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🍸 Drink of the Week — Sun & Flowers (#18)

Descriptor:
A bright floral spring libation capturing sunshine, lilacs, and porch-time ease.

With lilacs blooming across Rochester and the Lilac Festival season underway, this week’s featured libation celebrates spring the way it should be enjoyed — on the porch, with something beautiful in the glass.

Yesterday evening, Susan & I enjoyed “Sun & Flowers” on the porch — a quiet moment to welcome the season, surrounded by blooming lilacs and the promise of warmer days.

Inspired by the blossoms now showing across Rochester, I made a fresh batch of homemade lilac syrup and lilac gin. An image of this drink shows homemade fig vodka and I will share this at another time. Homemade lilac gin captures the fragrance and color of spring in a bottle.

As a picture will show, the commercial lilac gin I used may no longer be readily available, so making your own is not only practical — it ensures the flavor and tradition can continue. Fig vodka, while commercially available, is also simple to make at home and adds a rich seasonal character to this drink. Again, more about this in the near future.

🍸 Sun & Flowers (#18)

Ingredients

• Juice of 1 fresh lemon 🍋
• 3 jiggers lilac gin (homemade or commercial if available)
• 3 jiggers fig vodka (homemade or commercial)
• ½ jigger simple syrup
• Ice
• Garnish: sprig of lilac or fig

Directions

Pour ingredients into shaker.
Add ice.

“Shaken not stirred!” — 007, Bond, James Bond 😂

Strain into martini glasses over ice.
Garnish with a sprig of lilac or fig.

Makes two libations — one to share and one for you.

ENJOY! 😉 Drink your ‘Sun & Flowers’ responsibly! 😂

By Dahni — I-Imagine Press
© 2019, All Rights Reserved

From Sips with Susan — A Gathering Place Companion 🍸

 This drink is part of a growing collection of original libations created and shared at The Gathering Place.

🌸 Bonus — Homemade Lilac Syrup & Lilac Gin

With lilacs blooming across yards and gardens — and the Rochester Lilac Festival season underway — it seemed only fitting to capture the fragrance and color of spring while the blossoms are fresh.

So earlier this week, I prepared some lilac syrup, followed by homemade lilac gin, using blossoms gathered during peak bloom.

As shown in the photo, this homemade approach ensures that “Sun & Flowers” can be made even when commercial lilac gin is difficult to find or no longer available. The same applies to fig vodka — commercially available, but simple and rewarding to make at home.

🌿 Lilac Syrup

Ingredients

• 2 cups filtered water
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups fresh lilac flowers
• 1 handful blueberries
  *(the secret trick — adds a beautiful violet color and helps stabilize the natural lilac tone)*

Directions

Bring water to boil in saucepan.
Add sugar and stir until dissolved.

Reduce heat to simmer.
Add lilac flowers and blueberries.

Stir gently until desired color develops.

Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Strain twice:

1️⃣ Through a strainer
2️⃣ Through cheesecloth

Pour into a sanitized container.

Use & Storage

From this double batch of syrup:

• Reserve 3/4 cup of syrup to make lilac gin.
• The remaining syrup can be used directly in drinks — including an up-and-coming recipe, “Lilac Lemonade,” which I will be sharing soon.

If making syrup only, the full batch may be stored and used as needed.

Store refrigerated in a sealed container. Shelf life: approximately 2 weeks.

🌸 Kitchen Note

The handful of blueberries is the quiet secret in this recipe.

Lilac petals alone often produce a pale or fading color.
The blueberries deepen the violet tone and help stabilize the color naturally — without changing the floral character of the syrup.

Sometimes the smallest additions make the biggest difference.

🍸 Homemade Lilac Gin

To prepare lilac gin:

Place 3/4 cup lilac syrup into a sanitized bottle or jar.

Add:

• 1/4 cup grain alcohol
• 2 cups gin
  (I used Gordon’s Original Dry London Gin for its strong start and finish of juniper.)

Cap and shake gently.

It is basically ready when you are — and delicious.

Note: I used some of the leftover Lilac Gin made locally. It had already lost its color. So, I saved some of my Lilac Syrup, which according to the recipe in “Sun & Flowers” uses 1 jigger of simple syrup. This made our drinks color stable and so is the Homemade Lilac Gin, seen in the Mason jar above.

🌸 A Rochester Tradition

Here in the Rochester area, lilacs are more than flowers — they are tradition. With the Lilac Festival season underway and blossoms appearing across yards and parks, it feels like the right moment to celebrate spring properly.

And sometimes the best way to do that is simply:

A porch.
Blooming lilacs.
Two glasses.
And time enough to enjoy them together.

Yesterday evening gave us exactly that.

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🌿 Coming Soon

In the coming weeks, I’ll share more ways to use this homemade lilac gin and syrup — including a layered lilac lemonade, where violet syrup rests below bright yellow lemonade.

Spring has only just begun.

🎥 Some drinks from Sips with Susan are demonstrated on our YouTube channel, with more to come.
Visit here: https://www.youtube.com/@the_gatheringplace