Unusual Cocktails - Cucumber

Forget the ranch dressing or canning jars – this summer, the crisp clean taste of cucumbers finds itself at home at the bar.

At first, it sounds silly. Cucumber in a cocktail? Maybe a cucumber spear, or a curl of peel as a garnish, but cucumbers are for salads, or making pickles. Maybe they were, but not anymore – bar chefs have embraced cucumber as a hot (or cool) new addition. These recipes are living proof!

Cucumber Gimlet

• 2 ounces Hendrick’s Gin
• 2 barspoons chopped English cucumber
• freshly squeezed juice of ½ lime

In a mixing glass, muddle cucumber and lime juice. Add gin and ice, and shake well. Using a fine kitchen strainer, double strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with three thin cucumber slices and two cucumber peels.

Note: According to the cocktail’s creator, Sean Bigley, Hendrick’s uses cucumber in their recipe, making it the only gin for this cocktail.

Melon Cucumber Smash

• 2 sprigs fresh mint
• 4 slices cucumber
• ¾ ounce simple syrup
• ¾ ounce fresh lime juice
• 2 ounces Bacardi Grand Melon rum
• chilled soda water

Tear mint sprigs and drop into a cocktail shaker with the cucumber slices. Muddle to bruise well. Add simple syrup, lime juice, and rum, and fill shaker with ice. Shake vigorously and strain into a large cocktail glass. Top with a splash of soda and float a cucumber slice for garnish.

Melon Cucumber-tini

• 2 ounces melon vodka
• fresh cucumber
• ½ oz. simple syrup

Muddle a few slices of cucumber over ice in a mixing glass. Pour the muddled cucumber, vodka, and simple syrup in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake well, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a cucumber slice.

Fountain of Youth

Duggan McDonnell of Frisson in San Francisco has created a slightly more elaborate but equally refreshing concoction.

• 1 ¾ ounces Hangar One Kaffir Lime vodka
• 1 ounce Cointreau
• 1 ounce cucumber-honeydew melon puree
• ¼ ounce essence of spearmint simple syrup

Pour ingredients over ice in a shaker and shake vigorously. Strain into a cocktail glass, and garnish with a rose petal.