My hat is off to Coqueta, my favorite Spanish restaurant in the Bay area, and, for that matter, probably anywhere in the country.
They do so many things right at Coqueta, but the bar item that caught my fancy, and which spawned numerous home trials to reproduce it, is Coqueta’s Gin Tonic – which is how the Spanish refer to the refreshing, breezy, delicious drink we know as GinandTonic.
For the longest time, Coqueta only had one outpost – in San Francisco, on the Embarcadero. So napaman felt compelled to learn how to make this cocktail, because how often was I going to be in San Francisco, I asked myself?
Little did I know that plans were underfoot to open Coqueta Napa Valley, just behind Michael Chiarello’s destination restaurant, Bottega, in Yountville (Michael is the brains behind Bottega and Coqueta). So when it opened, I no longer really had the pressure to finesse the cocktail at home, but I pressed on anyway.
I think, humbly, that I have improved on the original, Coqueta-inspired Spanish Gin Tonic and want to share it with readers. The summer is hot, this drink is refreshing – what more needs to be said?
The secret ingredients
Secrets of the Coqueta SGT include:
Not all gins are created equal. I’ve made multiple versions of this cocktail using different gins and each one adds, or subtracts, an essential element of the finished cocktail. Bloom gin, imported from England, is Coqueta’s choice and a smart one, indeed!
As Bloom is looking for a new national distributor just now, I was only able to snag five bottles of this gin from a Florida retailer. I am guarding my stash until more becomes available in the marketplace.
You can make this drink with Plymouth, Martin Miller, Bombay Sapphire, or 209 gin and each version will be different. One of my runner-up favorites uses a very inexpensive, commonplace gin -- Gordon’s.
If you don’t know Fever-Tree Tonic, you are about to have an Aha! Moment. Forget ALL those other household, commonplace tonics and ginger ales. Fever-Tree, made in England, is THE only tonic, club soda, or ginger ale, to have in your home.
It comes in two sizes and is available in fine grocery stores (I buy mine at Whole Foods) and also can be found at Cost Plus/World Market.
Your Spanish GT will NOT be as good as mine if you use any other brand of tonic. Trust me on this.
Also, while Coqueta uses the full-sugared version of Fever-Tree Tonic, I prefer their “Naturally Light,” which has reduced sugar and suffers nothing at all from the reduction of sugar and calories.
The restaurant adds a small slice of grapefruit; I find that stripping a wide peel off the rind of a grapefruit adds some essential oils to the final cocktail which helps lengthen the flavor profile of the drink.
Coqueta adds edible flowers and thyme to its SGT. We’ve started to grow our own edible flowers for our nightly, 5 pm cocktail hour. Violets and borage are two of the more colorful, edible flowers to be included.
Also add a sprig, or two, of thyme, which adds herbal zip to the beverage.
As juniper berries are an essential part of the flavoring of gin itself, I found it natural to add a few more to the cocktail. I add four berries to every glass of SGT, which I prepare.
The restaurant takes the use of juniper berries a step further and toasts them before adding them to the cocktail; I don’t think my version suffers for NOT toasting – so don’t feel compelled to toast your juniper berries.
The basic napaman recipe for Spanish Gin Tonic goes like this:
For each glass:
Fill a large wine glass (stemless, or with stem), whisky glass, or attractive water glass with clear ice.
Pour 2 ounces of Bloom gin, or gin of your choice, over the ice.
Cut a wide swath off rind off a grapefruit and slip the piece between the side of the glass and the ice cubes.
Add 4 juniper berries.
Add colorful edible flowers and thyme spring to taste.
Add 2 to 3 ounces of Fever-Tree Naturally Light Tonic and stir.
Taste and if you feel your drink needs more tonic… add more, but it is always more agreeable to add tonic than it is to realize you’ve added too much tonic at the start.
If you want to try the cocktail at Coqueta, go ahead – they are made identically at both locations. THEY ARE ALMOST AS GOOD AS MINE! (LOL)
Coqueta,Pier 5 The Embarcadero, San Francisco. 415-704-8866
Coqueta Napa Valley, 6525 Washington St, Yountville. 707-244-4350
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