High Tea Gin Old Fashioned

2022 Let’s Get Blitzen: Cocktail Advent Calendar – Day 13 – High Tea Gin Old Fashioned. Spice up your Old Fashioned game by trading out bourbon for Paper Boat Artisanal Gin by Whitewater Distilling Co. A quick tea infusion on the gin adds a depth of flavour and colour to this punchy sipper. 

This post is sponsored by Whitewater Distilling Co.

Gin is the miss congeniality of spirits. It plays well with others as the diverse array of botanicals used in the distillation process act as little flavour tentacles that latch onto the other ingredients you add to your cocktail to balance and amplify those elements.

Paper Boat Artisanal Gin hails from Cobden, Ontario – just a short drive from Ottawa. On the palate, this gin has strong notes of juniper, accompanied by black pepper, coriander, and orange peel.

A short infusion on the Paper Boat Artisanal Gin with Sloane Heavenly Cream tea adds Madagascar vanilla and Italian bergamot to the mix. Bergamot is an inedible citrus fruit that is primarily used for its peels as the oil is extracted from the skin and used extensively in perfumes – you’ve likely encountered its distinctive scent if you’ve ever enjoyed a cup of Earl Grey tea.

With this particularly cocktail and the NeoCitron Vert Hot Toddy from a couple of days ago, I wanted to encourage you, dear reader, to go outside your comfort zone and utilize gin in contexts well beyond the gimlet or G&T.

Keep in mind, while the “Old Fashioned” is a cocktail you’ve no doubt encountered before – the full name for that cocktail is “Whisky Old Fashioned Cocktail” and is a reference to simpler bartending techniques that prevailed prior to the rise of modern mixology in the mid-19th century. The work cocktail was initially defined as the combination of “spirits, sugar, water, and bitters” – making the “Old Fashioned” the quintessential cocktail.

But the Old Fashioned is also a standard formula for mixology – it is typically comprised of two ounces of spirit, 1 tsp of syrup/sugar, a couple of dashes of bitters, stirred down over ice to chill and dilute. The formula works well with base spirits aside from whisky. You may need to tinker with the ratios to get a balanced finished product.

In this High Tea Gin Old Fashioned I dialled back the base spirit and increased the amount of syrup to achieve a well-rounded, spirit-forward sipper.

I hope you’ll give this one a try and join me on Instagram Stories tonight at 5 p.m. Eastern to stir this up!

High Tea Gin Old Fashioned

5 from 2 votes

Print

High Tea Gin Old Fashioned

Prep Time

5 mins

Total Time

5 mins

 

Spice up your Old Fashioned game by trading out bourbon for Paper Boat Artisanal Gin by Whitewater Distilling Co. A quick tea infusion on the gin adds a depth of flavour and colour to this punchy sipper. 

Course: Drinks

Cuisine: Canadian

Keyword: Gin, High Tea Gin Old Fashioned, Let’s Get Blitzen, Old Fashioned, Paper Boat Gin

Servings: 1

Author: Yvonne Langen

Ingredients

• 1¾ oz Sloane Heavenly Cream-infused Paper Boat Gin
• ¼ oz sage champagne syrup
• 2 dashes Boston bitters
• Garnish: grapefruit twist

Sage Champagne Syrup

• 1 cup champagne
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• ¼ cup fresh sage sprigs

Sloane Heavenly-Cream-infused Paper Boat Gin

• 1 tsp Sloane Heavenly Cream loose leaf tea
• 4 oz Paper Boat Gin

Instructions

1. Add all ingredients to a mixing glass and stir over ice until well-chilled.
2. Strain into a rocks glass over one large ice cube.
3. Express citrus oils from grapefruit peel onto the surface of the drink. Fashion into a twist and drop into the glass.

Sage Champagne Syrup

1. Combine ingredients in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir constantly until sugar is dissolved.
2. Store syrup in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 month.

Sloane Heavenly-Cream-infused Paper Boat Gin

1. Add 1 tsp of Sloane Heavenly Cream loose leaf tea to 4 oz of Paper Boat Gin. Cold steep for 30 minutes.
2. Strain through a fine mesh sieve, store in the fridge.