A Night in the Forest

• 2.0 oz. Rogue Spruce Gin
• 0.5 oz. Leopold Bros Three Pins Alpine liqueur
• 0.25 oz. elderflower liqueur (St. Elder)
• 0.25 oz. Lillet Blanc
• dash of lemon bitters (Bitter Truth)

Stir with ice and strain into snifter. Garnish with rosemary.

I wanted something piney. Generally in this case I reach for my Clear Creek Douglas Fir eau de vie, but I had just picked up the Rogue Spruce Gin and thought I’d explore that. To enhance the herbaceous notes I added in the Leopold Bros alpine liqueur, and at this point had all the pine I wanted. It needed something sweet and, I thought, floral, so then came the elderflower. To brighten it up and add some bitterness I finished with Lillet Blanc and a touch of lemon bitters.

The name comes from Annie’s Song by John Denver, this line of which was the first thing I thought of when I sipped this. It certainly filled up my senses, in all the right ways.