Last Saturday I was invited to a friend’s house for dinner. She asked her guests to bring drinks while she would take care of the meal.

To be safe I bought a bottle of Riesling wine, a safe staple for the apéro, but decided to prepare a cocktail as a post-dinner/pre-going out drink. As I didn’t want to carry my bottles and barware with me, I had to think of something that I could pre-batch at home. I also wanted to go seasonal if possible.

In my fridge I had a bottle of home-made rhubarb shrub. I decided to mix it with some gin and triple sec, let it infuse with a bag of “Intensely Fiery Ginger & Rhubarb” infusion by Twinings, and top it with a bit of ginger beer as a mixer. I had to be careful with the ginger beer. Too much of it and the taste of ginger would overpower the rhubarb flavour; too little of it and you could taste the vinegar from the shrub. It was a trial and error process to find the right balance!

In the end, the result was just amazing: a fresh glass of sparkly rhubarb yumminess with a little ginger kick! It was an instant success with my friends and I’ll be sure to stock more rhubarb shrub for summer parties!

Barbie Ginger – recipe per glass

Glass: Balloon glass

Ice: Cubed ice

Method: Build

Garnish: None

Tanqueray 10 gin – 30 ml – 1oz

Triple sec – 15 ml – ½ oz

Rhubarb shrub – 50 ml – 1½ oz

Twinings’ Intensly Fiery Ginger & Rhubarb infusion – ½ tea bag

Ginger beer – Top (quantity to taste.)