Friday Cocktails: Strawberry-Rhubarb Smash
By Jenny Lee-Adrian On a recent warm spring evening, I sipped on a lively red cocktail at Little Giant, a restaurant on the Lower East Side in New York City. More acidic than sweet, their Strawberry Rhubarb Smash has bourbon and lemon juice like a whiskey sour, but brightened with an unsweetened rhubarb simple syrup and fresh spring strawberries.
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A few days after my dinner there, I decided to make the drink myself. I cut rhubarb stalks into small pieces and simmered them in water along with seeds of half a vanilla bean. (Tasha Garcia Gibson, who co-owns Little Giant with Julie Taras Wallach, says the pulpy rhubarb mass that's leftover after the syrup is drained is great on yogurt with granola or Grape-Nuts.) I mixed the syrup with bourbon, muddled strawberries, lemon, and mint. It was like holding spring in a glass, with the whole summer ahead of me to look forward to. See all our Friday Cocktails »
RECIPE: Strawberry Rhubarb Smash
We think this clever, vibrant bourbon cocktail tastes just like spring in a glass.
MAKES 1 COCKTAIL
INGREDIENTS
3 lemon wedges
3-4 mint leaves
1 oz. rhubarb simple syrup (recipe included)
1 ½ oz. bourbon
1 ½ strawberries, washed and hulled
Sprig of mint for garnish
1 strawberry for garnish
FOR THE RHUBARB SIMPLE SYRUP
4 rhubarb stalks
½ vanilla bean
4 cups water
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INSTRUCTIONS
1. Make the simple syrup: Wash rhubarb, trim the ends and cut into 1/2" pieces. Place the fruit in a 4-qt. pot and cover with 4 cups of water. Scrape the seeds of the vanilla bean into the pot and add the bean to the water. Bring to a boil. Then reduce heat to a low simmer. Cover and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Pour syrup into a bowl and cool in an ice water bath. Strain through a fine-mesh strainer.
2. To make the cocktail: Muddle the lemon, mint, and strawberries with the rhubarb simple syrup in the bottom of a cocktail shaker. Add ice and bourbon. Shake and strain into a highball glass filled with fresh ice. Garnish with a sprig of mint and a strawberry.
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