In the hot summer days, nothing is more refreshing than a light and bubbly cocktail! This Strawberry Basil Gin Cocktail will be your new favorite daytime treat. Oh.. and feel free to leave out the gin and you’ll still find yourself with a wonderfully fresh strawberry basil soda.
I tried this cocktail first by muddling strawberries and basil with a little sugar. This ended up being closer to some sort of strawberry pina colada and probably should’ve been blended together. But, I didn’t really like the texture of the mashed strawberries with the gin.
So the answer was to make a really simple strawberry syrup. It has a beautiful color and an intense strawberry flavor without all the mashed berries.
Cheers!
Making the Strawberry Basil Syrup
You need about a pound of really fresh strawberries for this syrup. Don’t use the frozen ones. Use a knife to remove the stems from the strawberries and cut them in half. Add them to a pot with sugar, water, and basil!
Bring this all to a simmer, then turn heat down to low and simmer for about 20 minutes. This will thicken the syrup and also pull out all the color and flavor from the strawberries.
Be careful as you stir to not press on the strawberries. You want to keep them whole so they strain easily and it’ll keep your syrup really clean.
After 20 minutes, you’ll have these strange pale, flavorless strawberries!
Strain the syrup through a mess strainer to remove the strawberries. You’ll be temped to press on the strawberries to get all the syrup, but don’t. That will turn them to mush and mess up your crystal clear syrup!
Look at the color on this!
The syrup is best if you chill it and it’ll keep in the fridge for a few weeks without issue.
Making a Strawberry Basil Gin Fizz
You can kind of make this cocktail your own, but I feel like a good mixture is one part gin to one part strawberry basil syrup. Then add ice and top with club soda.
So refreshing!
If you are serving this in bulk, you can mix the gin and syrup together in a big batch and then just top it with the club soda!
We met some friends at a park recently and I brought a jug of the stuff and just topped it off with club soda in individual servings. Worked great!
Beat the heat this summer with this delicious strawberry basil gin cocktail!
Strawberry Basil Gin Cocktails
Ingredients
Strawberry Basil Syrup:*
- 1 pound fresh strawberries
- Handful of fresh basil leaves
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 cups water
Gin Fizz Cocktail:*
- 1 ½ – 2 ounces gin
- 1 ½ – 2 ounces strawberry basil syrup
- Club Soda
- Strawberries, garnish
Instructions
- In a medium pot, add hulled strawberries (I like to cut them in half) along with sugar and fresh basil leaves. Add water and stir together. Cook the mixture over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved and mixture starts to simmer. Turn heat down to low and simmer on low heat, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes. Try to skim off any foam that forms on the syrup.
- After simmering, let mixture cool for a few minutes and then strain the syrup through a fine mesh strainer. Don’t press on the strawberries or they will turn to mush and ruin your syrup!
- Transfer the syrup to a container and allow to cool.
- The syrup keeps well in the fridge for a few weeks.
- To make a gin fizz cocktail, combine equal parts gin and syrup to a tall glass. Add ice and club soda and stir together. Garnish with fresh strawberries and cheers!
