Bugs & Lola cocktail recipe

A wintery gin cocktail that cleverly, deliciously, unexpectedly sneaks carrots into your diet? Plus maple syrup and molasses bitters? Sign us up.

BUGS & LOLA

By Alex Utter of Cardinal Spirits

Makes 1 cocktail

1.5 ounces Cardinal Spirits Standard Dry Gin
3⁄4 ounce lemon juice
3⁄4 ounce carrot juice
1⁄2 ounce real maple syrup
2 dashes molasses bitters (recommended: Fee Bros.)
Orange peel

Add all ingredients except orange peel to a shaker tin and shake with ice for 15 seconds. Double strain into a chilled coupe glass. Express the oils from an orange peel by gently squeezing the peel over the cocktail, letting the oil mist over the drink. Discard the peel.

Tom Collins cocktail recipe

The story of how the Tom Collins got its name is pretty widely disputed, but one thing definitely isn't: this drink is a classic for a reason. It's simple and delicious, especially with our Terra Botanical Gin. 

Terra adds a bit of herbal flavor to this fizzy, lemony cocktail. Like we've said before, this gin doesn't take much dressing-up to be great, and this classic cocktail is the perfect example. A Tom Collins with Terra is light and refreshing, tart and sweet. Ease your way into the colder seasons with this twist on a classic.

TOM COLLINS
Makes one cocktail

1.5 ounces Cardinal Spirits Terra Botanical Gin
3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
1/2 ounce simple syrup
Club soda
Lemon wedge and brandied cherry to garnish

Add gin, lemon juice, simple syrup and ice to a cocktail shaker and shake thoroughly. Strain into a Collins glass filled with ice and top with club soda. Garnish with lemon and cherry.

Salty Dog cocktail recipe

Here's the amazing thing about our Terra Botanical Gin: you don't need to add much else to it to make a great cocktail. This a gin that you definitely want to taste in a drink, not cover up.

You need just two ingredients — okay, three if you count the salted rim — to make this Salty Dog. It is a classic cocktail that really lets our gin shine. The lovely botanicals in Terra play well with fresh citrus juices, especially the grapefruit in this drink.

SALTY DOG

Makes 1 cocktail

1.5 ounces Cardinal Spirits Terra Botanical Gin
3 ounces fresh grapefruit juice, to taste
Coarse salt

Salt the rim of a large rocks glass. Fill the glass with ice, then add the gin, then add the grapefruit juice. Stir gently if desired. 

Sage Gimlet cocktail recipe

What kind of cocktail do you make with a gin that you really love? Our go-to is a gimlet, which, when cheered on with a little fresh lime juice and simple syrup, lets a great gin shine.

Our Terra Botanical Gin is a knockout on its own, so you don't need much else to spin it into a fantastic cocktail. We happen to love it in a gimlet, and we know you will, too.

For this gin, we collaborated with Lior Lev Sercarz of the legendary La Boîte spice shop in NYC. Lior created the custom spice blend that gives Terra its woodsy, wild, fresh profile. It is wilderness in a bottle.

The best way to drink Terra is to dress it up minimally, with fresh lime and simple syrup — and a bit of sage, which bounces off Terra's other botanicals so beautifully. 

SAGE GIMLET

Makes 1 cocktail

2 ounces Cardinal Spirits Terra Botanical Gin
.75 ounce fresh lime juice
.75 ounce simple syrup
3-4 sage leaves, plus another sprig for garnish

Add the gin, lime juice, simple syrup and 3-4 sage leaves to a shaker, then add ice. Shake well, then strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with a sprig of sage. 
 

Kickstart My Heart cocktail recipe

Two of our bartenders — Chris Resnick and Baylee Pruitt — got married recently, and their wedding felt so true to them, right down to the cocktails. 

You might know Chris and Baylee as the masterminds of Tiki Tuesday at the distillery. They collect rum and hunt online for cool tiki vessels and they even have matching pineapple tattoos on their arms. They are living la vida tiki. 

So, it was fitting that their wedding had the most perfect tiki touches: elegant birds of paradise bouquets, a delicious curry bar for dinner, tiki mugs shaped like giant pink elephants for the wedding party, pineapple sew-on patches as favors...

...and to drink...

Punch! Three delightful punches, in fact. One with rum, another with tequila and a third with gin. Punch glasses were set out on the tables, and guests took them up to the bar to be filled (and refilled, because you gotta try all three) at their leisure. It felt relaxed and fun and thoughtful, just like the rest of their wedding.

If you're wondering what these two bartenders would drink at their own wedding with a room full of their bartender friends (NO PRESSURE, GUYS!), here it is — the recipe for Kickstart My Heart, Chris and Baylee's herbal gin punch. It's adapted for a single cocktail, but feel free to batch it.

