Muddling Through

Muddling is an essential cocktail-making technique that involves crushing or bruising fruits, herbs, and/or spices with a blunt tool to release their juices and oils, and incorporate their flavours into a drink.

A muddler is an inexpensive and handy tool to have on your bar cart; however, a wooden spoon will do the trick in a pinch. When muddling, add your ingredients to a shaker or a sturdy glass without a stem. Never muddle in a wine glass, a coupe, or a flute- the pressure involved in muddling could shatter the glass, resulting in injury. If you wish to serve a muddled cocktail in a stemmed or delicate glass, muddle your ingredients in a separate vessel, then transfer it to your glass to continue building the cocktail. While muddling, use gentle pressure and a slight twisting motion until it becomes fragrant. Muddling is an easy way to incorporate different flavours into your favourite cocktails without purchasing different flavoured spirits or liqueurs.

Some classic cocktails that involve muddling are:

• Mojito
• Caipirinha
• Clover Club
• Wisconsin Old-Fashioned
• Mint Julep

A Smashing Good Time

Dating back to the mid 19th-century, the smash is a cocktail that involves shaking a spirit with muddled fruit, citrus, herbs, and sugar. Typically, these early variations used brandy as their base spirit; however, the smash has evolved and is now made with a variety of spirits, fruits, and herbs. In this recipe, we used squeezed lemon juice and simple syrup for easier incorporation and to avoid crowding the shaker; however, you can use chopped lemon and granulated sugar instead.

While brainstorming spring cocktails, an herby and refreshing smash seemed like the perfect choice. We like to use seasonal ingredients whenever possible, and though they might not be the first thought for a cocktail, we thought that the sweet and vegetal flavour of snap peas would be an interesting element to incorporate into a spring drink. From there, we decided to go with a classic pairing of peas and mint, and the herby flavour profile of gin seemed like a natural choice for our base spirit. The result was a refreshing, herbaceous, yet sweet cocktail that is perfect for sipping on a patio this spring and summer.

How To Make It

First, add mint, snap peas, and simple syrup to your cocktail shaker.

Then, gently muddle them until they are fragrant.

After that, add your gin, lemon juice, and ice to the shaker: shake until thoroughly mixed and chilled.

Double strain all of this over ice, and garnish with a sprig of mint.

And voila! the Pea Gin Smash is yours to enjoy, ideally on a sunny day sitting on a patio somewhere!