Last week my husband and I visited a darling little town an hour north of Seattle called La Conner. The little downtown is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and its most notable resident is author Tom Robbins. In April the town is overrun by Seattleites as well as out of towners who take part in the annual Tulip festival. Driving along the fields that line the road into La Conner’s historic downtown you will see thousands and thousands of tulips of all colors which is quite the amazing site and makes for great photo opportunities.

When we strolled down the main street I was happily surprised to see one of my favorite stores – Perlindaba Lavender. I first stepped foot into their original store in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. My friend got married in Roche Harbor on San Juan Island and the store is right in town when you come off the ferry. The smell in the store is somewhat overwhelming but its absolutely worth to visit and see the amazing variety of lavender products the farm produces from their own grown lavender, my favorite being the lavender honey, lavender truffles (unfortunately discontinued as I learned from the store clerk in La Conner)  and lavender bath salts. July is the time to visit San Juan Island and stop by Perlindaba Farms as they host a yearly lavender festival.

Back to the Perlindaba store in La Conner, I bought some lavender honey and my favorite bath salt scrub and was thinking that a nice bath with my homemade Lavender Vodka cocktail sounded very enticing on this cold November day. On the drive back home I had a little smirk on my face remembering how I got to my own lavender plants…

Mike and I had a disagreement about something I do not remember anymore but I must have felt that I was right because I left to blow off some steam. When I came back 3 or 4 hours later the driveway was planted with beautiful lavender which was one of the best apologies I ever received. Now I enjoy these beautiful looking and intense smelling beauties all summer long. Late July/early August I start harvesting the lavender blooms and put them in a mason jar so that I can use them for my culinary experiments. One of those experiments is a Lavender Vodka Cocktail I like to make for the holiday season or just for myself to go along with a nice hot lavender bath on a cold day.

Lavender Cocktail Ingredients for 2 cocktails:

• 1/4 cup hot water
• 1 teaspoon dried lavender blossoms
• 6 tablespoons of vodka
• 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
• 1 cup of ice cubes
• 2 lavender blossoms

Making the lavender infused syrup

1. Mix the hot water and dried lavender blossoms in a bowl and let steep for 5 minutes
2. Add in the ¼ cup honey and strain into a (new) bowl

Making the cocktail:

1. Add the lemon juice, 3 tablespoons of the honey/lavender syrup and vodka into a cocktail shaker and add 1 cup of ice, shake vigorously and strain into 2 Martini glasses.
2. Decorate with a lavender blossom

Looking at the photo, I think it would look really nice if you dip the glass rims into some lavender sugar, it would also make the cocktail a little bit sweeter. Make some of your own lavender sugar by placing  a couple teabags full of lavender (you can buy fillable paper teabags or use a metal tea infuser) in the middle of a jar of sugar and let it infuse for a week or two or longer depending on how strong you like it).

Enjoy!