Food and Recipes Recipes Strawberry Fields Cocktail Be the first to rate & review! The first sign of spring deserves a toast. By Pam Lolley Pam Lolley Pam Lolley developed and tested recipes for Southern Living Magazine in the Souths most trusted Test Kitchen for 19 years. She worked closely with the editors planning and packaging stories, collaborating with art and photo teams on food styling and recipe reproduction to ensure reader satisfaction, content quality control, and recipe authenticity history and cooking. Her area of expertise was baking and and pastry development and she acted as the point person for these areas in the Test Kitchen. With 30+ years of experience in the culinary field, Pam created and tested 1000s of recipes for Southern Living. Southern Living's editorial guidelines Published on March 9, 2021 Print Rate It Share Share Tweet Pin Email Photo: Antonis Achilleos; Food Styling: Chelsea Zimmer; Prop Styling: Christine Keely Active Time: 10 mins Total Time: 10 mins Yield: 1 cocktail We eagerly await fresh berry season all year long. There's an inexplicable joy about picking strawberries or blackberries, fresh from the vine and still warmed from the Southern sun, and popping them right into our mouths—the explosion of sweet juice takes us right back to childhood. What better way to recreate that nostalgic feeling (in a celebratory, adults-only fashion) than with an inspired cocktail? Our Strawberry Fields Cocktail spikes a classic combination of gin and tonic with fresh strawberry syrup, creating a signature cocktail meant for springtime. This drink is dangerously refreshing—the combination of sweet strawberry, balanced with the lime juice and the tonic water, make this a wonderful, easy-sipping cocktail. Since this big-batch drink is lower in alcohol for the serving size, it makes a nice, light cocktail perfect for brunch or a lazy afternoon. The color is a beautiful rosy pink, which looks great with the fresh berry and lime wheel garnish. Effervescent, sweet, sour, and herbal from the gin, this drink screams spring party. It's also easy for guests to make their own, so you can spend your time playing hostess. Your guests can tailor it to their own tastes—add more simple syrup if you want it a little sweeter, more lime if you like a little more tartness, and of course, more gin if you want it stronger. Vodka, gin, and tequila will all want to be best friends with this Strawberry Syrup. It will also be a great homemade soft drink syrup to top off seltzer water. Add a little booze of your choice and make a granita out of it for dessert or a palate cleanser. We could go on and on… Ingredients Strawberry Syrup 1 cup granulated sugar 1 cup strawberries, coarsely chopped ½ cup fresh lime juice 2 tablespoons water Cocktail 3 tablespoons gin ½ cup plus 2 Tbsp. tonic water Ice Fresh strawberries Directions Process granulated sugar and coarsely chopped strawberries, fresh lime juice, and water in a blender until smooth and sugar has dissolved, 1 to 2 minutes. This makes 1 ¾ cups syrup. Store in an airtight container in refrigerator up to 2 weeks. Stir together Strawberry Syrup, gin, and tonic water in a tall glass filled with ice. Garnish with a fresh strawberry. Rate it Print