Magical Blue Matcha Cocktail #SummerCocktails

Blue matcha is not actually matcha in the sense that it's not a powdered tea. Blue matcha is a powder made from pulverizing the butterfly-pea flower; it has nothing to do with the tea leaf bush! But it is a stunningly beautiful color. I have used the whole flowers to make color-changing lemonade before. So, I ordered some blue matcha and was determined to make myself a cocktail with it.

As gin is usually my booze of choice - and because I wanted to make sure that the cocktail had citrus in it to activate the magical color-shifting properties of the blue matcha - I leaned towards a riff on the gimlet. A gimlet is a cocktail that is typically comprised of two parts gin and one part lime juice. In the 1953 novel The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler, he writes that a real gimlet is half gin, half lime juice, and nothing else. Then I had to throw in some tonic because, well, gin and tonic. So, this is neither a genuine gimlet nor a gin and tonic. But it was tasty.

Ingredients

Blue Matcha Simple Syrup

• 1/2 cup water with 2 Tablespoons water taken out

• 1/2 cup cane sugar

• 1 teaspoon blue matcha powder

• also needed: matcha whisk (or a balloon whisk will work, if you don't have a matcha whisk)

• Lime Simple Syrup

• 1/2 cup water

• 1/2 cup cane sugar

• 2 Tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice

Sparkling Lime Ice Cubes

• 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice

• 1/2 cup water

• also needed: edible glitter (optional), silicone ice cube try

Cocktail, makes 1 drink

• 1/2 ounce lime syrup

• 2 ounces gin

• 1/2 ounce blue matcha syrup

• 3 to 4 lime ice cubes

• tonic, as needed

• also needed: edible glitter, if using

Procedure

Blue Matcha Simple Syrup

Place water and sugar in a small sauce pan. Place blue matcha powder in a mason jar and add 2 Tablespoons water. Whisk until smooth. Bring the water and sugar to a simmer. Swirl the pan until the sugar is completely dissolved. Whisk in the blue matcha. Once cooled, jar until ready to use.

Lime Simple Syrup

Place water and sugar in a small sauce pan. Bring the water and sugar to a simmer. Swirl the pan until the sugar is completely dissolved. Whisk in the lime juice. Once cooled, jar until ready to use.

Sparkling Lime Ice Cubes

Mix lime juice and water together until well combined. Pour into ice cube tray and freeze until solid.

Cocktail

Place ice in a glass. Pour in lime syrup. Pour in gin. Pour in blue matcha syrup. Top with tonic water. Swirl before sipping.