Gin and Fizzy Lime Cocktail

I'll admit it. When cold weather arrives, I tend to eat - and drink - and cook - heartier and richer items. But after a while, it's nice to have something a little lighter and more refreshing. Salad starts sounding like a good idea, and creamy cocktails give way to lighter, fruitier, and fizzier ones.

At least for a while.

Because of course Valentine's Day is right around the corner, with all of the chocolate that comes with it.

This cocktail is inspired by the bottle of Tanqueray 10 that was sent to me. Yeah, rough life, right? For years, I insisted that I didn't like gin, due to one experience with a cheap gin cocktail that tasted like mulched and musty Christmas trees.

More recently, I found out that good gin is more interesting and pretty darned tasty. When I tasted the Tanqueray 10, I thought the flavors would pair well with citrus, and I wanted something fizzy and ... well, light.

I suppose I could have opted for a lemon-lime soda, but I wanted something fresher So I made my own fizzy mixer. These days, lots of people have soda siphons or fancier Soda Stream machines, but if you don't happen to have one, you could use sparkling water and add the lime juice and sweetener separately.

Gin and Fizzy Lime Cocktail

For the fizzy lime mixer:
3 cups water
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon agave nectar

For the cocktail:
1 ounce Tanqueray 10 gin
Fizzy lime mixer, to fill glass

To make the mixer:
Combine the water, lime juice, and agave nectar in a soda siphon. Charge with CO2 as instructed by the manufacturer of the soda siphon.

While this is meant as a cocktail mixer, it's also refreshing on its own. It's only slightly sweet, but mostly tart. But of course, you can sweeten as desired. If you don't have agave, you can use honey or simple syrup, instead.

To make the cocktail:
Fill a short glass with ice. Add the gin and fill with the lime mixer. Serve.

Note: If you don't have a soda siphon, you can use sparkling water. For each cup of sparkling water, mix in 1 tablespoon of lime juice and one teaspoon of agave syrup.

I received a bottle of Tanqueray 10 at no cost to me.

Yum