What an amazing weekend it has been. And full. I can’t remember the last time we didn’t really do anything on a weekend. We had a lovely brunch with my friend Bee of The Spicy Bee. I baked for the Blogger Bake Sale led by Fabiola of Not Just Baked. I spent some time with my fellow farmers market board members and some volunteers cleaning up our market site because the market is just one month away (crazy!). And Dave and I were lucky enough to be in the stands for the amazing Timbers win on Saturday night. The Timbers pulled off a win at the very last minute, and the stadium went totally nuts. It was glorious.

But my favorite part was making dinner together on Sunday night – it’s almost always my favorite part of the week, but it is even more so because we had a lot of dinners out and/or late this week. I really missed eating at home. I think we made up for it tonight, though. Dave and I made a gorgeous skirt steak (recipe coming), delicious cookies and this delicious hibiscus tea cocktail:

I actually made two of these this week – the first one was on our random 88 degree day in the middle of the week. It was gorgeous out and I needed something refreshing and cool.

I tested this recipe with a couple of different gins and I actually liked it best using a very assertive gin – I used Sun Liquor’s Gun Club gin, a 100 proof gin that’s a little astringent-tasting. And I loved the way it turned out.

If you’d like to use a London dry gin instead, I recommend maybe cutting a little bit of tea out in favor of a splash of soda water, to dilute the strong tea flavors just a bit in favor of the gin.

Here’s what you need:

Ice
1.5 oz. gin
1/2 oz. lemon juice
1 tsp. simple syrup
Finish with brewed hibiscus tea, cold (recommended: Smith Teamakers tea – you could also use teas like Tazo’s Passion Tea or the Celestial Seasonings “zinger” teas)

Build the drink in a collins glass: start with the ice, and pour the gin, lemon juice and simple syrup in first. Top with brewed tea and stir.