It all started because I was craving white coffee, a fresh mint tea flavored with orange blossom water, which I used to order at Open Sesame, a Lebanese restaurant in Long Beach.

White Coffee at Open Sesame

I ordered some orange blossom water online, bought some fresh mint at the farmer’s market, and generally followed this recipe. However, I made one big mistake, which is that I didn’t use any sweetener, and it turns out it really needed some.

As it happens, a week or so later I ran across an intriguing mint julep recipe, which called for making mint simple syrup. I made the mint simple syrup and had plenty left over after our mint julep experiment, so I tried the white coffee again, using mint simple syrup as a sweetener, and it came out just right.

Something about the new, improved white coffee made me think about trying it as a cocktail.

Here are the proportions I used, loosely based on a classic martini, but they can definitely be adjusted for taste:

1 part orange blossom water
1 part mint simple syrup
4 parts gin
served up, with fresh mint garnish

It came out far better than we ever could have expected! Clean and refreshing without being too sweet. I think it will be fantastic in the summer on a hot day!

Orange Blossom & Mint Martini