Give your gin martini a spring update – this Cucumber Martini with St Germain elderflower liqueur is refreshing and sophisticated.
Love flavoured Martinis? Try my French Martini!
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Did you know today is World Gin Day? If you were looking at my Twitter feed you couldn’t possibly fail to notice that – it’s continuous stream of cocktails and politics today.
I won’t go into the politics, but let’s just say that gin is probably an essential tool for navigating through current events these days.
I am much more suited to talking about gin cocktails instead – it’s probably my favourite spirit and I am forever playing around with mixers and fruit trying to come up with new ideas.
WHAT IS A MARTINI
A classic Martini is made simply with gin or vodka and a touch of dry vermouth. And, contrary to James Bond’s instructions, it is a stirred cocktail, not shaken so put your cocktail shaker away.
Flavoured Martinis have expanded the ingredients of the classic Dry Martini to include other liquors and flavours. My Cucumber Martini is a refreshing variation of the original drink made with Gin, St Germain Elderflower liqueur and fresh cucumber juice.
Which Gin?
Since we are using gin as the primary ingredient in this cocktail, it is important to use a high-quality gin. Certain brands will suit this Cucumber Martini more than others – my favourite one to use here is Hendrick’s Gin.
Cucumber Martini
Cucumber and gin are so well suited that you can go wrong with adding a cucumber slice in your gin and tonic.
It is even better in a Martini provided you are prepared to grate some fresh cucumber to extract the juice. It’s not really a hardship, you can even combine it with making some tzatziki so that nothing gets wasted.
You will be rewarded with a beautifully refreshing cocktail that looks pretty damned cool as well. It’s that irresistible chartreuse colour – without the addition of actual Chartreuse.
What I have added instead, is St Germain which is a delightful elderflower liqueur that hopefully is in your drinks cabinet already to make Red Queen cocktails with, right?
HAVE YOU MADE MY CUCUMBER MARTINI RECIPE? Post a photo on my Facebook page, share it on Instagram, or save it to Pinterest with the tag #supergoldenbakes and make my day!
Cucumber Martini
Ingredients
Cucumber Juice
- ½ cucumber grated
Cucumber Martini
- 120 ml (½ cup) gin Hendricks Gin preferably
- 80 ml (⅓ cup) cucumber juice
- 1 ½ tbsp St Germain or see notes
- 1 ½ tbsp lime juice
- 2 tsp sugar syrup
- cucumber slices to garnish
Instructions
- Grate the cucumber using a box grater or in a food processor. Use your hands or a muslin cloth to extract the juice then strain into a clean jar and keep in the fridge for up to 2 days. You will get rougly a half a cup of juice from 1 medium cucumber.
- Place two martini glasses in the freezer to chill.
- Put the gin, cucumber juice, St Germain, lime juice, and sugar syrup in a cocktail shaker half filled with ice.
- Shake hard for 30 seconds and divide between the two chilled glasses.
- Use a vegetable peeler to peel long thin slices from a cucumber and the pleat them onto a cocktail stick to garnish.
kellie@foodtoglow says
Honey, I just riffed on your recipe and love it – so refreshing! I added an apple to the cucumber and ran them through my juicer, cut the gin in half, muddled in a frozen kaffir lime leaf, and let it infuse for half an hour. Your recipe is now my go-to for a refreshing summer drink in the garden. Thank you Cheers! xx
kellie@foodtoglow says
Wow, this is stunning. Not only the sound of the drink, but your very pretty images. I am stealing the old book idea! Got plenty of those kicking around 🙂 Bookmarked and pinned to make at the weekend. I’ll cheers you!
Lucy Parissi says
I have to credit my husband for the books – he insisted on styling this cocktail shoot! I made fun of him but it does work 😉
Dom says
i’m kinda hooked on St Germain at the moment… I prefer it to Aperol as it makes a divine refreshing drink! This cocktail is so pretty.
Lucy Parissi says
I know! I usually keep a bottle to hand it lends such beautiful flavour to summer cocktails. And my signature Christmas cocktail too.