What’s better than sipping on freshly made berry lemonade? Sipping on the Empress Berry Patch Lemonade, of course! This delightfully summery cocktail combines classic flavors of raspberry lemonade with the beautifully floral and complex flavors of Empress 1908 Gin to give you a summery sipper that’s perfect for enjoying during these last days of the summer season. The gin pairs perfectly with the bright flavors of this drink, and its all natural indigo hue adds an equally bright and fun layered look that’s sure to impress any guest.
What makes Empress 1908 Gin so special?
Empress 1908 Gin is a hand-crafted spirit from Victoria Distillers in British Columbia, Canada. It’s micro-distilled in small batch copper pot stills using eight botanicals: juniper, rose, coriander seed, grapefruit peel, ginger root, cinnamon bark, butterfly pea blossoms and the Fairmont Empress Blend Tea. The gin gets its gorgeous color naturally from butterfly pea flowers. It’s a very complex gin, that lends itself well to floral and fruity cocktails (my favorite!).
Butterfly pea flowers are naturally pH sensitive which makes working with Empress super fun: any acidic additions, such as lemon, shifts the indigo color to magenta or pink. Basic ingredients, such as tonic water, give it the most gorgeous lagoon blue. Honestly, it makes bartending like a delicious science experiment.
How to make this cocktail
Making this cocktail is super simple, and doesn’t require any special equipment or prep. Start by muddling the raspberries in the bottom of a collins glass. Add the lemon juice and the sugar, and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Add your ice, and fill until you’re near the top with soda water.
Now for the fun part! Top the cocktail with 1.75 oz of the Empress Gin. It will float on top of the other ingredients, which will give you a gorgeous layered effect!
This recipe makes one cocktail, but can easily be scaled up to make more.
I hope you enjoy the Empress Berry Patch Lemonade! Be sure to tag me on instagram so I can see your creations, and leave me a comment below! Your feedback helps other home cooks and bakers who are giving this recipe a try, and I love hearing about what you made!
