Siam Queen

• 2 oz. Vietnamese gin (Song Cai)
• 0.50 oz. cinnamon syrup (Monin)
• 0.25 oz. basil liqueur (St. George)
• 0.25 oz. lime juice
• dash of cardamom tincture

Rinse a glass with creme de menthe (Tempus Fugit) and pour out. Shake ingredients with ice then strain into glass. Smack a basil leaf, draw around the rim then discard.

Had the Vietnamese gin and wanted to mix with some complementary flavors to the region. Cinnamon and basil worked well. I tried mint in the mix and it was hard to find the balance. The rinse in the end was the perfect amount.

Siam Queen is the name of a basil strain, so seemed kind of fitting, though obviously a different area of the map. Siam Queen is a type of Thai basil, though, and is used in Vietnamese pho, so there’s still a connection. Long live the queen.