The Georgian cocktail

While at the beach recently, I was considering new directions to go with bitters.  I've been serving so many Pimm's Cups and Juliet & Romeos lately that cucumbers kept coming to mind.  So I resolved to make some cucumber bitters.

In 6 oz grain alcohol, vigorously shake 1/2 of a skinned, thinly sliced cucumber.  Fine-strain, discard the solids, and repeat five times in the same 6 oz ethanol (total 3 cucumbers in the original 6 oz).  This will yield a murky, light green solution.  Cover the solution and allow it to rest for at least 24 hours in the refrigerator.  Decant the supernatant (the clear liquid on top), making sure not to pour off the green particles at the bottom of the container.  Combine this cucumber extract with a bitter root extract (I already have one ready to go) to taste.  (My rendition came to a ratio of 27:2.)  

With the cucumber bitters, I created The Georgian cocktail:

1.5 oz Aviation gin (you could use Hendrick's if you want more cucumber, Plymouth, or a clean London dry, but I like the floral notes in the Aviation)
3/4 tsp simple syrup
1 dash Angostura bitters
4 dashes cucumber bitters
1 small pinch of salt. 

Stir with ice, and garnish with a cucumber slice.

The cocktail is named for the Georgian architectural style, not for the State or for a living person. (Georgian was the name of the architectural style that was popular during the reigns of Kings George I-III of England.) The drink was named after this style because of its classic cocktail-symmetry and basic historicity, and because of the popularity of its form during the Georgian reigns.  To me, a gin Old Fashioned, with its simple and basic-but-classic design fits the namesake.  Gin makes the drink clean and light; Angostura adds to the complexity of the selected gin; the cucumber contributes to the lightness of the drink and adds refreshing flavor; and the salt and sugar round it out.  This is wonderful for a summer afternoon, especially for the gin-lover.