It's been quite a while since I had a nicely crafted Collins and circumstances have brought me a pack of thyme on hand. Oh yes, I like that herb quite a lot in cooking, that vegetal flavor is just astonishing, so I decided to make some drinks for the selfish me:

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Foto: Urbanfever.ro

Rickey thyme:

Thyme 3-5 springs
Gin 2 oz
Fresh squeezed lemon juice 1 oz
Honey syrup 1 oz
Club soda
  • Collins
  • Swizzle
  • Lemon weel
Basically a twisted Bee's knees plus a bit of sparkling water for length. Anyway, if you like thyme flavor this drink is just delightful and can be matched with a lot of dishes too.
In this situation I find swizzling the drink with crushed ice extracts most flavor out of the herb and if you want to go slow on your drink thyme continues to infuse your cocktail. Yes, you might find yourself chewing on some of those leafs, but as far as I am concerned I don't care.
Yet, if you crave for something a bit more clean and perhaps more fit for this weather you should go with a tea.

Green Thyme Jasmine:

Thyme 3 springs
Green tea jasmine 2 tsp
Hot water 8 oz
Honey syrup 2 oz
  • Add ingredients to a teapot and infuse until desired intensity.
If you feel inclined to skip honey for a funky liqueur or just add a spirit be my guest because this infusion is quite a versatile mixer. I also had it chilled and carbonated and made wonders mixed with cool flavors such as cucumber and mint.
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After a few days of playing around with this herb it has lost some of it's freshness so I decided to expand it's lifetime by infusing it to a syrup. Besides being able to use it for a bit longer, infusion also speeds service up, but in my opinion nothing beats it when it's fresh.
If you decide to take my way and steep your syrup right in the bottle I'll advice to use it as fast as possible because as the syrup level will drop the uncovered herbs will spoil, thus compromising your syrup.