This Rhubarb Rose Gin Sour brings a really beautiful and delicious twist to the classic 1940s gin sour cocktail that’s made with gin, lemon juice, and sugar. More often than not, an egg white is added to the cocktail to give it a smooth, frothy consistency, that in my opinion brings this cocktail to the next level! Plus, I love how it looks, right? It’s like the cappuccino for mixed cocktails!
The Rhubarb Rose Gin Sour combines a rhubarb-infused simple syrup, rose water, gin, lemon juice, and egg whites for a truly stunning cocktail perfect for a summertime wedding, a chic brunch with your girlfriends, or a lovely summer’s night soirée. Or, if you’re like me, simply sipping on one of these cocktails on your balcony or backyard patio is blissfully sufficient! Bonus, I get to stay in my yoga pants, snuggle with my puppies, and watch the sun set in the distance! Added bonus is having your girlfriends come over to also hang out in yoga pants, sip on pretty cocktails and pretend we all have fancy social lives!
I have two stories for you about the flavors that make up this cocktail. One is sweet and the other is just ridiculous. Let’s start with the sweet… Growing up, my mom would make strawberry-rhubarb jam. I don’t know why, but it’s one of those fond memories I have of her and we as kids would beg for her to make it all of the time. She would have bags of frozen rhubarb stuffed deep into our freezer, way past it’s prime, but we devoured that jam anyways. Every time I see a rhubarb plant or eat something with rhubarb, I associate it with my mom! How strange is that?
More over,at my dad’s house there’s a HUGE rhubarb plants that I’m pretty sure is as old as I am. I have no doubts my mom dragged that plant from one home to the next each time we moved. This guys is taking up serious space in my veggie garden, but for the life of me I cannot get rid of it. It’s not really even usable any more because most of the stems are too thick, green, and lacking in sweet, tart flavor. Yet, there it sits, staring at me. At this point I feel like I should at least give it a name or something.
Anyways, point of the story is, I have a weird love-hate relationship with a rhubarb plant; my neighbor has the good rhubarb with the thin, all red stems so I “borrowed” hers instead to make this cocktail; and rhubarb brings good memories of my mom which makes this drink that more special for me!
Second story is my journey to find rose water. I’m a huge procrastinator and I waited to get the ingredients two days before I was originally set to photograph it. If I was smart, I would have simply ordered the rose water from Amazon and saved myself a lot of time running around town looking for one single ingredient. I kid you not, I went to 6 different ethnic grocery stores before finally going to United Noodles in Minneapolis. The entire time my gut was telling me to go there first, but did I listen? NO, haha!
That day, I was also in search of pink peppercorns for the Grapefruit Pink Peppercorn Gin & Tonic. On my first stop I found them ON SALE at the Whole Foods by my house, but me being so cheap felt that I could easily find them cheaper at Home Goods.
Needless to say, I did not find them at the Home Goods or any other store there after (including a different Whole Foods.) Hopelessly defeated, I had to go all the way back to the first Whole Foods to purchase the pink peppercorns that were ON SALE! Yeah, it’s in bold friends because that’s how ridiculous I can be, haha!
Coupling all of the pointless stops to different stores that resulted in very little, I also managed to hit the world’s LARGEST pothole that I’m pretty sure has resulted in my car making this weird creaking sound somewhere in the sunroof as you drive. That day I also scraped the bottom corner of my back bumper along a very ill-placed rock wall lining the edge of a way too narrow parking lot. It was not a great day!
Moral of this story is, trust your gut instinct, don’t be cheap when the product is already ON SALE, and work on procrastination because ordering online is so much easier! It will save you stress, time, and money in the long run! Luckily, this Rhubarb Rose Gin Sour is freaking delicious, so even though my car is in rough shape now and I spent a ton on gas, I found a new favorite cocktail to add to my summertime cocktail list! Cheers!
- ½ cups of white sugar
- ½ cup distilled water
- 4 cups fresh rhubarb, cut into chunks *
- Pinch of salt
- 2 oz. gin
- 2 oz. rhubarb simple syrup
- 1 oz. food grade rose water**
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1 oz. egg white
- Edible roses or rhubarb, for garnish
- In a small saucepan, add sugar, water, fresh rhubarb, and salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Turn off heat and cool mixture in saucepan. Strain mixture through a fine mesh sieve; allowing mixture to drain for about 10 minutes. Keep syrup in the fridge until ready to use; for up to 4 weeks.
- Put gin, rhubarb syrup, rose water, lemon juice, and egg white into a cocktail shaker. Add ice and aggressively shake for 30 seconds. Strain into a low ball glass or champagne coupe. Garnish with rose petals or rhubarb.
- *Make sure to use the darkest red rhubarb you can find in order to get a nice deep red color to your drink. Greenish stalks of rhubarb will result in a brown color. Deep red, thin stalks give the best color.
- **Rose water can be found at larger oriental or Indian markets. If you live in Minneapolis, MN, I purchased my rose water at United Noodles.
If you try this recipe, let us know. Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag a picture #designsofanykind on Instagram. We enjoy seeing what you create! With love from my kitchen to yours,
A refreshing summer drink…..Flying Monkey…..strawberry vodka, peach vodka, regular vodka and lemonade…..mmmm good…but yours looks even better! Hope the vehicle is okay….a crazy story!
I’m going to have to give the Flying Monkey a try!! That sounds incredible!!! Maybe the next time we come up to see you we can mix up a few of them 🙂 Love you!