Thanks to our never ending summer there is still loads of rhubarb knocking about, and this is probably one of the nicest ways to partake in it. This cocktail recipe was inspired by the Rhubarb Martini that my friend and all-round awesome chef, Caitlin Ruth, makes as Deasy’s Restaurant in the tiny village of Ring just outside of Clonakilty.

I would never profess to be as much a master at the art of cocktail making as she is, but I think that this is pretty damn good go! I’m using Gin as my martini base, but of course you could just as well swap this out for the classic vodka and vermouth combo. The other twist here is that I am using juice from raw rhubarb here so no cooking involved!

Ingredients (makes min 4 cocktails): 

• Liquid from 1 bunch of rhubarb, trimmed, chopped, pulped and strained
• Per person: 50ml of Beara Ocean Gin
• Juice of 4 sweet oranges (Jaffa/Blood)
• 1 tbsp Sugar syrup / Agave syrup
• Vanilla Dusting Sugar

Method:

• Into a blitzer of some kind (smoothie maker, processor etc), add the chopped rhubarb and process until the rhubarb is completely pulped. You may need to add a dash of water to help this process along.
• Arrange some muslin/clean tea towel over a bowl or jug and spoon out the rhubarb pulp into the cloth.
• Gather up the ends of the cloth and pull tightly into a ball. Begin squeezing the juice out from the pulp into the bowl/jug. Get all the juice out, this might take a few minutes to do properly.
• Once all the juice has been gathered, decant into a large mason jar or a cocktail shaker. Add in the gin, orange juice and sugar syrup or agave and add plenty of ice.
• Prepare your cocktail glasses by running the empty orange segments around the top of the glass and then dusting with the icing sugar. Do this by placing some of the sugar onto a plate and dipping the glass rim into it. The orange juice will help it to stick to the rim.
• Shake the cocktail mix vigorously and then strain into the prepared glasses.
• Garnish with a small slice of orange and ENJOY!