Blood orange cocktail with gin and rosemary

Amazingly delicious fresh squeezed blood orange cocktail recipe! A beautiful, red hued cocktail with blood orange, gin, and rosemary.

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Hey, Rhubarbarians! Here's one of my favorite citrus cocktails. It's a blood orange cocktail! Fruity, juicy, herby, and dangerously delicious. Oh yes.

This is always the first thing I make with blood oranges when I find them at the grocery store. It's become a yearly tradition and I know you'll love the flavors as much as I do.

You will love this meyer lemon old fashioned recipe!

Jump to:

• Why you'll love it
• Ingredients and equipment
• Step by step instructions
• Serving suggestions
• Recipe tips and substitutions
• FAQs
• Recipe
• Comments and reviews

Why you'll love it

This blood orange cocktail is very simple, but packed with delicious flavor. It's juicy, citrusy, sweet but not too sweet, and a bit herby.

The only alcohol you need is gin and bitters to make it, so you won't have to buy any fancy bottles to make one at home.

I love how this cocktail highlights seasonal blood oranges! The blood orange makes a beautiful bright red cocktail just in time to beat the mid winter blues or celebrate Valentine's Day. LOVE IT.

What does blood orange taste like? Blood oranges have a more intense flavor, but are less acidic than navel oranges. They are sweet, but also have some tartness to them similar to a ruby grapefruit. I like to describe that as a cross between a ruby grapefruit and a raspberry!

Ingredients and equipment

You'll only need 5 ingredients to make a blood orange gin cocktail! Here's the full list of ingredients and equipment. (Full ingredients and instructions are listed in the recipe card at the bottom of this article)

Ingredients:

• Sugar
• Bitters
• Fresh rosemary
• Blood orange
• Gin
• Ice, rosemary sprig, and blood orange slice

Equipment:

• Cocktail glass. These vintage inspired glasses are so coo!
• Muddler
• Citrus juicer. I have the OXO good grips juicer.
• Shot glass
• Stirring utensil

Step by step instructions

Let's make a delicious cocktail! Full instructions are listed in the recipe card at the bottom of this article

• Place a sugar cube (or one teaspoon of fine sugar) in a cocktail glass.
• Shake 2-4 dashes of bitters on the sugar cube.
• Add 4-5 fresh rosemary leaves to the glass.
• Muddle until the sugar has dissolved into the bitters and the rosemary leaves are aromatic.

Have you tried a New York sour yet? You will love it!

• Squeeze the blood orange juice into your cocktail glass. Or use a citrus juicer and pour the juice into your glass.
• Top with the gin.

• Stir to combine.
• Add ice if desired and garnish a blood orange slice and a sprig of fresh rosemary (optional).
• Enjoy!

Have you tried this refreshing grapefruit strawberry mojito yet?

Serving suggestions

This recipe is written for one single serve cocktail. But, there a number of ways you can adjust it to your needs.

If you'd like to make additional cocktails, you can adjust the number of servings in the recipe card (at the bottom of this article) and it will automatically update the ingredients for you.

Make it a pitcher: if you want to make a big batch of this blood orange cocktail to serve, here's what to do:

• First, squeeze your blood oranges so that you have ⅓ cup of juice per serving.
• In the bottom of a pitcher of your choice, muddle 1 teaspoon of sugar per serving, 2-4 dashes of bitters per serving, and 4-5 rosemary leaves (just leaves, not whole sprigs) per serving. Muddle until the sugar dissolves.
• Pour in your blood orange juice and 3 ounces of gin per serving. Stir to combine.
• This mixture will be your cocktail!
• To serve, pour over a cocktail glass filled with ice and have rosemary sprigs and blood orange slices ready for garnish.

How amazing is this cocktail pitcher and glasses set?

Make it a mocktail: To make this a mocktail, just swap out the gin for sparkling water or tonic! A citrus flavored Spindrift would be delicious too.

Recipes to serve with a blood orange gin cocktail:

• Strawberry pico de gallo and chips
• Avocado, grapefruit, and strawberry salad
• Fancy cheese and crackers. I'd serve manchego cheese!

Recipe tips and substitutions

• You should get about ⅓ cup of juice out of one blood orange. This cocktail will still be tasty if you get slightly more or less, but if it's less than ¼ cup of juice, you'll need more.
• You can usually find blood oranges in the produce section of your grocery store between December and March.
• If you can't find blood oranges, swap it out for a regular orange or a ruby grapefruit and add some fresh raspberries (or raspberry juice) to your cocktail.
• If you're not using sugar cubes, make sure to use superfine granulated sugar. This way it will dissolve when you muddle it.
• If you don't like bitters, just leave them out! Your cocktail will be sweeter without them.
• If you don't like gin, go ahead and use vodka instead.
• You can swap the sugar out for maple syrup or your favorite sugar substitute.
• If rosemary isn't your thing, just leave it out! You do you.

FAQs

Check out this simple grapefruit and honey mimosa recipe!

More cocktail recipes to try:

You must use the category slug, not a URL, in the category field.

You can find all of our seasonal cocktail recipes here and a list of the best spring whiskey cocktails here!

Did you make this recipe? Leave us a review and star rating in the comments below! We read every single review and appreciate your feedback.

Recipe

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