Gorgeous flowers blooming all around is, hands down, the best part of spring—and they aren’t all just eye candy. Spring also brings edible flowers, which can lend both visual beauty and subtle flavor to your food and drink. Though you can eat the entire flower of any that is edible, I prefer using edible flowers to infuse other things with flavor and garnish, which is why I think they’re particularly great for cocktails. Extract some of that floral goodness into one of your mixers and use a fresh edible flower to top. Then you get eye candy and taste candy, too.
These spring cocktail recipes are perfect for a party, especially a baby shower, and most of them can be made without alcohol, which means that everyone can have a sip. But don’t feel like these are only good for a special occasion. Around this time of year, edible flowers will show up at green markets and even well-stocked conventional supermarkets and Trader Joe’s (seriously!). Pick up a bunch and treat yourself. I guarantee these will bring a smile to your face at the end of a long day and delight the kids as a special drink (that’s much cooler than soda).
Top: Edible flower cocktail at The Natural Wedding Company | Lemon Jello Shot at Sugar & Cloth | Edible flower ice cubes at Brit + Co
Related: Raise a glass to spring with these lavender cocktail and mocktail recipes.
These floral drinks and garnish ideas at Design Love Fest are perfection. Simple to make and gorgeous to look at, this spiked Rosewater Lemonade, Chamomile Whiskey, and Greyhound are exactly what you should be drinking this season.
One of my favorite design approaches is combining high and low, and that’s sort of how I think of this Edible Flower Lemon Jello Shot at Sugar & Cloth. These are hilarious and fun, and somehow also totally elegant. That’s the power of edible flowers! Feel free to skip the vodka to make Lemonade Jello (let’s not call them shots for the kids, alright?)—just keep in mind that you may need to increase the sugar a little bit. So fun!
Lavender Lemonade | The Cookie Rookie
I recently shared a couple of drink recipes made with lavender which is, of course, an edible flower. The Lavender Lemonade at The Cookie Rookie is pitch perfect with that fun springy color. Make it as is, without any booze, and sip it on the porch this weekend and maybe have another at night, perhaps with a splash of vodka.
If you don’t feel like steeping edible flowers to infuse a mixer, or the ones you find aren’t the flavor that you’re looking for, just use edible flowers as a garnish on a simple cocktail made with Prosecco, gin, and an easy-to-find elderflower liqueur, such as St. Germain, like at The Natural Wedding Company blog. This drink has the most delightfully subtle floral flavor and looks absolutely gorgeous in a glass. (And, pssst: You can use the flowers as a garnish this way on any cocktail or mocktail.)
Another way to use edible flowers in nearly any drink is to make edible flower ice cubes. I especially love this idea because the kids can help make them and they make even water more exciting! Get the how-to at Brit + Co, where they also share a few cocktail ideas that are an especially good match for this pretty ice.
This Lemon Chamomile Spring Cocktail at Honestly Yum is the ultimate. I saved it for last because, well, it’s serious business—and maybe just eye candy after all, since it may be way too involved to actually make. But if you’re motivated, oh boy will this pay off. And you’ll feel like a master mixologist for pulling off a cocktail recipe that calls for lemon curd (which you can buy, by the way) and Greek-style yogurt!
