How to Make an Earl Grey Sour

Makes 2 coupe glasses

Cocktail bartenders love tea. Thanks to the endless varieties, each with its distinct flavour profile and character, tea is the perfect aromatic to lift an existing recipe, or even to take centre stage and balance the other ingredients. The ever-popular Earl Grey, with its heady bergamot aroma, is always a winner in both cocktails and iced teas, lending citrus and peppery notes to a drink. Note: you ideally need to infuse the gin with Earl Grey tea leaves for 4 hours before making this cocktail.

What you need

• 1 heaped teaspoon Earl Grey tea leaves

• 100ml (3½fl oz) gin

• 50ml (2fl oz) freshly squeezed lemon juice

• 2 medium egg whites

• 50ml (2fl oz) sugar syrup (see here for easy recipe)

• Ice

Method

Add the Earl Grey tea to the gin and leave to infuse for 4 hours. Strain before using. (It might be worth making a sizeable batch of infused gin if this is a cocktail you think you might make often.)

Chill 2 coupe glasses.

For the cocktail, simply pour the infused gin and all of the the ingredients, except the ice, into a cocktail shaker. Give it a good shake to ensure an even mix. Add plenty of ice and shake vigorously until the outside of the shaker feels ice-cold.

Strain the cocktail through a small sieve into the chilled glasses and enjoy.

You’ll find this recipe, as well as plenty of other tea-based recipes in Emilie’s Good & Proper Tea book.