This weekend, Lunar New Year celebrations will be held all around the world with dinners, parades, lion dances, firecrackers and family. While some cultures and families celebrate the New Year on January 1st, many celebrate the Lunar New Year, the day of the first new moon!
Lunar New Year is a time to sweep out the bad of last twelve months and start fresh for the coming year. It's a time to clean not only one's home, but to clean oneself to let good luck flow in.
Lunar New Year is a special time for families, many celebrating with traditional foods such as noodles, dumplings, fish and fruit. Oranges (some with shiny green leaves and stems) and tangerines are often given as gifts and are found displayed in bowls during Lunar New Year. They represent a wish for the coming year to be filled with warmth, wealth, good luck & abundance.
In honour of Lunar New Year, this week's #cocktailoftheweek is filled with fragrant orange blossom water (a little goes a long way) and fresh mandarin orange and citrus juices. Some of the orange juice I used in these Citrus Celebration Cocktails was squeezed from two stem and leaf mandarin oranges that were given to me, in honour of the holiday! Thank you :)
I wish you all a year ahead filled with wealth, health, luck, creativity and joy.
Happy Lunar New Year!
Krista
Citrus Celebration (adapted from BC Liquor Store Taste Magazine)
makes 2 drinks
Ingredients
4 oz London Dry Gin
5 oz satsuma (stem & leaf) mandarin orange juice, freshly squeezed (substitute with any type of orange or clementine you can find)
1.5 oz blood orange juice, freshly squeezed
1/5 oz lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1 oz simple syrup
2-3 drops orange blossom water
2 frozen strawberry purée cubes*
Method
In a cocktail tin, add gin, orange juice, blood orange juice, lemon juice, simple syrup and orange blossom water. Fill shaker with ice and shake until tin becomes chilled. Strain into 2 old fashioned glasses and place 1 frozen strawberry cube into each glass.
*Frozen Strawberry Purée
Add 10-12 strawberries and 2-4 ice cubes to a high powered blender and pulse on high until puréed. Frozen strawberries can also be used. Pour purée into ice cube trays and freeze for 2-3 hours until solid. Place extra cubes into a zip top bag and use in cocktails or smoothies.
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