Last month I was invited to The Spoke Club to watch the Grey Goose Pour Masters 2012, a competition that saw 13 of Toronto’s top bartenders fight (with their best recipes) for the crowned Grey Goose cocktail. Competitors came from Bymark, Buca, The Trump Tower (to name a few) but the ultimate winner was Nishan Nepulangoda from  Blowfish for his “Desert Rose”  - an intricate recipe involving orange blossom water and a shisha!

Since all of the bartenders involved put an emphasis on using local ingredients, I was inspired to play around with a cocktail idea of my own that stemmed from my own garden. Although I don’t like sweet cocktails, I love naturally sweetened water (ever tried adding slices of honey dew?) and wanted to give some flavour to my drink of choice: the vodka soda.

Here is my recipe for a Light Lavender Spritzer…

Ingredients:

1 handful of freshly picked Lavender

2 tablespoons of white sugar

1/4 cup water

Grey Goose (1 oz per cocktail)

Soda Water

Instructions

- Combine the sugar and water in a small pot with leaves and flowers of the Lavender (leave a few stemmed flowers for garnish). Bring to a light boil until liquid becomes a syrup (add more sugar depending on taste).

- Place three ice cubes in a glass and add three tablespoons of syrup, 1 ounce of Grey Goose, and soda water to top. Stir and garnish with Lavender.

Then enjoy somewhere like this…

Long weekend please come back!

Ps. I also recommend trying out one of the East Meets West cocktail recipes from Grey Goose ambassadors, Stanislav and Dimi Lezinska. In particular, I suggest their refreshing La Poire Green Tea Spritzer…

Ingredients

1.5 oz Grey Goose La Poire Flavoured Vodka

0.5 oz Zen Green Tea

Top with Club Soda

Instructions

Prep Green Tea and let cool. Build in tall glass with lots of ice, garnish with lemon zest.

Enjoy! Please enjoy responsibly.