The City Creek Cocktail | Foraging Elderflower • Cocktail Club

This time around, we created two events —
one for foraging and another for the cocktail creating.
Some of us hiked, some of us drank — and some of us did both!

Our wonderful hostesses (Elaine and Heidi) took us foraging up City Creek Canyon for fresh elderflower. Elaine, has taken some classes on foraging and does quite a bit in her spare time. I was quite blown away as she pointed out all sorts of edible and non edible plants along the way. We did find the elderflower quite easily — some green and not quite ready for picking — and also some ripe and perfect for making elderflower cordial! You can find elderflower near water in canyons along the Wasatch Front. Look for large bush to tree-sized plants with green serrated leaves in clusters of 5. The creamy white and yellow flowers are tiny, and grow in sprays.

We gathered what we could in the time we had, and then Heidi went back later that day to get a few more bagfuls. You’ll need about 30 – 40 large heads of flower for the cocktail recipe below!

We had such a wonderful time enjoying a beautiful afternoon, learning some interesting things about what is growing in our own backyard, and then partaking in a little picnic over great conversation!

Cocktail Club — Elaine teaching us a thing or two about foraging.

Smugglers Trail: "A mountain pass that was named because of a group of moonshiners that operated a still in City Creek Canyon during prohibition and smuggled moonshine to the military base at Fort Douglas." — Smugglers Trail: “A mountain pass that was named because of a group of moonshiners that operated a still in City Creek Canyon during prohibition and smuggled moonshine to the military base at Fort Douglas.” Sort of perfect for Cocktail Club, RIGHT??? 🙂

Crazy mushrooms making their home on a beautiful, ancient tree.

The following week, we got together for our regular club meeting to learn how Heidi went about making the local, fresh elderflower cordial and see what amazing cocktail they came up with. This cocktail is perfect for summer sipping, is incredibly beautiful, and left us feeling particularly refreshed on a beautiful summer afternoon!

I want to give a huge thank you to our hostesses, Heidi and Elaine, because they really spent a considerable amount of time on this collective Cocktail Club effort! Between the foraging hike, the gathering outside of that event, and Heidi spending HOURS pulling beautiful buds from their stems to make the elderflower syrup — there was a lot of love that went into this cocktail. Oh, and the cocktail is original!

June Cocktail: The City Creek, featuring
foraged elderflower and Beehive Gin

As you can see – this cocktail was a looker!
(And Heidi ain’t so bad herself…).

The Beehive Jackrabbit Gin was THE PERFECT spirit for this bevvy.

The floral gin and the elderflower worked so well together and the topper of prosecco added the perfect summer bubble component. I LOVE this cocktail. The elderflower syrup has a unique earthy taste that isn’t too sweet, but just sweet enough. There is nothing saccharine about this drink, or the cordial itself. And the topper of the elderflower spray makes for a beautiful presentation!

What a wonderful way to spend a couple of Saturdays to celebrate the kick off of summer! This is one you should really try to make at home — and if you can’t find any local elderflower to forage, there are plenty of elderflower syrups and cordials you can purchase — including a great one from Ikea, of all places! You’ll find yourself sipping and swooning over this beautiful cocktail all summer long.