Do you use essential oils? Have you ever thought about using them in a cocktail? I hadn't! Not until one of my Instagram friends reached out to see if I'd be interested in trying it. She's a rep for the brand Young Living, so she sent me several of their oils to try. Up until this point, I had only ever diffused essential oils or used them to make homemade candles and beard oil. So this was a new experience.
Disclaimer: essential oils are not intended to be ingested. They are not regulated by the FDA, and there's no official "food-grade" designation for essential oils, regardless of what the companies would like you to believe. You should never ingest essential oils straight out of the bottle. Always dilute them. For cocktails, I decided to dilute with vodka because it doesn't change the flavor of the oils, nor does it throw off the balance of your cocktail. I bought small spritzer bottles on Amazon, dumped in the essential oil, then dumped in twice as much vodka. Be sure to shake well before each use because the oil will separate from the vodka.
Because orange plays a role in a traditional Old-Fashioned cocktail, I decided to start there with my foray into essential oil cocktails.
ESSENTIAL OLD-FASHIONED
1 sugar cube
Angostura bitters
2 1/2 oz. whiskey
Orange peel
Diluted orange essential oil
Spritz the inside of a rocks glass with one spray of diluted orange essential oil. Add the sugar cube and soak it with bitters. Add the orange peel and muddle until the sugar cube breaks down and starts to dissolve. Add the whiskey and ice, swirl to dissolve any remaining sugar. Garnish with a fresh orange twist.
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