Cocktail Inspiration From The Produce Place

The Produce Place is a wonderful local business where you can find fresh fruit and vegetables, housemade snacks, and tasty smoothies! My personal favorite item is the Very Berry Salad, which you MUST try if you haven’t yet. It has mixed greens, feta cheese, toffee pecans, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries, and it (like all of the other Produce Place salads) is made fresh every day!

Recently, I picked up fresh fruit as inspiration for fun cocktails. Here’s what my husband mixed and poured, and I happily sampled! Thanks to The Produce Place for tasty, high-quality ingredients!

Mango Cilantro Zinger

Adapted from Serious Eats

Ingredients

• 2 ounces fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
• ¼ cup fresh mango, diced
• ¼ cup loosely packed fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
• ¾ ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice
• ½ ounce ginger juice
• ⅓ ounce mango syrup (you will need mango peels and pits, the rind of a lemon, and granulated sugar)
• 2 ounces rye whiskey

Directions

1. At least 4 hours ahead of time, prepare the mango syrup. It will keep in the fridge for up to 2 weeks!
2. Make ginger juice: Muddle sliced ginger for about a minute, then strain juice with fine-mesh strainer, squeezing out as much juice as you can by pressing on the ginger with the back of a spoon.
3. To make the cocktail, muddle the mango, cilantro, lemon juice, ginger juice, and mango syrup until the mango dissolves
4. Fill shaker with 2/3 full with ice and add the rye. Shake until well chilled, about 15 seconds. Using a strainer, pour into a serving glass. Garnish with additional cilantro and mango.

Stormy Mango

Ingredients

• ½ ounce ginger juice (see above)
• ½ ounce mango syrup (see above)
• 2 ounces gin
• 1 12-ounce bottle of ginger beer (you will not need all of it)

Directions

1. Fill a pint glass half-full with ice. Add the ginger juice, mango syrup, and gin, then stir.
2. Top off with ginger beer and a mango garnish!

Banker’s Lunch

From Liquor.com

Ingredients

• 5 ounces vodka
• ½ ounce dry vermouth
• ½ ounce grapefruit juice
• ½ ounce simple syrup

Directions

1. Add all ingredients into a pint glass and fill with ice.
2. Stir, then strain into a rocks glass and garnish with peel from the grapefruit.

Gin Rickey

From Oh So Beautiful Paper

Ingredients

• ½ lime
• 2 ounces gin
• Sparkling water

Directions

1. Juice the lime into a highball glass and add the squeezed rind.
2. Add gin and fill the glass with ice.
3. Top off with sparkling water and stir.