Thyme to be Grapeful Gin Cocktail

Thyme, grapefruit, gin and rosé wine makes for a refreshing cocktail that is easy to sip in spring (and summer)

The spicy floral notes of the thyme gives a bit of a lift to the botanicals in the gin and rosé wine adds a touch of sweetness - think of this like a pimped up rosé wine spritz!

Ingredients

• 30ml gin (we used Distillery Botanica gin)

• 60ml rosé wine (we used Crafters Union rosé wine in a can)

• 10ml grapefruit oleo saccharum*

• Leaves from one sprig of thyme

Shake all ingredients over ice. Strain into chilled glass and garnish with another sprig of thyme

Grapefruit Oleo Saccharum

Oleo Saccharum is Latin for "oil sugar" and it is exactly what it says on the tin. To make it, you basically use sugar to extract the oils from citrus peels. How much sugar you use depends on how much peel you have but we roughly followed this recipe from Jeffrey Morganthaler but substituted the lemon peel with grapefruit peel. In short, you:

• Peel the grapefruit, removing as much of the white pith as you can (the bit under the skin)

• Put the sugar and grapefruit peel in a Ziplock bag (or any plastic sandwich bag)

Leave overnight. You will start to see the oils leaching out and over time (about a day), it will dissolve the sugar. What you end up with is a very rich sweet oil concentrate.