The theme for this year’s Australia Day Cocktail celebrates Australian native ingredients.
The Sun-Kissed Country cocktail has Australian gin as the base spirit, preferably a citrus-forward Australian gin, but the star ingredient is lemon myrtle syrup.
Lemon myrtle, or backhousia citriodora is native to sub-tropical Queensland and grows naturally along the east coast of Australia. The leaves of the lemon myrtle tree are rich in essential oils and have a distinctive citrus scent and flavour without being acidic. They have wide uses from herbal infusions to culinary applications and beauty products.
The Sun-Kissed Country cocktail takes inspiration from a visit to Holmwood Produce Lavender Farm in the Lockyer Valley, Queensland and the cool, refreshing lemon myrtle infusion served on arrival.
For this Australia Day cocktail recipe, the lemon myrtle leaves are steeped in water overnight then turned into syrup. To make the cocktail, all the ingredients are dry shaken first for the egg white to emulsify then shaken with ice and strained into a coupette. Triple sec rounds off the citrus notes and you can get one which is Australian made. The cocktail is simply garnished with a lemon myrtle leaf floating on the foam.
If you don’t like egg white in cocktails, use aquafaba which is a vegan substitute made from chick pea water. You can learn how to make aquafaba here.
The Sun-Kissed Country is a gin cocktail with a bright citrus flavour that carries through the foam. It’s the taste of summer in a glass, a delicious and refreshing all Australian cocktail to enjoy on Australia Day.
Australia Day Cocktail Recipe: Sun-Kissed Country
Original recipe created by Cocktails & Bars
Ingredients
- 45 ml Australian gin, preferably citrus forward gin
- 20 ml lemon myrtle syrup*
- 20 ml fresh lemon juice
- 10 ml triple sec
- 1 egg white
Lemon Myrtle Syrup*
- 1 cup water
- 5 lemon myrtle leaves
Glassware: coupette
Garnish: lemon myrtle leaf
Method
To make the lemon myrtle syrup, infuse 5 lemon myrtle leaves in 1 cup of hot water and leave overnight. The next day, remove the lemon myrtle leaves and use the infusion to make simple syrup in a 1:1 ratio as described here.
To make the cocktail, add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker and dry shake to combine. Add ice and shake hard until the cocktail tin is very cold. Double strain into a chilled coupe and garnish with a floating lemon myrtle leaf.
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