

    I like the versatility of the Hugo Cocktail because you can make it to your taste.  If you want your drink to be a little sweeter then use a sparkling wine more in line with a Moscato.  Now if you prefer to let more of the sweetness come from the St. Germain then I would use a drier sparkling wine such as Gruet Brut NV.  This wine is made in New Mexico, but has roots in France, from where the family came from with the tradition of the Champagne families knowledge of creating sparkling wine.  The drier sparkling wine will really help to make the St. Germain flavors stand out in this drink.  Of course if you want a little bit of sweet with the dry you can never go wrong with a good Prosecco.  A good Prosecco can be used to create multiple drinks to enjoy at most any meal. 

    This cocktail is not only delicious but very simple to make.  No extra time is needed to create a simple syrup or infuse the liquor with the additional flavors of the mint.  It is best to make this cocktail as you go along instead of in a big batch.  So line those glasses up and get ready to create magic with this each drink.

Hugo Cocktail

1 oz. St. Germain

3 oz. Sparkling Wine

1 oz. Club Soda

Fill a glass with ice.  Pour in your portions for the drink, swirl the glass a bit.  Top it off with a sprig of Mint for garnish.  Then enjoy with family and friends.

    We hope you enjoy this cocktail as much as we did.  Please remember to drink responsibly and select a designated drive.  Please share your pictures of your group enjoying this cocktail with us on Social media.  Cheers!

Sage Germain Sour ~ Herb Infused Cocktail

    

    Hello and welcome back to our herb infused cocktail series, a new month has arrived and with it we have a festive drink to share with you, that dovetails a wee bit with the holiday that comes mid month.  In honor of St. Patrick's day we have selected an Irish Whiskey based drink to make with one of the herbs currently growing in our garden.  

    Upon a recent visit to Ireland, my husband and I toured the Teeling Irish Whiskey distillery in Dublin.  I kind of  had to twist his arm to go, because we are not personally whiskey drinkers but we both loved the tour and subsequent tasting, so much that I wanted to feature their whiskey in our drink, instead of another well known Irish Whiskey.  We really enjoyed our tour and even brought home whiskey to share with friends and family.  The tour was well worth the visit!

    

    This cocktail is unique in that it also uses a liquor that is derived from the Elder flower.   St. Germain is an artisanal French liquor that can be used in other cocktails, which we might feature at a later point.  Over here at the Oaks we are big fans of the elderberry, which grows from the elder flower, and has a myriad of medicinal uses and has been known to help reduce the amount of days a person is ill, while having the flu or a cold, when taken as elderberry syrup. 

    The herb we are featuring this month is sage.  Sage is well know in cooking of game birds, sausage and items roasted in the oven for a long period of time.  The slow release of heat, pulls the flavor from this herb, and brings a wonderful taste to the food.  There are a few different sage varieties one can plant, and they typically have beautiful purple flowers when in bloom. 

    We are using sage in two different ways for the cocktail, one is in the honey syrup and the other is fried, and placed as a garish.  The Honey Sage syrup is easy to make:

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup water

3-5 destemmed sage leaves

Put everything into a pot and and cook until the honey is dissolved.  Once dissolved let it cool and sit over night before mixing into the drink.

    Now for the main cocktail.  For most Irish whiskey cocktails you want to use small batch whiskey, it's going to give the drink a stronger flavor and help add to the taste of the overall drink.  The honey sage syrup and St. Germain help the curb the bite of the whiskey in this particular cocktail.

2 oz Irish Whiskey

3/4 oz lemon juice

1/2 oz Honey Sage syrup

1/4 oz St. Germain

Add all the ingredients into a shaker with ice and shake.  Strain into a glass and add some fresh ice.  Garnish with the deep-fried sage leaf.  Enjoy!

    We hope that you will try our latest herb infused cocktail.  Be sure to let us know if you happen to try this drink.  Tag us on social media and remember to always drink responsibly and have a designated driver.

    Slainte