Ambrose Burke is the bartender at Eastside restaurant in Minneapolis.
The Fruit and Thai cocktail looks just like an Orange Crush, but it’s all natural and really pretty simple. It’s made with gin, fresh lemon and Thai tea simple syrup with an “oleo chip” as a garnish. We make the oleo by macerating lemon and orange peels and sugar over a few hours. The peels were being discarded so we decided to pop them in the dehydrator to see what happened and it was a huge success.
I have worked in several Thai restaurants throughout my career and was always interested in Thai Tea and its vibrant color. One day, I was playing around and made some simple syrup with it and figured, why not mix some with one of my favorite gins.
From there, all it asked for was a little acid from some fresh fruit juice and some salt to make it pop, letting the tea flavor itself be prominent. There’s beauty in simplicity and fun in bright colors; this one has both.
Fruit and Thai
2 oz. St. George Terroir gin
3/4 oz. Fresh lemon juice
3/4 oz. Thai tea simple syrup
Shake and strain onto fresh rocks in a double Old Fashioned glass. Garnish with dehydrated lemon or orange peel.
*For Thai Tea simple syrup
25 g. Thai tea
245 g. Hot water
Stir together, let steep, strain leaves. Match weight of tea with sugar to make a 1:1 syrup.
