The Cardamom Rose Sour is a fantastic cocktail made with a homemade rose simple syrup, fresh citrus, and bitters ~ it’s got a gorgeous pink color!

One of the fun things for me to do, is make my own components to the cocktail as well, when I can. I recently bought an iSi Whip, and following Dave Arnold’s Liquid Intelligence, I’m having a lot of fun experimenting with it. I didn’t use it to make this cocktail. But it will be used again for tomorrow’s creation.

I’ve also been experimenting with making bitters. My first one, I strained out today, so it will still need a bit more maturation. But you should see it in a week or two. I started simple, with an apple bitters, as I could source all the ingredients easily.

Back to my cocktail for tonight.

Hendrick’s is a Scottish gin that’s actually flavoured with rose petals and cucumber, so it’s a good paring with the rose syrup. ( it’s also a good pairing with a cucumber syrup I made, and a cucumber and mint shrub). Peychaud’s bitters is a little sweeter and have a more pronounced cherry flavor than the more commonly used Angostura, so they complement the floral element in this cocktail too.

The drink starts with a cardamom pod. It gets lightly muddled, or crushed, at the bottom of the shaker. Feel free to use a wooden spoon, should you not have a muddled. I dry roasted the pod, which just adds another dimension to the cardamom flavor. All I did was dry fry it in a pan till I could smell it. I did crack it first, a little bit with a mortar and pestle. Then add it to the shaker.

Today, I was making a curry for dinner, so was dry frying a few spices, so just did this one first. I thought the flavour would compliment the curry, although it’s served as a starter anyway 😊.
And please feel free to use whatever kind of glass you like.

All the flavours in this drink are evident, from the cardamom, to the rose, and the citrus. The bitters leave a delightful warmth in the back of your throat.

So enjoy, and do let me know if you try it.

You need-
60ml Gin- Hendricks already has the rose, but whatever you have.
30ml Pink Grapefruit Juice
30ml Lemon Juice
15ml Rose Simple
2 dashes Peychaud’s Bitters
1 cardamom pod- if you want to intensify the flavor, toast in a dry pan for a couple of minutes
(I’m also adding an egg white, because I like it like that!)

Put the cardamon pod in your shaker, and gently crush it (if you haven’t already for toasting) I cracked a few of the seeds as well, to get a stronger scented flavour.
Add the rest of the ingredients and then shake well with ice.
Strain over ice into a glass ( I chose this beautiful glass again)
and garnish with a rose petal.

Rose Syrup Recipe
I used 225gm castor/superfine sugar
120gms water
120gms of rose water
And some dried rose petals if you have them. Otherwise leave them out. They helped with the colour though.

I stirred the sugar and water over a low heat until the sugar had all dissolved, then added the rose water and petals. I left it to brew for about 4 hours. Then strained and poured it into a bottle. I added some gin, about 20ml, to act as a preservative.

Recipe by The View from Great Island.