Edible Hibiscus Flowers: The Signature Drink I Wish We'd Had

Now that we discussed how to pee in your wedding dress, lets talk about a minor regret I have about our wedding: we didn't do a signature drink. We just couldn't think of a really special drink, and it got pushed to the wayside for more important projects. But oh, if only we had found out about this sooner in the planning process!

One of my bridesmaids gifted me something amazing a couple of days before our wedding--edible hibiscus flowers from Australia.


These little flowers taste amazing, sort of like candied raspberry rhubarb, and look so cool in the bottom of a drink! Even better, if you put one of the flowers in champagne, along with a little of the syrup, the bubbles in the champagne actually make the flower open up more, for the perfect, edible garnish!

If only I would have found out about these sooner, I would have totally had Wild Hibiscus Champagne waiting on trays as soon as our ceremony ended. You can buy jars with 50 flowers for $35 online here.

The side of the jar also has a bunch of recipes for other cocktails featuring the flowers, which of course I had to try. Luckily I had everything needed for a Wild Hibiscus Daiquiri on hand.

The result? Serious yummage, and one of the most unique garnishes I've ever come across. It kind of reminds me of across between a jellyfish and Seymour from Little Shop of Horrors.

(all pictures in this post are personal photos)

The lime juice clouded the drink a little, so I think for presentation purposes the champagne cocktail was better. But at home I didn't care, this daiquiri was damn good! And I'll admit, I munched several more of the flowers while making it!

Have you come across anything post-wedding that you wish you could have incorporated into your big day? And please tell me someone is going to use these edible hibiscus flowers in your signature cocktail, I want to live vicariously through you!

Thirsty for a Cocktail?

There isn't much I love more than a good cocktail, especially since I'm not a beer drinker, and ESPECIALLY when spending hours and hours on tedious wedding crafting. So I've been trying to think of what we'll do for our signature cocktails, which will really just be cocktails made with the on hand bar selection, but something that we can think up a cute name for.

I really want lavender martinis, and the bar manager at The Mountain Terrace is going to look into getting the lavender mixer for me, but that's all that I've been able to think of that fits our color scheme. There's a serious lack of purple drinks it seems, unless you want to do something with grape juice or food coloring.

One drink that I did try to make up with ingredients in our house was vodka, black raspberry liquor (it's a dark purple color), then half sprite and half pineapple juice. It was purple and yummy, but an ugly, milky purple from the pineapple juice.

My mom also found a drink called an Aviation, which is 1 1/2 ounces gin, 1/2 ounce maraschino liqueur, 1/2 ounce creme de violette, and1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice. It's pretty, but after doing some research, creme de violette is pretty impossible to find.

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I also LOVE this idea from Martha, lavender infused champagne, with little sprigs of lavender as a garnish, but I also worry it might be too difficult (Would we have to supply the lavender sprigs? Can the bar manager find the dried lavender? Are the sprigs of lavender really clean enough to put in your drink?)

Lavender Champagne: 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon dried lavender, 4 bottles (750 mL) dry Champagne or sparkling wine, chilled, and fresh lavender sprigs, for garnish.

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I also tried making Chambord and Champagne, to see what color it would turn out to be, hoping the champagne would dilute the Chambord enough to make it more purple. It was really yummy, just put about 1/4 ounce in the bottom of a champagne glass and then fill with champagne, but turned out a more red/pink color.

(don't judge my only champagne flutes! We got them for free when Mr Cola. bought my engagement ring from Steve Padis....but now that I think about it, maybe I should add nicer ones to our Amazon registry!)

So that drink was really good, but still not the right color, so the search for signature drinks in purple or sage green is still on. I'm also considering St. Germain and champagne, since it's super yummy (seriously, go try it! It's made with Elderflowers, and tastes sort of across between flowers and lychee....mmmm!) but it doesn't do anything to the color of the champagne, and I kinda doubt it's included in our bar package. But couldn't hurt to ask, right?

What are you doing for your signature cocktails? Know any good recipes for purple drinks? (and not Dave Chappele's "Purple Drink," we need something a little better than "sugar, water, and purple"!)