This cocktail was inspired by a meme. You know the one, it names the 12 seasons of Colorado, and right now we are smack in the middle of Third Winter. We need this drink to survive.

Oh Colorado, we love you and we love snow. We’ve lived here for 7 years now and are fully aware that March and April are our snowiest months. But even we can be fooled by the promise of summer the moment we experience our first 70F weekend in March.

Then comes a big snowstorm, and we’re reminded that it’s still ski season! We ski on those bluebird days, so happy to be in the mountains. Remembering that Colorado winters aren’t bad, they’re beautiful.

But then, THEN we get a full week of 60F days and we think, this is it, it’s officially spring. The snowdrops, crocuses, and violets start blooming. The farmer’s markets open. Life is good. Nope, fooled again, that’s our Spring of Deception. It’s followed by full week of grey days and snow.

We’re in the thick of those grey days now, and I wanted to create a cocktail that celebrates the back and forth dance between winter and spring in Colorado.

The Ingredients

This drink is steeped in meaning.

• Colorado Blue Spruce – The Colorado Blue Spruce is our state tree, and nothing is better than driving into the mountains on a bluebird day and seeing the trees covered in last night’s snow. The simple syrup in this recipe is all things good about a blue spruce. The aroma is 100% the smell of a fresh-cut spruce tree, and that’s just what you’ll taste too, but with a bit of sugar, so it’s like we created spruce candy. Trust us, it’s delicious. *More on using spruce needles below.
• Lemons – It’s snowing in April, you’re darn right we’re turning lemons into lemonade.

• Violet Liqueur – Violets are some of the earliest to bloom, and they are very cold hardy. Perfect for those bone-chilling spring nights. The blossoms are edible and have a delicate floral flavor. Use them as a garnish in salads, drinks, or on cakes for a pop of color. In this recipe, we’re using a violet liqueur, but a little goes a long way. If poured with a heavy hand, the concentrated violet flavor has an unpleasant soap flavor. There are many violet liqueur options on the market. We obviously went with this brand because when you’re sitting outside on that first beautiful Colorado spring day, the Bitter Truth is that it will definitely snow again.
• Spring 44 Gin – Gin is our base spirit for this cocktail, because these hills are covered in wild juniper trees. We’re using our favorite Colorado-born gin, which gets its water from a remote artesian spring in the Rocky Mountains.

Spring of Deception Cocktail

Is it April and there’s snow in your forecast? This is your tonic.

• 2 oz Spring 44 Gin
• 1 oz spruce simple syrup (see directions below)
• 1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 oz violet liqueur
• ice

Place all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake until chilled. Strain into a coupe glass, garnish with a fresh violet, and enjoy!

Spruce Simple Syrup

Did you know that many types of evergreens are edible?! If you plan on actually eating the needles, you’ll want to pick the new, bright green, soft tips after they’ve just emerged in spring.

Rather than eating the tips, we want to infuse that beautiful smell of the spruce tree into a syrup. Many recipes for spruce simple syrups also call for using those edible tips, but we’re going to use the hardened older needles from the tree, they have that perfect spruce essence that we desire but are not really edible.

Some sources will suggest not using older needles because of their resin content and the possibility of making the syrup bitter. I didn’t have that problem at all. One of my favorite resources for harvesting wild plants for consumption is Wild Remedies, and they recommend winter harvests for evergreens because the needles have a higher Vitamin C content in their needles at that time of year.

To make the simple syrup place 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup water, and about 1/4 cup blue spruce needles into a small sauce pot. I coarsely chopped the needles before adding them to the pot. Bring the mixture to a lower simmer and stir until the sugar dissolves. Remove the pot from the heat and let it steep for about 15 minutes before straining. Store the remaining syrup in the fridge.