Lavender Ladies

Years ago I used to have a bit of a thing for White Lady cocktails (without the egg white – I can’t bring myself to do it somehow) and a much harder head when it came to drinking them – those days are mostly behind me now,  just recently though the gin has been calling. It may be because of all the Agatha Christie I’ve been watching where pre dinner drinks are de rigueur, or the books I’ve been reading where the same thing applies. It always sounds so nice when it’s theoretical and hangover free.

What really tipped the balance though was a wine friend telling me about a Lavender Lady – it’s a rare thing to find a cocktail name that’s genuinely amusing but this one did it for me. At the time we were vague about where the Lavender flavour came from but Bompas and Parr made have a recipe for something that calls for Lavender infused gin – no messing around with essential oils just flower heads steeped in gin for a couple of days – what could be easier.

The result is an exceptionally powerful and really quite delicious drink – the bits floating in this one are lavender flowers – a result of my underestimating the straining power of my cocktail shaker. Ingredients are 1 measure of lavender infused gin (take a jam jar of gin add a teaspoon of flowers leave to infuse for 24 hours) 1 measure of triple sec (Cointreau being about the best – though I would love to try this with Chase Marmalade Vodka because a) I love marmalade and b) it would have even more of a smoky old lady vibe to it) and 1 measure of lemon juice. Put masses of ice in a shaker, add the spirits etc, shake like mad, strain, pour, and drink.