I can’t believe its spring already, but… here we are, squarely on the first day of spring.  I’ve been out getting the garden geared up for the spring/summer plantings of vegetables, and there’s lots of fresh herbs springing forth.  There’s a limit to how many you can cook with, so a small bunch of today’s pickings went into a cocktail to celebrate the solstice.

This is chock full of herbs, to build on the herbal (and pleasant bitter) flavours present in the green chartreuse and Cynar.  Five spice syrup adds a bit of sweetness and punches up the herbal flavours.  For many of these, there really aren’t ready substitutes for some of the herbs (like lovage and salad burnet).  If you can find some, try this out — its got lots of complex herb notes, yet is quite refreshing at the same time.

I’m calling this the Green Goddess for no other reason than because its green, and thats about as creative as I can get tonight!

The Green Goddess Cocktail

• 1/2 mini cucumber
• a few sprigs each:
  • salad burnet
  • cutting celery
  • tarragon
• 4-5 lovage leaves

Muddle together with 3/4 oz. five spice powder

• 1.5 oz. Boomsma Genever
• 0.5 oz. Green Chartreuse
• 0.5 oz. Cynar
• 0.5 oz. fresh lime juice
• 3 dashes Aromatic bitters
• Absinthe rinse

Shake with ice, double strain into a cocktail glass rinsed with absinthe.  Garnish with a cucumber twist and seasonal herbs