What’s your favorite brunch cocktail? Perhaps a Bloody Mary? Or maybe Mimosas? I have a new one for you to try… a Ginger Mint Carrot Cooler. Ok, I know what you might be thinking “why on earth would I want a cocktail with carrot juice in it?” Am I right? Don’t click away, stay with me, I promise you’ll really like this drink. Really, I PROMISE! It makes a fantastic brunch cocktail and you don’t have to put alcohol in it if you don’t want to.
At first I thought carrot juice might be weird in a cocktail. But I had a big bottle of it staring at me in the refrigerator and thought what the heck, might as well give it a try. After all, I like tomato juice in Bloody Marys and that’s made with a vegetable juice. I love carrot juice in my smoothies so how bad could it be with a little vodka (or rum) added in? See, now it’s sounding better isn’t it? I told you to stay with me!
Ginger compliments carrots nicely so I muddled some fresh ginger, tossed in a bit of ginger liqueur and topped it off with ginger beer for some fizz action (you could use ginger ale instead if you wanted). I wanted to “lighten” up the carrot juice so this drink wasn’t too “carrot-y” and used some fresh squeezed lemon juice and a little mint for freshness. And, of course, a little simple syrup to balance it all out. I used the same mint simple syrup I used in my yummy Orange Mint Juleps but you could certainly use plain simple syrup. Simple syrup in cocktails to me is like salt & pepper on food…you don’t need a lot, but a little pulls it all together in my opinion.
Move over Mary, here comes Ginger!
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