After all, you’ll want to make this Lavender Gin Sour recipe.

The days of mixing a jigger of gin with a splash of tonic and calling yourself a good host seem to be ancient history. These days, if you don’t have an array of bitters, shrubs and tinctures you can’t call yourself a home bartender. But as is so often the case, salvation arrives in a hip flask-shaped bottle: custom small-batch simple syrups from Vancouver-based Cahoots are the perfect shortcut to mixology greatness. Use one of their cold-steeped concoctions (the lavender is sublime) to do the heavy lifting in a clever cocktail, you supply a few ounces of the hard stuff, and, voilà, the party is saved.

Your best bet for utilizing these magic potions: a Lavender Gin Sour. Garnish with fresh lavender for extra credit.

Get the recipe: Lavender Gin Sour

lavender gin sour

Neal McLennan

Neal McLennan

Neal McLennan is the wine and spirits editor for Vancouver and Western Living magazines, where he susses out the wonderful (and occasionally weird) options for imbibing across Western Canada.