Decorate cocktails and drinks with flowers
The summer is the perfect time to invite your friends over for some cocktails. Invest in a little recipe book or download them from the internet and ask your friends and family to visit and to give their opinions. You will have to invest a little before the time and stock up on some cocktail essentials. You will need a shaker, cocktail glasses in various shapes and sizes as well as an ice crusher and some fruits and flowers for decoration. Now, some people might be asking why on earth we would consider putting flowers in our drinks? You are supposed to buy or send flowers to people, not put them in your food and drinks, right? No, not exactly right. There are a number of food dishes that call for the adding of flowers for either flavour, colour or simply as a garnish.
A fine example of flowers used to decorate cocktails can be seen in what is called the Van Gogh cocktail. This blend of Bombay Sapphire gin, crème de Violette, lemon juice and simple syrup will have you saying yes please to another! It shouldn't surprise you that it is purple in colour and, because of this, it is decorated with a floating purple pansy. The darker shade of purple in the petals of the pansy really stand out against to more pale, pastel purple cocktail and it's just the perfect way to finish this wonderful drink off.
A light flower cocktail is the Wild Hibiscus Flower Sparkler. It consists of a few ounces of champagne (or sparkling wine as most of us use today), a dash of Wild Hibiscus syrup and a Wild Hibiscus flower in syrup. It is simple to make by simply pouring the champagne into the glass, carefully placing the Wild Hibiscus flower in the glass and allow it to float, resting on the side of the glass. Then finish it off by drizzling the syrup over the champagne. Three simple steps to a beautiful floral cocktail!
You can use just about any flower to decorate your cocktails. There are just a few important things to remember. Firstly, you must make sure that absolutely no part of the plant or flower is in any way toxic. This includes sap that runs out of the cut stem. Secondly, you should also make sure that the flowers you use are either grown in your own garden or at least organic. A lot of our fruit and flowers that we buy are sprayed with all kinds of chemicals. While fruit can be washed really well, flowers are a lot more delicate. So, to avoid any problems for you and your guests, rather opt for an organic option.
Remember, there are a number of cocktail recipes that include an infusion of a specific flower or plant and, with these, it is a good idea to use that particular flower as a garnish. However, for the general cocktails that don't have a floral flavour, you can use just about any edible flower or fruit blossom. Hibiscus flowers give your cocktails a wonderful tropical look and they are just one of the many edible flowers available.
