Here’s one of my creations as I delve into the world of clarifications and more advanced cocktail techniques : « Mara des bois »
Named after the French name of the variety of strawberries I used in this cocktail.

Recipe is loosely based off a gin basil smash and makes use of the beautiful pairing of strawberry and basil.

Recipe :

- 45ml Greek yogurt clarified gin

- 15ml strawberry koso

- 15ml lime juice

- 10ml Lillet blanc

- 10ml dry vermouth

- 3 basil leaves

Mix all ingredients in shaker, shake and strain in a chilled Nick & Nora glass.

Garnished with a lightly burnt rosemary sprig.

This one is extremely refreshing to drink with the strawberry and basil notes hitting first, along with the yogurt softening the edges and rounding everything up tasting like sort of fruity dessert. Then the taste evolves more towards herbal notes with vermouth/lillet and gin botanicals stepping up, and underlying basil, to finish with a smooth basil and yogurt note with a faint sweet strawberry note. Absolutely delicious !

Interesting note, I tried both only Lillet blanc and only Dry vermouth, one being too sweet and the other too dry, perfect balance (for my palate) was achieved with equal parts.

Recipes for the homemade stuff :

Greek yogurt gin :

I used Bombay Sapphire for this. Mix 700ml of gin with 150g of Greek yogurt and the juice of 2 limes.

Left it to rest in the fridge for 12h (although more time would’ve been better, like 36 hours)
Filtered through cheesecloth then coffe filters.

Strawberry koso :

Cut 200g strawberries in small pieces, added them to a jar and added 200g of white powdered sugar in layers, left to rest in the fridge for 24h and stirred it a few times. Same here, in order to be a proper koso I should’ve left it for 8-10 days to macerate, will definitely do that next time !

Cheers !!