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Cocktail History
The Spiced Pear Collins is a modern cocktail that was created by Nikki Achitoff-Gray, a food writer and recipe developer formerly of Saveur magazine. It’s built using the classic Collins template that calls for gin, citrus, and simple syrup, but this version adds a homemade herbal pear purée and flavored rosemary syrup.
Cocktail Ingredients
To make this cocktail, you’ll need the following ingredients:
Gin: This is a spirit made with juniper berries, botanicals, and alcohol. We used Castle & Key Distillery Roots of Ruin Gin because it has a smooth botanical flavor with notes of lemon verbena, ginger, citrus, chamomile, angelica, and rosemary. For a mocktail version of this drink, try MONDAY Zero Alcohol Gin in place of the gin.
Pear Purée: This is a blended spread made with pears, spices, and lemon juice.
Rosemary Clove Syrup: This is a sweetener made with rosemary, cloves, sugar, and water. We made ours at home using Alex’s recipe.
Lemon Juice: This is the liquid juice of a lemon. We used freshly squeezed lemon juice.
Soda Water: This is a type of water that has been infused with carbon dioxide gas under pressure. We used Topo Chico Sparkling Mineral Water because it’s light, essentially flavorless, and refreshing.
Rosemary Sprig: This is an evergreen herb.
Bartending Tools
To make this cocktail, you’ll need the following bar tools:
Blender: This is used to blend up ingredients. We used the Cuisinart SPB-7CH SmartPowder Electronic Bar Blender.
Cheesecloth: This is used to strain solids out of liquid. We used American Cotton Ultra-Fine Cheesecloth.
Jigger: This is used to measure and pour ingredients. We used the Japanese jigger from the A Bar Above 14-Piece Silver Bar Set.
Boston Shaker: This is used to shake ingredients. We used the Boston shaker from the A Bar Above 14-Piece Silver Bar Set.
Hawthorne Strainer: This is used to strain out ice and solid ingredients after the cocktail is shaken. We used the A Bar Above Hawthorne Strainer.
Paring Knife: This is used to cut ingredients. We used the OXO Good Grips 3.5 Inch Paring Knife.
Juicer: This is used to juice citrus. We used the ALEEHAI Manual Fruit Juicer.
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Tasting Notes
The Spiced Pear Collins has earthy aromas of rosemary, a nostalgically autumnal flavor that begins with pear and follows with peppery spices, and an aftertaste of dry lemon-accented pear fruitiness.
Our Opinion of This Cocktail Recipe: A recipe that inspired this one called for sparkling wine optionally, but we opted for the classic soda water since we didn’t want to distract from the other flavors. That turned out to be exactly the right call: the Spiced Pear Collins was pretty delicious and earned a seal of approval from both of us for its fruity flavors, even if the purée was labor of love to get right.
Kendall’s Take: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
“This pear-flavored Collins was quite tasty, but we ending up make it twice because the gritty texture of the first version was too distracting, in both of our opinions. We didn’t strain the purée through a cheesecloth, so that’s on us, and we quickly learned it’s worth the extra effort to do that. If you’re a fan of pear, I’d say this is worth making. I really liked it!”
Recipe
This cocktail recipe was adapted from an issue of Saveur magazine.
Spiced Pear Collins
The Spiced Pear Collins is a modern cocktail that was created by Nikki Achitoff-Gray, a food writer and recipe developer formerly of Saveur magazine. It’s built using the classic Collins template that calls for gin, citrus, and simple syrup, but this version adds a homemade herbal pear purée and flavored rosemary syrup.
Ingredients
Purée Ingredients
Cocktail Ingredients
Method
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Slice pears, then add pear slices, 1 ½ oz lemon juice, 1 ½ tsp rosemary leaves to a blender, blend for 5-10 seconds until smooth, and strain through a cheesecloth.
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Add gin, 1 ½ oz pear purée, rosemary clove syrup, ¾ oz lemon juice, and cubed ice to a shaker.
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Shake for 10-20 seconds.
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Strain into a highball glass over fresh cracked ice.
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Top with soda water.
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Garnish with rosemary sprig.
