Spruce Gin Collins

I generally prefer to drink gin in the summer, when the combination of of complex herbal notes and the bitter twang of tonic make a perfect counterpoint to sun and heat. A tall glass with a wedge of lime is all I long for when the days are warm.

In winter I drink whiskey and red wine. These go with the deep leather armchair and cracking fire that I don't have but like to imagine during the long winter nights.

Except around the middle of December, when I get an urge to drink Rogue's Spruce Gin, which tastes like Christmas. Along with the usual suspects like juniper berries and citrus peels, it includes actual spruce, and mixed with tonic it comes out with a piney sort of flavor, as if your Christmas tree were a tasty alcoholic beverage.

This past December I got the urge again, but we had no Spruce Gin in the house. We did, however, have a tree. A few years ago I went down a rabbit hole of infusing vodka with just about every fruit, nut, spice, or herb in my kitchen, and not a few vegetables as well, so I looked at that tree with wild surmise. Then I did a little internet research to convince myself that one could cook with spruce (yes, but be very sure you don't have hemlock on your hands instead), and then I called up the fancy local garden shop where we bought the tree to check if it was grown without pesticides, which would leave a nasty residue on the needles. It was.

So I snipped a small branch off the back, rinsed it, and went to work. After some experiments with using a whole small small branch, chopped up needles, and chopped up needles with added sugar, I'm happy to say that the easiest version also pleased me the best. The tree tip in gin gave what was, to me, the cleanest spruce gin flavor, while the cut up needles tasted a little off and the added sugar, while intriguingly liqueur like, wasn't for me. I drank spruce gin with tonic all through the holiday season, and everything went down very smoothly indeed.

That was December. This is March. I looked in the liquor cabinet yesterday and found a half jar of spruce gin there. Oops.

I hate to waste, especially good gin, but we were out of tonic. I therefore devised the Spruce Gin Collins, and I have to say, it's a marvelous drink.

Spruce Gin Collins

2 oz spruce gin (Rogue or homemade, see below for recipe)
1 oz fresh lemon juice
1-2 t light agave nectar or simple syrup (how sweet do you like your drink?)
soda water

Combine spruce gin, lemon juice, and sweetener in a glass and stir to combine. Add ice and soda water to the top of the glass. Garnish with lemon or spruce tip.

Spruce Gin

8 oz gin (I used Gordon's, by go-to basic gin)
4 inches spruce (grown without pesticides)

Put gin and spruce in a glass jar or bottle. Let sit overnight. Remove spruce and enjoy with tonic or in a Spruce Gin Collins.