Blackberry Elderflower Gin & Tonic Recipe

I'm a huge fan of Hendrick's Gin. Catch me at the bar and you'll most likely find me sipping a Hendrick's & Tonic with lime.

I like gin because it's refreshing and contains fewer calories than most alcoholic drinks.

But sometimes gin gets a bad wrap. I often hear, "Ugh, you drink gin??" whenever I get questioned for my drink of choice. But before you get all judgy, give Hendrick's a try and let me know your thoughts. It's by far my favorite gin.

Hendrick's even got the packaging right. The bottle looks like it comes from an apothecary shop and makes a nice addition to any bar.

Like vodka, gin is made from neutral grain spirits (like rye, barley, wheat, corn) but gin gets steeped with botanicals (fancy word for dried herbs, roots, and citrus peels) and redistilled.

Hendrick's unique taste comes from infusions of rose and cucumber along with 11 other botanicals including juniper, coriander, orange, lemon, angelic, orris root, cubeb berries, caraway seeds, chamomile, elderflower, and yarrow.

For the cocktail recipe I'm featuring in this blog, I chose to enhance the flavor of Hendrick's with St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur, lemon, blackberries, and Fever Tree Refreshingly Light Tonic Water. It's the perfect cocktail for spring.

Start with filling a shaker (or glass) with a handful of fresh, rinsed blackberries.

Add about 1 tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice and 3/4 oz of .St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur to the shaker mixture.

If a drink could taste beautiful, St. Germain would be that drink. It's the world’s first artisanal French liqueur, made with up to 1,000 handpicked elderflower blossoms in every bottle...I mean, c'mon, fresh flowers in every bottle? Beautiful, right?

And again, another visually appealing bottle to add to your bar collection.

If you haven't tried it before, do yourself a favor and give it a try. It's a pretty versatile cordial that pairs well with just about anything. Check out St. Germain's signature cocktail recipes here.

Next, muddle the blackberry, lemon juice and elderflower mixture together. If you don't have a muddler, you can also use the back of a wooden spoon. It works just as well.

Pour the muddled mixture into a highball glass. (Note: If you have a strainer, you can strain out the blackberry seeds. I didn't have one, so I opted to keep them in.)

Then, add ice. If you want to achieve the look in this recipe, you'll need nugget ice...Yes, the ice that Sonic sells. (They also sell nugget ice makers and trays online if you're interested).

I purchased a 10 lb. bag of Sonic ice for about $2. FYI they also sell ice by the cup.

This next step is very important if you want to achieve the layered look in the cover photo.

Take a spoon (a cocktail spoon if you have one) and slowly pour 1 1/2 oz of Hendrick's gin onto the rounded side of the spoon. The liquor will slowly run down the spoon and start pooling on top of the blackberry mixture.

When pouring a drink like this, you have to be very careful not to pour too fast and mix each layer. The drink will still taste great, but you won't achieve the layered look.