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French Tart – Elderflower Cocktail Recipe

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Last Updated on March 26, 2024 by Leah Hall

This elderflower cocktail is a great flavor combo with floral notes of of elderflower liqueur, gin and grapefruit juice!

 

We occasionally run across recipes that immediately pique our interest, many times from fellow food bloggers. Usually we end up putting these interesting recipes on our list of things to make! This is usually because we don’t have the ingredients right at hand so it takes us a while to get around to making them. Since this recipe featured elderflower liqueur we knew we would love it. We have quite a few elderflower cocktail recipes made with St Germain or other elderflower liquors.

 

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Pink Elderflower cocktail in coupe with grapefruit slice and rosemary sprig. Grapefruit and flowers in background

Some other suggestions are Normandy, Lumiere, Red Hound, Where the Sea Meets the Sky, St Pisco Smash, and more!

 

For this St Germain cocktail, we just happened to have everything in house so we just jumped behind the bar and let the inspiration flow! With the name of this cocktail being the French Tart, we used some French gin! Some well known brands are Citadelle, G’Vine, Diplome and more.

 

This recipe is inspired by the fine folks over at Nerds with Knives, who posted this recipe over on the Cocktail section of Reddit. This is where some serious cocktail nerds hang out (hi there fellow cocktail fanatics!) Like us, a bunch of the cocktail fanatics immediately nerd-ed out on this drink recipe. Then started throwing out their takes on the drink, which was awesome to see all the variations that were created.

The original recipe called for vodka as the base spirit, but we love the way that grapefruit and the herbal note of gin work together.  So then we decided to swap out the vodka for gin which worked out really well, which we love in elderflower drinks. We are definitely thinking a floral daiquiri or thyme elderflower gimlet, too!

 

The gin is bold enough to stand up to the sweet and sour notes of the grapefruit, and was a great base for the herbal parts of the French Tart.

Pink cocktail in coupe with grapefruit slice and rosemary sprig. Grapefruit and flowers in background

What Ingredients are Needed for the French Tart?

  • Gin – make sure to use a London Dry Gin which will play well with the floral liqueur. This will give a perfect balance for this easy cocktail. Just use your favorite gin.
  • Elderflower Liqueur – we used St Germain Elderflower Liqueur, but there are other brands. Elderflower cordial or elderflower syrup is also an option if you cannot find the alcoholic version. Or you can make the cordial or syrup yourself. This adds a floral taste to the cocktail.
  • Grapefruit Juice – as always fresh squeezed grapefruit juice is the best option. Try fresh grapefruit juice in our Rosemary’s Blush, Rosada, Grapefruit London Mule or Rio Rose!
  • Rosemary Simple Syrup – make our homemade rosemary simple syrup for this recipe, which is easy to make and adds some great herbal notes from using fresh herbs in the syrup.
  • Lemon Juice – Make sure to use fresh lemon juice as always!
  • Sage Bitters – this one is actually a hard ingredient to find. We had sage bitters from a brand in Colorado, but they no longer make it. You can use these bitters as a close sub if you want to buy them. But, if you can’t or don’t want to buy, you can use Aromatic bitters, or if you have Bitterman’s Scarborough Savory bitters, or Bittercube Trinity bitters, can both get close.

 

The French Tart is a great combination of sweet and tart, with herbal hints that add an interesting depth to this perfect drink. Sweet rosemary syrup gives a fresh sweetness that complements the tartness from the lemon juice and the pleasing sweet and sour of the grapefruit.

Pink Elderflower cocktail in coupe with grapefruit slice and rosemary sprig. Grapefruit and flowers in background

How to Make this Elderflower Cocktail

Simply combine all the ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice.

 

Shake and strain into a cocktail coupe and garnish with a sprig of rosemary and a slice of grapefruit.

Pink Elderflower cocktail in coupe with grapefruit slice and rosemary sprig. Grapefruit and flowers in background

Tips & Tricks

  • Garnish – you can use a rosemary sprig and a slice of grapefruit if you want in this elderflower cocktail. Or, lemon wedges, edible flowers or other fresh herbs would work well.
  • Glassware – we served these delicious cocktails up (without ice) in a cocktail coupe.
  • Fizz Cocktail – feel free to serve this as a fizz cocktail by topping with some tonic water, dry champagne or club soda after shaking and pouring into coupe or cocktail glass.
  • Grapefruit Cocktails – if you want some more tasty grapefruit cocktails try any of these Strawberry Paloma, Honey Bourbon Pear Cider, Hibiscus Salty Dog, the Shipwreck or Rambler’s Ruby!

 

Cheers!

 

Also, don’t forget to follow us on Instagram and tag #gastronomcocktails so we can see all the wonderful recipes YOU recreate from this site!

 

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Like this recipe? Try these below, too!

Rosemary Grapefruit Moscow Mule - A Vodka CocktailRosemary Grapefruit Moscow Mule

 

The Pink Pear - A Gin and Grapefruit cocktailThe Pink Pear Cocktail

Other Gin & Rosemary Cocktails

Pink elderflower cocktail in coupe with grapefruit slice and rosemary sprig. Grapefruit and flowers in background
Yield: 1

Elderflower Cocktail

Prep Time: 3 minutes
Total Time: 3 minutes

This light tipple is a combo of rosemary, grapefruit and gin! This elderflower cocktail is a tasty one!

Ingredients

French Tart Cocktail

  • 2 ounces gin
  • 1.50 ounces freshly squeezed pink grapefruit juice, strained
  • 1 ounce St Germain Elderflower Liqueur
  • .50 ounce rosemary simple syrup
  • .25 ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 4 drops sage bitters

Instructions

Add the grapefruit and lemon juices, St Germain, gin, simple syrup and sage bitters into a shaker.

Fill the shaker with ice.

Shake well.

Strain into a chilled coupe.

Cheers!

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Nutrition Information:

Yield:

1

Serving Size:

1

Amount Per Serving: Calories: 365Total Fat: 0.4gSaturated Fat: 0.1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 15mgCarbohydrates: 38.8gFiber: 2.1gSugar: 24.8gProtein: 1.3g

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Lucy@ globe scoffers recipes

Wednesday 30th of March 2016

I've recently got in to gin, and all the ingredients sound lovely in this drink. Thanks for sharing! ?

The 'Noms.

Friday 1st of April 2016

Thanks, we think it's a great combo! Cheers!

Erin @ Thanks for Cookin'!

Saturday 5th of March 2016

That rosemary simple syrup sounds divine!! My sister's two fav cocktails are greyhounds and gin and tonics...I think she's gonna LOVE this one!

The 'Noms.

Saturday 5th of March 2016

Thanks! Absolutely, this would be right up her alley, then!

fashiontofollow

Friday 4th of March 2016

This looks so good! Beautiful photos!

The 'Noms.

Saturday 5th of March 2016

Thanks so much!

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