"Spa Water" Cocktail

Inspired by...beach weekends

In honor of my recent girls' weekend at the beach, I recreated a cocktail that we had there that we fondly called "spa water."  It's probably not the best idea to convince oneself that a drink in a martini glass is equivalent to "spa water".  But it was so refreshing and delicious that drinking it felt just as luxurious as a day at the spa.

​The cocktail that we had at the beach had some combination of cucumber, mint and gin.  So I made a simple syrup with cucumbers and mint to use in this cocktail.

​As a side note, I'm really into simple and sugar syrups lately!  I made a vanilla sugar syrup - 2 parts sugar, one part water, splash of vanilla - to use in my iced coffee.  I'm also planning to make a simple syrup with ginger and lime soon...but not sure exactly what I'll use it for.  I feel like the possibilities are endless when it comes to these syrups!

Here's the cocktail "recipe."  You can really make the cocktail however you want.  Once you have the simple syrup, you can mix it up to your liking.  Use vodka instead of gin, skip the alcohol altogether, add more seltzer and serve it over ice...  Whatever you feel like doing with the syrup is great - there are no rules at the beach!

Recipe

Cucumber-Mint Simple Syrup
Ingredients:

• 1 cup water
• 1 cup sugar
• 6 cucumber slices
• 4 mint leaves

Directions:

1. Dissolve sugar in water over medium heat.
2. Add cucumber and mint and simmer on low for about 10 minutes.
3. Drain the syrup to remove cucumbers and mint.
4. Cool.
5. You're done!

"Spa Water" Cocktail
How I made it:

• 2 parts gin
• 1 part cucumber-mint simple syrup
• Juice of one lime wedge

Shake these ingredients up with ice.

• Then pour into glass and add 2 parts lime-flavored seltzer.  Garnish with cucumber slice and mint leaf.

I used Ivy City Gin from a local DC distillery - One Eight Distilling. I highly recommend it!