How many ingredients have the power to make drinks taste amazing and settle your stomach? Ginger is a miracle spice that shouldn’t go neglected in your mixology pursuits, even if you’re not a full-on enthusiast.
Whether it appears in your favorite straightforward moscow mule recipe or in a newfangled cocktail, there are a couple reasons ginger is a healthy addition to alcoholic beverages — beyond the fact that it tastes lovely.
- Relieves nausea: The chemical in ginger that makes it such a famous remedy for upset stomachs is gingerol. Gingerol helps digestion take place more smoothly and lessens muscle spasms, which can help eliminate the woozy, nauseous feeling of an upset stomach.
- Preserves cells: Ginger is rich with antioxidants, which promote physical health on a molecular level by stabilizing certain chemicals that can build up in the body and cause oxidative stress, a state that is linked to diabetes and cancer.
Despite its distinct flavor and pronounced heat, ginger is versatile when it comes to cocktail recipes. Now that you know a few benefits of this magic ingredient, here are a few drinks that highlight it.
Moscow Mule
This reliably refreshing classic is made with vodka, lime juice, and ginger beer. If the ginger beer you use isn’t ginger-y enough, add some fresh ginger and use your muddler to crush it up and enjoy the fresh, warm flavor.
Although lime juice can be purchased by the bottle, fresh-squeezed is the way to go for this cocktail.
No one knows for sure the story behind this drink’s name, but one guess is that Americans started calling it “Moscow” because they associated vodka with Russia, and “mule” because the ginger gives a strong kick of flavor comparable to a mule’s kick.
Shoo-Fly Punch
This Southern-influenced cocktail calls for bourbon, ginger liqueur, lemon juice, bitters, and ginger beer. Some recipes also use simple syrup to sweeten it. Flavor from both the liqueur and ginger beer give a robust ginger flavor, and combining that with lemon makes a heavenly pairing.
This drink’s catchy name may be a play on the famous Shoofly Pie.
Grapefruit and Ginger Sparklers
This bubbly recipe also gets flavor from ginger liqueur, this time combined with grapefruit juice and Prosecco. Although grapefruit can bring an intensely bitter flavor, it goes well with the strong, spicy taste of ginger. Garnish this drink with a slice of grapefruit and enjoy yourself.
Cucumber Ginger Gin Fizz
This cocktail is easy to put together because it calls for equal parts of all its ingredients — those being gin, cucumber juice, lime juice, and ginger simple syrup. You’ll also top off with a little club soda to achieve the “fizz” element of this recipe.
You can make ginger simple syrup by adding one step to the traditional preparation of simple syrup: After boiling a cup of sugar in a cup of water to combine them, drop in 4 ounces of ginger and let it steep in the simple syrup for two hours. After making ginger simple syrup for this cocktail, see if you can resist putting it in everything else you make.
These are a few examples of mixed drinks that make ginger’s powerful yet adaptable flavor shine. Ginger is also popular and delicious in non-alcoholic treats. The ginger shot, a popular beverage of concentrated ginger juice, gets you a fast serving of those anti-inflammatory antioxidants.
A plain glass of ginger ale over ice is an equally appealing option to offer kids, or for when you want to sip on a non-alcoholic beverage. No matter how you serve it, when it comes to ginger, it’s always a bit of a party.