Snowy Day - Winter Gin Cocktail

Looking for a delicious gin cocktail to stay warm when it's snowing out? Look no further than the beautiful and super tasty Snowy Day Cocktail. This winter gin cocktail uses Empress Gin for both flavor and a gorgeous purple color, and mixes in Golden Falernum liqueur for some lime and ginger spice notes. A rim of dried shredded coconut paired with a sprig of rosemary makes for the perfect wintry garnish.

The Snowy Day is a great winter cocktail for gin lovers and coconut lovers alike! This is a great Christmas cocktail, but is also a really pretty option for any winter cocktail hour, or even a Valentine's Day celebration.

Looking for another Christmas gin cocktail? Try out the Mistletoe Martini, which mixes gin with cranberry and dry vermouth for a delicious and festive drink. Or, for another coconut-y Christmas drink, try the White Christmas Margarita.

For some more Empress gin cocktails, try out the Pink Gin Sour, the classic Empress Gin and Tonic, or the beautiful layered Fade To Pink, a gin and Aperol cocktail.

Ingredients

Here are the ingredients you'll need to make this drink.

• Empress Gin - use Empress 1908 Gin if you want to have the purple color in your drink.
• Falernum liqueur - I used The Bitter Truth Golden Falernum liqueur. Falernum is a classic liqueur with flavors of lime, ginger, almonds and cloves. It's used a lot in Tiki drink recipes.
• Cream of coconut - not to be confused with coconut cream itself! Cream of coconut is actually a syrup, made with coconut cream, sugar and water.
• Lime juice - fresh squeezed lime juice is best if you have it available.
• Egg white - the egg whites give this drink a silky mouth feel, as well as a little bit of a foam layer on top. I use pasteurized egg whites, or you can pasteurize your eggs at home.
• Dried shredded coconut - this is for the rim of the glass. It makes a pretty and delicious garnish that is definitely reminiscent of snow! We'll use extra cream of coconut to stick this to the rim.
• Rosemary sprig - this not only looks pretty and festive, but gives the drink an extra delicious fragrance.

Substitutions

Here are some ways you can substitute the ingredients in this cocktail:

• Empress Gin - if you don't have this gin, you can use a different dry gin. It will taste similar but have a white color. Or, if you're not a fan of gin, you can use vodka. You can even infuse your vodka to get the purple color by mixing it with dried butterfly pea flowers for 30 minutes to an hour.
• Falernum - if you don't have the Golden Falernum, you can try using Velvet Falernum liqueur. Or, try out using Falernum syrup.
• Cream of Coconut - if you can't find this syrup, try mixing coconut cream with simple syrup in a 1 to 1 ratio. You could also use coconut milk.
• Lime juice - you can use lemon juice or another type of citrus juice to replace the lime if you don't have it.
• Egg whites - you can use reconstituted powdered egg whites if you don't have fresh or liquid whites. If you don't want to use eggs, you can use Fee Foam cocktail foamer, or aquafaba (chick pea water). Or, just omit the egg whites if you don't want the foam layer on top.

Variations

Here are some variations on this recipe:

• Cranberry - Add ½ ounce of cranberry juice, or use half cranberry simple syrup and half cream of coconut for a more fruity flavor note. This will make the drink a more pink color.
• Elderflower - Add a splash of tonic with elderflower to finish off the drink for a more floral twist on this recipe. Or, sub in St Germain Elderflower liqueur for the Golden Falernum.
• Sloe gin - Try swapping the Golden Falernum for The Ford's Gin Co Sloe Gin liqueur. This will bring a delicious berry flavor to the drink. 
• Non-alcoholic version - if you're avoiding alcohol, try swapping in Falernum syrup for the Golden Falernum. For the gin, you can swap in Monday Zero Alcohol gin. Add some dried butterfly pea flowers to the non-alcoholic gin for an hour or two before making the drink for the more purple color.

Equipment

For equipment, you'll need some basic bar tools. Make sure you have a jigger, a cocktail shaker, and a strainer. (For bonus points, grab a second fine mesh strainer too).

The serving glass I used is a Reidel drink-specific Sour glass, but any coupe glass or martini glass will work great too. You'll also want to have a couple of small dishes to create the coconut rim.

A knife and cutting board along with a citrus juicer are great if you are using fresh lime.

Note: If you need any new bar equipment, I really love the products from A Bar Above! You can get 10% off using my discount code, LKDrinks. Their bar tools are super durable, and also can be cleaned in the dishwasher!

Instructions

Start out by adding the coconut rim to the serving glass. Dip the rim in the cream of coconut, turning and re-dipping to coat the whole rim.

Then, dip it again into the dried shredded coconut, turning so you get coconut all around the rim.

Add your lime juice to the cocktail shaker. (If you want, you can also cut a slice of fresh lime for an additional garnish.)

Shake your bottle of cream of coconut well so it all mixes together. Then, add in the cream of coconut and the Golden Falernum liqueur.

Add in the egg whites and the Empress gin.

Fill the cocktail shaker with ice. Shake vigorously, about 15-20 times.

We'll be shaking this drink again in what's called a "dry shake", without any ice. Strain out the ice and pour the drink into the other half of the shaker or a separate non-serving glass.

Seal up the shaker again and shake hard for about a minute. This will develop the egg white foam.

If you have one, you can add a blender ball to make this step go a little faster.

Use your strainer and, optionally, a second fine-mesh strainer to pour the drink into the serving glass.

Clap the fresh rosemary between your hands to release the fragrance before adding it to the drink as a garnish. Serve and enjoy!

Hint: for a little more of a spiced flavor, add a star anise to the cocktail shaker. Then, float a second star anise on top of the drink foam as another festive garnish.

Frequently Asked Questions

Top tip

This drink is best served just after it's made, because of both the lime juice and the egg white foam. Also, the cream of coconut will separate if it's left sitting too long.

If you're planning to make these for a crowd, your best bet is to make two drinks per cocktail shaker. You can also add the coconut to the rim of all of the serving glasses ahead of time. Cheers!