The 12 Cocktails of Christmas, Day Four: The ‘Phipps Conservatory’
Recipes inspired by global craft cocktail culture, shared this holiday season by Melissa Rayworth and Ted Anthony.
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This year, in lieu of the holiday card we didn’t have time to create, we welcome you to The 12 Cocktails of Christmas — a dozen recipes and thoughts on what makes them work. We’ll continue updating the top drink each day until we’ve reached a dozen (yes, we’ll get done right after Christmas, but our schedules have been pretty crazed with new job adventures, current job obligations, two teenagers, two cats — the list, just like yours, goes on).
Hope this brings you all some holiday cheer. Please do share these recipes with your friends and family, and please take a moment this year to raise a glass — no matter what it may hold — to one another and to all the adventures and good things ahead in 2020.
Happy holidays,
THE FOURTH COCKTAIL OF CHRISTMAS: `The Phipps Conservatory’
Our fourth cocktail is a concentrated celebration of the fresh, blooming feeling of springtime. It lets you revel in the brightness of citrus and the beauty of flowers at any time of year. (It’s snowing out tonight in Pennsylvania, and yet somehow this drink feels just right.)
It does involve one homemade ingredient — gin infused with dried lavender. As we described in our recipe from Day Two, the infusion process is quick and easy: Simply take a bottle of American-style gin and pour it into a large mixing bowl or large Mason jar. Add two handfuls of dried lavender flowers and allow it to steep for about two days. (The previous infusion we mentioned — gin infused with green tea — was a much quicker process because the tea leaves give up their flavor so easily. The lavender flowers need more time to impart their flavor.) Once it’s done, strain the gin into another bowl and pour back into its original bottle through a funnel.
‘THE PHIPPS CONSERVATORY’
3 oz. lavender-infused gin
1½ oz. pear vodka (lemon or other citrus vodka also works well)
½ oz. St. Germain elderflower liqueur
4 dashes grapefruit bitters
the juice of one lime
1½ oz. simple syrup
one-half egg white
grated orange peelShake first six ingredients, then add ice and shake again. Strain into any glass with a stem and top with grated orange peel. If you wish, you can garnish with a tiny orange slice. Makes two.
(You may notice on the card below that we tinkered with some of the amounts after the first time we made this drink. The experimentation has been part of the fun.)
WHY WE LIKED THIS ONE: This drink is unabashedly floral, like the renowned Pittsburgh greenhouse that gave it its name. But too often floral drinks are either cloying and sweet or too light to be memorable. This one appeals to us because it has a citrusy kick and a powerful personality. The lavender adds just a slight medicinal undertone — we find it pleasing, though it may not be to everyone’s taste. This is a serious, substantial cocktail for an evening when you want one good drink. (Though we’re curious what this one might be like if you eliminated the egg white, added more lime juice or perhaps some orange juice, and served it in a highball glass over lots of ice on a hot summer day.)
Previous libations in this series:
- The First Cocktail of Christmas: “Opening Day.”
- The Second Cocktail of Christmas: “Afternoon Delight.”
- The Third Cocktail of Christmas: “Subourbon Oasis.”
- The entire story and collected cocktails.
The same motivation that led us to these drinks led Melissa to do these stories while we were living in Thailand. Check them out:
Welcome to Breadcrumbs, our publication and private storytelling service. We’re here to celebrate the stories of your life and ensure that they echo for generations to come. We work with you to elevate milestone moments, teasing out meaningful details. Using our decades of journalism experience and our creative talent, we battle the inevitable disappearance of memories that once seemed indelible. Our mission is to create permanent keepsakes in any form that suits you, from hard-cover books and personal magazines to pieces of home decor and art to one-of-a-kind projects we make or guide you through creating.
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©2019, Melissa Rayworth and Ted Anthony. All rights reserved.
