Country Living Cooped Up Cocktails: Butterfly French 75

I’ll be popping in again to Country Living Magazine’s IG stories Live, this Friday, April 17th, at 5 pm ET to make a fun little bubbly cocktail straight from the pages of my book. I wanted to share the full recipe here, plus also some suggestions for substitutions if you don’t have all the ingredients— so hopefully, you’ll have time to gather some goodies and make the drink along with me!! And yes! I’m even doing a refreshing mocktail version (INORITE? WHO AM I RIGHT NOW?!!).

After we’ve whipped up a drink, we’ll sip on them while I give a tour of our Chicken Garden and Coop.

Hope to see you there!

Here’s what you’ll need to bring to the live event on Friday if you’re making the cocktail version (also found in the book) along with me:

Now to elaborate on ingredients:

• GIN

  • I used Empress 1908 Gin for this, which gets its deep indigo hue from a Butterfly Pea Flower infusion. If you can’t get your hands on any of this, just normal gin will do fine. In a pinch, try it with vodka!

• LEMON JUICE

  • Normal lemons or Meyer lemons are perfect for this. In a pinch, lime or grapefruit will work.

• SIMPLE SYRUP

  • The recipe in the book uses both lavender and dried butterfly pea flower blossoms to give this syrup a lovely lavender flavor, and a deep indigo coloring. Dried butterfly pea blossoms can be found pretty easily online, but really, they only add color to this equation, so to simplify things right now, just use lavender if you’ve got it, or a store-bought lavender syrup. Or whatever your favorite simple syrup is that you have on hand—even whipping up a plain simple syrup will do.

  • Store-bought: Royal Rose Syrups has a lovely Lavender-Lemon flavor that I highly recommend!

• SPARKLING WINE

  • I always prefer to use sparkling rosé just to add a bit more color, but white sparkling wine is perfectly great here. I also lean towards a drier wine for this, since we are already adding sweetness with the syrup—but if you prefer a sweeter drink, add a sweeter sparkling wine!

  • A note on quantity: depending on the size of your glass and your taste preference, you can top with more than just 2 oz. of sparkling wine.

• BITTERS

  • This is a totally optional addition. If you’ve got lavender bitters, have at it! If you have some sort of citrus bitters, those will work great, too.

• GARNISH

  • We all know I love me some garnish. If you’ve got lavender, definitely use it—because we rub the glass with it for this cocktail, just to add a good hit of that lavender fragrance to your drinking experience. But it’s not the end of the world if you don’t have fresh lavender and skip it!

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How to make the

Butterfly French 75

Makes one serving.

• 1 organic lavender sprig to rub glass

• 1-1/2 ounces indigo gin, such as Empress 1908

• 1/2 ounce lemon juice

• 1/2 ounce Lavender Butterfly Syrup (instructions below)

• 3 drops lavender bitters

• 2 or more ounces sparkling wine

• Garnish: 1 organic lavender sprig

To make the Lavender Butterfly Syrup:

Makes 3/4 cup

• 1/2 cup water

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar

• 1 tbs fresh or dried organic lavender blossoms

• 1-1/2 teaspoons dried organic butterfly pea blossoms

  In a small saucepan, bring all ingredients just to a boil. Allow sugar to fully dissolve, then lower heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Strain solids and store liquids in an airtight container in the fridge up to 2 weeks.

To make your cocktail:

Prepare a coupe or champagne flute by rubbing the outside edge of it with a fresh lavender blossom.

In a shaker with ice, add gin, lemon juice, syrup, and bitters. Shake until chilled and strain into prepared glass. Top with sparkling wine. Garnish with lavender sprig.

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Now for the mocktail version! If you are making the mocktail along with me during the Country Living Magazine IG live, you’ll need to bring:

Once again, use whatever tea, citrus, simple syrup, sparkling water, and bitters that you might have on hand.

To make the mocktail:

Prep the glass by rubbing the outside edge with a sprig of organic lavender (if you’ve got it, otherwise, rub it with some citrus peel).

In a shaker with ice , add tea, lemon juice, syrup, and, if you’re using them, bitters. Shake until chilled, strain into prepped glass, and top with chilled sparkling water. Garnish with an organic lavender blossom or twist of citrus peel.

CHEERS! And I hope you’ll join me for Bawktail Hour this Friday (April 17th, 5 pm ET) with Country Living Magazine on IG.