By Melissa Ragole & our friends at Reyka Vodka

Preparing and enjoying good cocktails at any level from your home bar can vary from basic, with a mixture of your favorite spirit and topped off with a soda, all the way to “hey, I was born to be a mixologist!” While planning what drink I wanted to share with you this week, I considered what tastes great and requires a few steps to create yet gives off the wow factor to truly impress your guests. Personally, every new cocktail recipe is an excuse to call up some good friends and tell them to come over to try a delicious mixed drink. This week’s recipe will be a New Maid from our friends at Reyka. Most of the “maid” cocktails (Old Maid, Irish Maid, etc) are whiskey-based…let’s try something new with a refreshing vodka-based cocktail.

Though there are a few steps in preparing the New Maid, everyone will get a kick out of this and possibly find some inspiration to change up the mix to create unique varieties.

You will need the following tools: muddler, lime squeezer, shaker and a small fine mesh strainer.

Ingredients

2 oz Reyka Vodka

¾ oz Simple Syrup

1 oz fresh squeezed lime juice

Small handful of mint leaves

3 slices of cucumber

Directions

Add the cucumber and mint to the bottom of the cocktail shaker and muddle to release the fresh juices. Then fill with ice, Reyka Vodka, Simple Syrup, fresh squeezed lime. Give is a good shake then with a fine mesh strainer, strain into a rocks glass filled with ice. Garnish with a sprig of mint and slice of cucumber.

Cheers!