Make the most out of summer with this garden gin and tonic! Featuring a medley of fresh herbs, lively burst of citrus and a bubbly finish, this gin and tonic is the ultimate refreshing sipper you need this summer.
Considering how trendy farm-to-table dining is these days, why not create the same vibe for your friends and family at home with garden-to-table cocktails? Imagine trotting out to your garden, snipping fresh herbs off the vine and then mixing cocktails to serve right to your guests. I can’t think of a more impressive and fun presentation.
And if you don’t have an herb garden? No worries! You can simply pick up fresh herbs at the grocery store and pretend they came from your garden. No judgment here. You’ll still be left with an ultra summery gin and tonic that’s perfect for patio nights.
Herbs for Garden-to-Table Cocktail
For this gin and tonic, I use a combination of rosemary, thyme and basil. But don’t feel like you can’t experiment with other herbs. A gin and tonic comes with plenty of herbal, floral notes that make it a tasty canvas for all sorts of combinations.
Dill and tarragon, for instance, would also be delicious. Oh, and I love the idea of a mint, basil, parsley and cilantro combination. Growing cucumbers? Feel free to throw in a few slices. The same goes with fresh lavender.
This garden-to-table gin and tonic allows for plenty of creativity. Don’t be afraid to put your own spin on it if you’d like.
How to Make
Now that we settled on our herb combination, we’re ready to prepare our drink. To do this, we throw our herbs in a cocktail shaker with a generous squeeze of lime and lightly muddle. Usually, I make my gin and tonics right in the serving glass, but since we’re muddling, I like to be safe and use a cocktail shaker for this step.
Speaking of serving glasses, I’m partial to preparing gin and tonics in a wine glass. Highball glasses are traditional, but a gin and tonic is such a fragrant drink. That big mouth of the wine glass is perfect for showing off those scents. And considering how delicate wine glasses are, you can see why I prefer to muddle in a cocktail shaker.
After muddling, we dump the herbs and lime juice into our wine glass along with the gin, ice and tonic. We give it a gentle stir to combine and chill.
Plain tonic water works, but these days, you can get so many flavored tonics that are fun to try. I’ve made this drink with an elderflower tonic water and a Mediterranean tonic water, and both were delights. I bet a grapefruit tonic water would also be delicious and add a beautiful color.
And just like that, we’re ready to sip on summer’s perfect garden party cocktail. Fancy, huh?
Perfect Pairing
You know what sounds nice? A refreshing garden gin and tonic with an herby, summery pizza on the patio. Enter my smoked salmon, avocado and pesto pizza.
Smoked salmon and gin are a classic food and drinking pairing, and all that bubbly tonic is perfect for cutting through the fatty salmon and avocado. I also love how those herbs meld with the garlicky pesto.
To make the most of summer's fresh herbs, I hope you try this garden gin and tonic.
Cheers!
Love Gin Cocktails?
- Grapefruit gin mule
- Strawberry-rhubarb gin fizz
- Ramos gin fizz
- Blood orange-rosemary gin and tonic
- Sparkling rosé French 75
- Cucumber lavender gin fizz
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📖 Recipe
Garden Gin and Tonic
Equipment
- Cocktail shaker
- Jigger or small measuring cup
- Citrus juicer
- Muddler
Ingredients
- 1-2 fresh rosemary sprigs
- A few fresh basil leaves
- Several fresh thyme sprigs
- ½ lime juiced
- 2 ounces gin
- 4-6 ounces chilled tonic water unflavored or flavored of your choice
- Ice
Instructions
- Add the rosemary sprigs, basil leaves, thyme sprigs and lime juice to a cocktail shaker and lightly muddle.
- Pour the contents of the cocktail shaker into a wine glass or goblet. Add gin, tonic water and ice. Gently stir to combine. Enjoy!
Notes
- For full tips, please see blog post.
- Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Rosemary says
Fresh, refreshing and quite beautiful too. Love the use of fresh garden herbs. This is my kind of cocktail. Thanks for sharing this simple recipe.
Amanda McGrory-Dixon says
You’re very welcome!
Traci says
Gorgeous cocktail with super simple ingredients! ? A true classic...thanks for sharing!
Amanda McGrory-Dixon says
You're so welcome!
Toni Dash says
Such a fun and refreshing drink! I loved it!
Amanda McGrory-Dixon says
So glad to hear that!
Angela says
I love this garden gin and tonic idea so much! G & T is my go to. Can't wait to try more combinations!
Amanda McGrory-Dixon says
It's such a refreshing summer drink! I think you'll love all the different combination options!
Sue says
I love the addition of fresh herbs to a gin and tonic. So delicious!
Amanda McGrory-Dixon says
They really do add such nice flavor!
veenaazmanov says
This super drink is definitely going to make my evening special. I love the flavor of fresh herbs and the lime flavor makes it more special. The other combinations are amazing too.
Amanda McGrory-Dixon says
Thanks, Veena! I'm such a sucker for anything with fresh herbs, especially cocktails!
Shelley says
Oh my goodness - this is just gorgeous! I'm in LOVE with your photography! And also ... with this refreshing spin on a summery gin and tonic! G&Ts are one of my husband's go-to summer drinks, so I'm extra-excited see your recipe. He'll be so happy to sip this! Thank you!!
Amanda McGrory-Dixon says
Thanks so much for the sweet comment, Shelley! G&Ts are one of my favorite summer cocktails too! Hope you both love it.
Lauren @ A Need Cooks says
See, cocktails like this are EXACTLY the reason that I keep an herb garden! This G&T looks super refreshing. I think I even have a grapefruit tonic water in the back of my pantry.
Amanda McGrory-Dixon says
Oh, fun! Let me know how it goes!