My younger son’s fiance enjoys cocktails on the sweet side. I introduced her to Gingerale and Vanilla vodka. It is a nice drink but lacks a yum factor – the bite of real ginger. She is a lovely girl with an adventurous spirit so I set out to create a special sweet cocktail for her. The Ginger Kiss.

Creating cocktails is always a fun time at my house. It takes time to as we don’t swirl, sniff, sip, and spit. After a couple of versions, no one is complaining, but it’s tough to get serious feedback too. The naming also devolves into giggles and snorts.

The key to this sweet cocktail is homemade ginger syrup.

Sugar syrups are fairly easy to make. I chopped up about 340 grams of fresh, unpeeled, ginger root. I added about 400 ml of water and in a covered saucepan brought it to a boil and simmered for 1 hour. I turned the heat off and let it cool to room temperature. You can strain out the ginger OR run the whole lot through a juicer…because why not. Measure the volume of liquid you are left with. Add the same volume of sugar. This syrup is a 1 to 1 ratio of sugar to liquid. Bring the sugar and ginger juice to a boil. stirring until the sugar dissolves and let cool. Store in the refrigerator.

We fooled around with the recipe for a while. What we realized is that less is more with the ginger syrup. Too much and the drink becomes a bit…. medicinal tasting. Not cool for a sassy cocktail.

Ginger Kiss Cocktail.

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Ingredients

Ginger Syrup

3/4 lb (340 g) fresh ginger root
1.5 (400ml)cups water
1.5 cups sugar

GingerKiss Cocktail

1 Tbsp Ginger Syrup (this gives a string gingery experience without tipping over to medicinal.)
1 oz (2 Tbsp) Vanilla Vodka (I use Smirnoff)
2 oz (4Tbsp) Half and Half or 1 oz heavy cream and 1 oz milk
crushed ice

Instructions

Ginger syrup

Chop fresh, unpeeled, ginger root.
Add water and bring to a boil in a covered saucepan
Simmer for 1 hour.
Turn the heat off and let it cool to room temperature.
You can strain out the ginger OR run the whole lot through a juicer...because why not. Measure the volume of liquid you are left with. Add the same volume of sugar. This syrup is a 1 to 1 ratio of sugar to liquid.
Bring the sugar and ginger juice to a boil. stirring until the sugar dissolves and let cool.
Store in the refrigerator.

For the Ginger Kiss Cocktail

Measure ingredients into a cocktail shaker with a up of crushed ice
Shake enthusiastically
Strain into a pretty glass and garnish with crystallized ginger

https://moderngillie.com/2020/01/19/sweet-cocktail-try-a-ginger-kiss/

This makes a lovely, creamy, sweet, cocktail. The cream in this lets us have some fun and add another possibility for serving this. With club soda or sparkling water you can create a grown up Italian Soda. Measure into a tall glass. Stir and then pour in 6-8 oz of a fizzy water.

A delicious, fizzy version of this sweet cocktail

Now you have a delicious, frothy, gingery, sweet cocktail. For a non-alcoholic version switch out the vanilla vodka for a vanilla syrup like the one from Soda Stream.