The Festive Cherry and Australian Native Shrub Cocktail marries the traditional Christmas flavours with a touch of native Australiana.
Festive Cherry and Australian Native Shrub Cocktail – Photo © Cocktails & Bars
If you’re looking for a Christmas cocktail to impress your guests, one that brings together the traditional Christmas flavours of cherries with warm baking spices and a unique flavour from Australian native botancials, we have you covered.
In a previous article, I published the recipe for making the festive shrub using a medley of old world and new world botanicals, a drink I shared with gardeners as part of my webinar. The shrub, or drinking vinegar only takes a few days to make so it’s not too late to get started and keeps for up to one year in the fridge.
The recipe marries dark rum (preferably Australian) with the festive shrub to deliver a complex, elegant and well-rounded sipping Christmas cocktail. The combination of rum, cherries and Australian native ingredients in the festive shrub such as lemon myrtle creates a harmonious blend of rich, sweet-tart and citrusy flavours with a touch of warm baking spices. The rum brings a warm and robust character with its notes of caramel, vanilla and oak while the cherries add a luscious sweetness, balancing the spirit with their juicy and slightly tart profile.
It’s Australian Christmas in a glass. The cocktail was photographed next to Woolly Bush (Adenanthos sericeus) an Australian native Christmas tree growing in The Gourmantic Garden.
Festive Cherry and Australian Native Shrub Cocktail Recipe
Original recipe by Cocktails & Bars
Ingredients
- 50 ml dark rum
- 20 ml festive cherry shrub with Australian native botanicals
- 10 ml simple syrup
- 2 dashes of Angostura bitters
Glassware: coupette
Garnish: orange peel (expressed and discarded), lemon myrtle leaf
Method
Add aged rum, festive cherry shrub, simple syrup and Angostura bitters to a mixing glass, add ice cubes and stir. Strain into a chilled coupette, express the orange peel over the surface of the drink and discard. Garnish with a lemon myrtle leaf.
