Cucumber Hibiscus Cocktail
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From Garrett's Table:
"Contrary to popular belief, cucumbers are not vegetables but rather fruits. Cucumbers belong to the squash family and are in the same genus as the common muskmelon. Their fragrant sweetness is notoriously good with gin. Many gin connoisseurs add a slice of cucumber to their gin to compliment the subtle juniper flavor. In America cucumbers have, for the most part, been demoted to a salad topping, but let’s try something a little different.
Since it’s such a close relative of the muskmelon, I decided to make a sweet cocktail from the humble cucumber, which is where our second character comes in: Hibiscus. What we call hibiscus includes a group of over 200 species of plants in the Malvaceae family of flowers native to warm regions such as Mexico. The flower of the plant itself is dark red. It’s flavor is best described as a combination of a lemon and a rose. Just a couple dried flowers steeped in warm water results in a deep crimson tea with a pleasantly tart flavor.
This is a refreshing cucumber and hibiscus cocktail. It’s a combination of sweet hibiscus tea and a lightly carbonated cucumber and gin soda. The hibiscus tea is simply sweetened with honey and the cucumber and gin soda is made from cucumber juice and gin steeped with a few juniper berries to accentuate the gin. The cucumber mixture is charged in a siphon and poured over the hibiscus tea. The effervescent bitterness of the cucumber and gin immediately refreshes and gives way to the sweet and tart hibiscus tea."