I was inspired by my blogger crush, Claire Thomas, to gift DIY cocktail kits this year. After watching this YT video of her DIY Old Fashioned Kit, I couldn’t help but recreate the idea at home with my own cocktail ingredients. The idea was so up my alley, I wanted to kick myself for not thinking of it first! I always have random batches of syrups and little R&D infusion projects laying around, so these were a cinch to put together when I needed a last minute gift last week. To put together your own DIY cocktail kits, here’s a rough idea list of things you’ll need…

• decorative straw, mesh or wire basket
• a cloth napkin, cute kitchen towel or raffia to act a base layer in the bottom of the basket
• 2-3 mini (50 mL) bottles of liquor or a mason jar of a homemade infused spirit (see ideas here, here and here)
• a cocktail syrup, purchased or homemade (equal parts sugar and water, simmered until dissolved)
• a small bottle of your favorite mixer, i.e. tonic, soda, ginger beer
• a whole lemon, lime or orange
• cute paper straws
• twine, sticky labels and/or gift tags to label ingredients
• festive card, to write the cocktail recipe inside

Here’s what I included in my basket last week: rosemary mint honey simple syrup (recipe below), a mason jar of the first official batch of You & Yours‘ flagship gin, East Imperial soda water, a lemon, three paper straws in a holiday color palette and the following recipe written inside a cute card…

Lemon + Winter Herb Gin Spritz: Shake 2 oz gin, 1 oz rosemary syrup and 1 oz lemon juice with ice, strain over fresh ice and top with 2 oz. soda water. Garnish with a lemon wedge and enjoy!

For the rosemary mint simple syrup… combine 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup honey and 1 cup water in a small sauce pan over medium-low heat. Add five sprigs of rosemary and a generous handful of fresh mint. Simmer until fully dissolved and let cool completely off the heat. Strain into a sealable container.

Other ideas of things to include in the cocktail kits…

• a mini bottle of cocktail bitters
• elegant linen cocktail napkins
• a bottle of my DIY Hazelnut Liqueur
• fancy garnishes like candied orange peels or candied ginger pieces
• a timeless whiskey tumbler or ceramic muga gilded jigger

Happy gifting!

{ Photos by Lindsey Marie }

The post DIY Cocktail Kits appeared first on Distillerista.