KICKSTART MY HEART

By Chris Resnick of Cardinal Spirits

Makes 1 cocktail

1.5 ounces Cardinal Spirits Standard Dry Gin
1/8 ounce green chartreuse
1/2 ounce fresh lime juice
1/2 ounce Batavia Arrack
1 ounce green tea
1/4 ounce simple syrup

Add ingredients to a Collins glass with ice. Stir, then top with a splash of club soda.

Rabble Rouser cocktail recipe

This cocktail recipe combines our Standard Dry Gin with blackberries and sage, but the real beauty of this recipe is that you can play around with the types of berries and herbs you use. How about raspberries and mint? Strawberries and basil? 

Pluck whatever herbs from the little pots sitting on your patio. Use up whatever berries you scooped up at the farmers' market. Go to town. 

Our Standard Dry Gin is up for the mix-and-match challenge. We distill it with whole natural botanicals and spices — aromatic juniper, orange zest, fragrant coriander seeds, and earthy angelica root — and it really sings when it's combined with fresh ingredients in a cocktail like this.

RABBLE ROUSER

By Chris Resnick of Cardinal Spirits

1.5 ounces Cardinal Spirits Standard Dry Gin
.75 ounce fresh lemon juice
.75 ounce simple syrup
3 blackberries, plus one more for garnish
2 sage leaves, plus one more for garnish

Muddle simple syrup, blackberries and sage in a shaker. Add gin and lemon juice, then fill with ice. Shake well. Double strain into a small rocks glass filled with ice. Garnish with a blackberry and sage leaf.

Loosey Goosey cocktail recipe

While on the hunt for some fresh cocktail ingredients one Saturday morning, our bartender Kevin Hinkle spotted gooseberries at the farmers' market and brought them back to the distillery. These tart little berries are kind of obscure and old-timey and from the same species as currants. Definitely not something you'll find in the produce section at most grocery stores.

So if you see them at the farmers' market, scoop em up like Kevin did, and make this tart, zippy summer refresher. 

LOOSEY GOOSEY

By Kevin Hinkle of Cardinal Spirits

1.5 ounces Cardinal Spirits Standard Dry Gin
3/4 ounce fresh lime juice
1/2 ounce gooseberry syrup (recipe follows)
Ginger Beer
Lime wheel and gooseberries, for garnish

Add gin, lime juice and gooseberry syrup to a shaker, then add ice. Shake vigorously, then strain into a tall glass with ice. Top with ginger beer and garnish with a lime wheel and gooseberries.

For the gooseberry syrup: In a saucepan over medium heat, combine 1 cup sugar, 1 cup water and 2 cups gooseberries. Stir and cook until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and let cool completely. Strain gooseberries from syrup before using. 

Hoffman House Fizz Cocktail Recipe

 

This gin cocktail with roots in the early 1900s gets shaken into a rich, creamy, luxurious tizzy, then it's topped with a splash of soda to give it an ethereal fizz — and bring it back to just this side of decadence.

HOFFMAN HOUSE FIZZ

2 ounces Cardinal Spirits Standard Dry Gin
1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice
1/2 ounce fresh orange juice
1/2 ounce grenadine
1/2 ounce heavy cream
Egg white
Club soda, about 1-2 ounces

Add all ingredients except club soda to a shaker, then add ice. Shake vigorously, then strain into a tall glass (without ice). Top with club soda.

GIN N' BITTERS COCKTAIL RECIPE

If one or two dashes of bitters balances out the flavors of a cocktail, what will 10 dashes of bitters do? Find out by making this curious 1950s cocktail called Bin n' Gitters with our bartender Chris Resnick:

BIN N' GITTERS

2 ounces Cardinal Spirits Standard Dry Gin
3/4 ounce fresh lime juice
1/2 ounce simple syrup
10 dashes angostura bitters
Mint for garnish

Add gin, lime juice and simple syrup to a rocks glass with crushed ice. Stir to combine, then top off the glass with more crushed ice. Top liberally with 10 dashes of bitters, or more if you'd like, then garnish with a mint sprig.

 

Income Tax cocktail recipe

Cardinal Spirits bartender Stella Snyder shows how to make this classic cocktail using our Standard Dry Gin.

INCOME TAX

1.5 ounces Cardinal Spirits Standard Dry Gin
1/4 ounce dry vermouth
1/4 ounce sweet vermouth
1 ounce fresh orange juice
1 dash Angostura bitters
Orange twist, for garnish

Add all ingredients except garnish to a shaker with ice. Shake vigorously, then strain into a coupe glass an garnish with an orange twist.