Recipe and Photos by Nadia Tamby

Quick PSA: Interested in grabbing some grapefruit with your CSA? Place a citrus bulk order here before they are gone for the season!

Over the holidays, I visited my parents (who have been living in South Africa for a couple years) and came back with an appreciation for South African gins that are infused with unique aromatics and herbs. I tried a number of gins that were distilled locally with fynbos (a general term for the many shrubs that grow in the Western and Eastern Cape regions) and while I love a good G&T, sometimes I like making something a little more involved. While I’ve been obsessed with South African gin, any gin you like will work in this recipe. I used lavender bitters to accompany the florals in my drink (protea and hibiscus in the gin, and elderflower liqueur as the sweetener), but you can play around with that depending on the gin you use.

I used this beautiful bottle of protea (a type of fynbos) and hibiscus-infused gin and I wanted to create a smooth cocktail that played off the floral notes of the gin without overpowering it. I love making egg white drinks because of the texture, but feel free to leave out the egg white if you aren’t up for it. The sweet-tart flavor of Texas grapefruit is perfect for this drink and I love the pale pink hue of it as well. Enjoy!



Ingredients:

• 1.5 oz fresh grapefruit juice
• 0.5 oz fresh lime juice
• 0.5 oz St. Germain elderflower liqueur
• 2 oz gin (your preference)
• 1 egg white (freshest egg you can get!) – optional

The set-up

Garnish:

• A slice of grapefruit (cut this slice before you juice it for the drink)
• 1-2 dashes of lavender bitters (or bitters of your choosing, go with something light – not angostura bitters) - optional

Equipment:

• Stainless Steel Cocktail shaker
• Small Sieve
• About 1 cup of ice for shaking the drinks
• A kitchen towel you’re not afraid to get a little dirty

Instructions:

The egg white is optional, but your drink will look and feel completely different with it. If you are able to eat raw egg, I highly recommend it. I promise your cocktail will not taste like eggs! Since the egg is raw, I recommend the highest quality, freshest eggs you can get your hands on.

Crack your egg and separate the white from the yolk, being careful not to break the yolk into the whites, or else your drink will not have the desired smooth frothy mouthfeel you’re looking for. Drop the egg white into your cocktail shaker and remove the white stringy part of the egg white if it is in the shaker (just pinch it out with your fingers). It usually stays attached to the yolk, but just in case, you want to remove it because you certainly do not want to have that texture in your gin sour. If you aren’t able to remove it, make sure that you pour your drink through a sieve first.

Add all the other ingredients to the shaker while stirring, adding the lime juice last. If you add the lime juice first, you may “cook” your egg whites, a little like ceviche – you don’t want that.?

Close the shaker (without the ice, at first) and if you are not an experienced cocktail shaker… I suggest doing this with a kitchen towel wrapped around the shaker, and over a sink, just in case! Without the ice, the egg whites will create bigger volume and frothiness (this is why I like to do it over the sink…sometimes it leaks out a bit as the pressure in the shaker increases). Shake for about 30 seconds and then add the ice to the shaker. Shake for another minute or so very vigorously.

Pour the drink in a glass through a sieve (use a spoon to push more egg froth through the sieve if needed). I find that I need to rock the shaker back and forth a couple times to get all the liquid out. Garnish with a slice of grapefruit and add a couple drops of bitters to elevate your drink even more. If you use a dark-colored bitter, use a dropper to carefully drop the bitters onto the foam. Use a toothpick to swirl it in to create a beautiful pattern on the top.

Protea in the Cape region.