Debbie and I are pretty excited. Our herb gardens are starting to grow! In fact I already have quite a crop of chives and my thyme and oregano are coming along. If I remember right, it was Debbie that gave me my first herb garden ever! There’s nothing that elevates a dish more than fresh, fragrant herbs and neither of us will ever go without a herb garden in the summer. I think everyone should have their own little herb garden. It’s important! And it’s so easy to plant and grow your own.
All you need is a large round pot (not super large, but at least a foot in diameter), or a rectangular one works great as well. Fill that puppy with potting soil, mix in a little organic fertilizer, and plant one 6” herb for every type you want to include in your garden. I have chives, thyme, oregano, rosemary, and basil every year. If you want to plant mint, put it in its own pot, it will grow huge!
And since we love fresh herbs in our food, last week we started experimenting with herbs in our cocktails. Last weeks was the amazing Passion Fruit, Lime and Basil Margarita, and this week we made a Raspberry Grapefruit Martini with Rosemary. An elegant cocktail with a beautiful dark ruby red color, citrusy and sweet, with the just slightly noticeable fragrance and taste of rosemary.
I love smelling this cocktail, I love drinking this cocktail, and I love making this cocktail for friends. I get a, “Holy shit that’s good!” Pretty much every time!
You could go down to the store and pick up some raspberry juice, grapefruit juice and make this cocktail, however… The flavor of freshly squeezed grapefruit juice and homemade raspberry puree are far superior to any store bought juice, I don’t care how fresh and natural the bottle says it is. Yes, it requires more effort and elbow grease than twisting open a lid, but if you choose to follow our lead here, you won’t be sorry you did. Squeezing your own juice for this martini also has somewhat of a self-regulating effect. After you go to the effort of juicing the grapefruits and pushing the raspberries through a sieve, you will sip on this slowly. To savor it. So you don’t have to repeat the effort right away. That’s helpful, because you need to be careful with these! They go down real quick!
Ingredients
- 4 oz raspberry vodka
- 4 oz fresh grapefruit juice
- 4 oz raspberry puree (frozen raspberries work best)
- 1/2 tsp grated ginger
- 3 rosemary sprigs , chopped
Instructions
- To make the raspberry puree, blend thawed raspberries in a blender and push it through a sieve. DIscard the pulp.
- First juice your grapefruits and gather the juice in a bowl or a glass.
- Add the vodka and rosemary to a martini shaker. Muddle it well. Add some ice to the martini shaker and then the grapefruit juice and ginger.
- Shake the mixture well and pour into two martini glasses.
- Serve!
Thalia @ butter and brioche says
I am so enamored by these raspberry & grapefruit martinis and your stunning photography of them. Wish I had one in hand now!
Julie and Debbie says
Thanks so much Thalia! Really appreciate your kind words 🙂
Christy says
Pushing raspberries through a sieve is such a pain! lol. But I think it would be well worth it for making this fabulous drink. It looks amazing!
Julie and Debbie says
Hi Christy! God yes, it really is a pain, necessary evil though, to get that wonderful raspberry flavor without the seeds… Someone has got to figure out an easy way to make raspberry puree sans seeds!
Vanessa says
I did not believe that this combination between grefuit and rosemary will be so tasty. I tried and I really like and the color is beautiful.
Julie and Debbie says
Hi Vanessa. So glad you liked it too! Thanks for the comment. We love hearing that our readers enjoyed our recipes!
Joan says
I just used a food mill for the raspberries. Not too painful.
Joan says
I’ve just made these in bulk for book club tomorrow night, and have stuck in hopped rosemary sprigs in the bottle of vodka to infuse it, rather than chopping them up–I’ll let you know how it works out.
Julie and Debbie says
Joan! You had me at bulk… I want to come to book club! Yes please let us know how it works to infuse the bottle. Rosemary is pretty strong so it might work rather than muddling it. I will have to get my hands on a food mill, that sounds like a great alternative to pushing it all through a strainer.
Julie and Debbie says
I think infusing the vodka will work best if you bruise the rosemary a bit first. Bash it around a bit so it releases its oils and then put it in the bottle.
Joan says
Hm. Not sure what I meant by hopped rosemary. I used whole, and didn’t bruise it I would do that next time. But I think the rest of it didn’t benefit from sitting overnight. The ginger in particular got a little less strong, I think. Everybody said they liked it, and it was good and unusual, but only one person had seconds. I think next time I would infuse the vodka with bruised rosemary, just so there wasn’t as much to do at the last minute, and I think the grapefruit and raspberry were okay, but I’d put the ginger in at the last minute, which isn’t labor intensive. Thanks for the recipe! Come to book club!
chrissie says
what did you use for the rim?
Julie and Debbie says
Hi Chrissie, we just used a store bought rimmer for this one I think.
Ben says
These are beautiful cocktails!
Julie & Debbie says
Thank you so much, Ben!