Five Ways To Incorporate Purple Honey In Cocktails
Purple honey, known also as blue honey or lavender honey might be quickly recognisable following an internet phenomenon that went viral, featuring as it did a picture of this deep hued syrupy goodness found in the Sandhills of North Carolina.
This variant of honey is definitely extremely rare to procure because it is produced by bees who only collect nectar from specific types of flowers such as the kudzu pollen or the pollen of wild oreganos which contain the natural pigments or dyes in lavender, purple and blue colours.
Once this nectar is procured from the pollen, bees follow their usual process of preparing honey yielding a very pleasing hue that has quickly sparked the interest of mixologists and bartenders.
Evidently, you can incorporate this purple honey extracted from the honeycombs of those bees who are busy crafting this sweet nectar out of the flowers with the colourful pigments into making delicious, syrupy drinks. The honey has a distinctly sweet taste but it is most prominently used for its seductively purple hue which lends a certain taste to your gin or vodka infused cocktails.
Here are some ways in which you can use purple honey in your cocktails the next time you lay your hands on a jar of this exclusive find:
Purple Honey Syrup
You can prepare a syrup out of purple honey by diluting the thick nectar in some water. For every two tablespoons of the honey, you can add two to three tablespoons of water to craft a very small batch of syrup that would suffice for making one or two glasses of a purple honey gin fizz. Use a quality Tanqueray No. Ten Gin to craft this cocktail and before you add soda to the recipe, pour in the syrup and a splash of lime juice for a sourness that counteracts some of the sweeter notes of the purple honey.
Purple Honey Neat
When you want to highlight the lavender or purple hues of the honey through your cocktail, craft a drink without diluting the flavour and colour of the honey. This can be done by blending purple honey with a Smirnoff Triple Distilled Vodka and just a bit of lemonade. The honey will also lend a slightly syrupy quality to your cocktail while exuding the welcoming violet signifying the presence of this delectable ingredient in the drink. You can also garnish the glass with edible flowers for a more dramatic touch.
As A Sweetener
You can use purple honey as a substitute for simple syrup in several cocktails to add a syrupy quality to simple mixes. Not only will the honey exude its signature lavender tinge, it will also infuse the cocktail with a natural sweetness enabling you to cut down on excess sugars. Many classic cocktails such as a mojito or gin fizz can be prepared by swapping out the sugary syrup for this sweetener that also infuses a slightly earthy textural element into the recipe.
Purple Honey Garnish
When you do procure a bottle of purple honey, it is only evident that you would use it sparingly so you can make it last longer. In order to do so effectively, use purple honey as a garnish, instead of making it a primary ingredient in your drink to simply enjoy its syrupy textures, albeit within measure. Pour the honey over a fizzy or frothy cocktail so it softly releases its purple hue and sweet taste without overpowering the drink with a heavy onslaught of honey notes.
Purple Honey Tequila
Another inventive way to incorporate purple honey into your cocktails is to prepare an infusion that contains this delicacy and a malleable spirit like tequila which can carry lots of diverse flavours. Add a couple of teaspoons of purple honey to a Don Julio Blanco before you pour it in your cocktail shaker to make a margarita and enjoy the light taste of the sweet nectar blended directly into the spirit.
