Marline gifted me a bottle of Ritual’s Gin-Alternative, which also came with a handy list of mocktail recipes, including this Greyhound-inspired flash of brilliance, which incorporates grapefruit juice and a simple rosemary syrup. Andy’s not a fan of rosemary, so I only have a single plant of it hidden in the backyard, but I love it, and a little goes a long way. I used two parts sugar, one part water, and two hefty sprigs of rosemary – boiled it for a few minutes, then strained and cooled it. You don’t have to boil it for long, as overcooking certain herbs sometimes turns them bitter, as happens with some tea.
With some fresh grapefruit juice and tonic, the juniper bite of real gin wasn’t horribly missed, and this was a refreshing end-of-summer delight. Pushing for an extension of summer, I sat by the pool and languidly sipped the afternoon away. Rosemary forms a nice bridge between summer and fall, as does this mocktail.
