Favorite Tuesday Cocktail

The Betsy Miller Special

Herb Cocktail

A girlfriend of mine named Betsy has gotten me into making lots of home goodies like bath bombs, herb salts, and specialty drinks. She has mastered it, me on the other hand, not so much. I'm working on it though and I plan to get real good with a lot more practice. This is one of her specialties that she created and we had a group of girls over to her house and made a batch together last week. We started by making our own herb liquor. It's fun and doesn't take too long and feels healthy since there's so many greens in the mix.

We sure had a blast doing this together. This is a very fun bonding activity to do with friends while dinner is in the oven!

Ingredients
375 ml. vodka (preferably high-proof)
10 grams fresh spearmint
2 grams fresh tarragon
2 grams fresh thyme
3 grams fresh sage
2 grams fresh oregano
6 grams fresh basil
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup water
1 small cinnamon stick
Pinch freshly grated nutmeg

Tools
Blender
Saucepan
Wooden spoon
Kitchen towel (not terry cloth)
Funnel
Pint-size glass jar with lid

1. De-stem all the herbs, reserving the leaves and discarding the stems.

2. Combine the leaves with the vodka in a blender. Blend on high for 1 minute. Set aside.

3. In a small saucepan, combine honey and water over high heat. Break cinnamon stick into large pieces and add cinnamon and nutmeg to the saucepan. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat, cover and let cool to room temperature.

4. After the syrup has cooled, remove cinnamon pieces and add spiced honey syrup to the vodka-herb mixture in the blender. Pulse several times to combine.

5. Line a funnel with a single layer of a clean kitchen towel. Strain mixture into a clean glass jar. Let rest several hours and repeat strain, if desired, leaving sediment at bottom of jar.

TIP: We prefer our herbal liqueur with some of the solids still intact, hence the single strain. If you prefer a clearer liqueur, strain the batch through a coffee filter before bottling.