Cocktail bar: Pink gin iced tea -The Standard Health

Cocktail bar: Pink gin iced tea (Photo: iStock)

The Pink Gin Iced Tea does not have a single, definitive origin story, but rather several intertwined narratives. The modern cocktail borrows from the classic British “pink gin” and from iced tea’s own rich history.

In the mid-19th century, sailors in the British Royal Navy would mix their daily ration of gin with Angostura bitters, a tonic prescribed to combat seasickness. The addition of bitters made the spirit more palatable and gave it a pinkish hue; thus, the original “pink gin” was born. The contemporary version, however, is far sweeter: a fruit-infused spirit typically flavoured with ingredients such as strawberry or raspberry, which is the base for most Pink Gin Iced Tea recipes today.

Iced tea, meanwhile, has its own celebrated past. Though sweetened cold tea had been popular in the American South since the late 1800s, it gained national fame at the 1904 World’s Fair in St Louis. Struggling to sell hot tea in the sweltering summer heat, English tea merchant Richard Blechynden poured his brewed tea over ice instead. The chilled drink proved an immediate success, sparking a trend that spread rapidly across the United States.

The modern Pink Gin Iced Tea cocktail is a relatively recent creation, believed to have emerged in the mid-2010s amid the resurgence of fruit-flavoured gins. Today, it is often crafted with chamomile tea, modern pink gin, grapefruit juice and elderflower cordial, a refreshing, summery drink that elegantly fuses two distinct histories.

INGREDIENTS:

Pink gin(100ml)