Happy Friday evening! I cooked up a fun live session the other day with my friend Sophia from chefsoph.com. If you watched us live, we made crusted lamb, skordalia, and this very delicious Greek-inspired mojito cocktail. The Greek-inspired is the “ouzo” and lemon in the mix.

Greek Ouzo Lemonito Cocktail Drink 

Servings: 1

Ingredients:

• 2 ounces of ouzo (I prefer Barbayanni brand)
• A handful of fresh mint leaves (reserve a few to serve)
• 1 tablespoon of organic sugar (reserve more for rimming the glass)
• 1/2 cup of club soda
• 2 tablespoons of lemon simple syrup or lemon mixer
• 1 lemon (reserve slices)  (1 tablespoon of juice)
• A handful of ice cubes
• 1 tablespoon Blue Curacao (for the blue color) You can adjust the color by adding more or less.
• Shaker
• Muddler

Method:

1. In a shaker muddle the mint, sugar, and lemon juice. Make a wet paste and try to muddle the mint so you get all the oils out of the leaves.
2. Then pour the ouzo, lemon simple syrup, or mixer, and mix to combine. Toss in a few ice cubes, cover the shaker and shake shake shake. Once the mixture is blended, pour inside a cocktail glass filled with crushed iced. Top off with club soda. Serve with a lemon slice and mint.
3. To make the cocktail “blue” add about a tablespoon or tablespoon half of Blue Curacao to the drink and stir.

Cheers!

Tips:

• I used a meat tenderizer tool for the muddling. But I do recommend getting your hands on a muddler.
• The more mint the better.
• Make sure to double the ingredients to make 2 servings
• Blue Curacao makes a beautiful “Greek” color cocktail
• You can use either lemon simple syrup or a lemon cocktail mixer such as
• You can rim the glass with lemon and then sugar. We did this for my “Taste of Greece” event and it was fun!
• You can sub lime for lemon if you like.
• Try out my tasty “Greek Lime Mojito” using Metaxa in my second cookbook – A Drop of Ladi & My Greek Soul