photo by krista miller

This has been a busy week for us East Bay Living ladies.  We were fortunate to get two sets of buyers into houses, conducted inspections galore, and worked on prepping two listings, and met a new buyer.  What does a busy realtor and mama do at the end of the week?  Enjoy a delicious cocktail.  The weather is warm, the sky is clear, so that means it is time to combine a few of our favorite things: gin, cardamom and black tea.  Steep it with some Buddha’s hand lemon and top it with an orange and you have a delicious, end-of-week libation.This iced tea cocktail was adapted from foodnetwork.com

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon cardamom pods
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 (1-inch) piece ginger, peeled and chopped
• 3 bags black tea (preferably English breakfast or orange pekoe)
• 6 ounces gin
• 1 ounce sweet vermouth
• 5 dashes orange bitters

Directions

Toast the cardamom pods in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add 3 cups water, the sugar and ginger and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the mixture is reduced to 2 cups, about 10 minutes.

Strain the syrup into a glass measuring cup; if you have less than 2 cups syrup, add hot water. Add the tea bags and steep, about 3 minutes. Discard the bags and cool the syrup to room temperature (don’t squeeze the bags or the syrup will taste tannic).

Combine the syrup, gin, vermouth and bitters in a large cocktail shaker with ice. Shake until frothy, about 15 seconds, then pour into a pitcher filled with ice. Garnish with orange and/or lemon twists.

Orange and/or lemon twists, for garnish