You might be wondering about pickle juice cocktails, and if so, you're not alone. Pickle juice is being feted everywhere as the new superfood, and rightly so. Pickle juice contains vitamins and minerals, and because it's a fermented food, it's good for your gut. Plus it's got a great salty taste, which makes pickle juice or pickle brine an excellent flavor addition to cocktails. You want to use it where the salt in the brine is either the focus of the drink or balances with the other flavors.
Why Cocktail Recipes And Pickle Juice Just Make Sense
Anyone who's had a pickle back knows how amazing pickle juice can taste with liquor. Something about that combo hits the spot like no other, making you forget that you took a shot at all. This deliciousness can easily be transferred over to many types of alcohols and cocktails, providing you with that addicting saltiness of pickles in your favorite drink, along with a plethora of health benefits to offset the affects of having a few drinks.
Mixing pickle juice with something like smoky scotch or sweet rum might not work so well. But replacing olives with pickles in a martini is a winning idea. If you're into creating your own ingredients for your cocktail bar, pickles are a good place to start. You can use the juice straight, use the pickles themselves, infuse liquor with pickles, or create things like pickle salt to use on the rim of your cocktail glasses.
While dill pickles are the star of choice for briny cocktails, you can pickle all sorts of things (pickled beet cocktails, anyone?). Pickle juice has one more health benefit: The salt and water in pickle juice may help you combat a nasty hangover. So pickle juice cocktails could help you have both a fun night and a better tomorrow.
We've got five cocktails with pickle juice recipes that let the pickle shine, so grab your cocktail shaker and let's go make some funky cocktails.
1. Pickle-Infused Vodka
Infused vodkas are fun and simple to make, and they allow you to be your own mixologist.
Mixing a three-to-one ratio of vodka to pickles with a patient three-day wait, and you've got both a perfect one-ingredient cocktail and tasty addition to other pickle juice cocktails.
Serve with dry vermouth in a martini glass with a pickle spear to make a martini you won't forget!
Get the recipe at Foodie Crush.
2. Dill Pickle Bloody Mary
Speaking of other drinks... you could definitely use pickle-infused vodka here, but I also love the pickle juice ice cubes. The briny taste goes great with the tomato juice of the Bloody Mary. And you can have fun with the traditional celery garnish by adding cornichons or even pickle slices. A lime wedge and a tad of horseradish goes a long way in this cocktail!
Best Maid Pickle Juice
Now you can buy gallon jugs of pickle juice!
3. The New Pickleback
The pickleback might be the simplest shot combo out there: A shot of whiskey, followed by a shot of pickle juice. Chef Sasha Pogrebinsky from the New York City restaurant Starlight created a new version of the pickleback cocktail when they ran out of pickle brine.
Instead of whiskey and pickle juice, it's tequila and the juice from a pickled watermelon rind. (We should note that tequila and pickle juice is a fairly common combo, too.)
Get the recipe at the Tasting Table.
4. Dill Pickle Martini
Another good cocktail in which to use your pickle-infused vodka. This twist on the dirty martini is super pickle-y, with the infused vodka, dill pickle juice and cornichons for garnish.
Get the recipe at Rhubarbians.
5. Pickle Juice Margarita
Did you know you can get pickle juice in a can now? DC-based Gordy's Pickle Jar sells pickle juice in cans, making it a perfect drink mixer. The owners of the company, Sarah Gordon and Sheila Fain, make an awesome pickle juice margarita with their "Fine Brine," tequila and lime juice.
Get the recipe at The Washington Post.
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