Strawberry Cocktail from @MaddieDayAuthor #giveaway

MADDIE DAY here, with a special cocktail recipe straight from the pages of Murder at a Cape Bookstore, which releases in eleven days!

The Spring Festival in the book takes place on the equinox, the first day of Spring. The new Chamber of Commerce director insists that every Westham Main Street merchant participate and give out swag during the festival. Liquor store owner and distiller Zane King can't very well give out alcohol on the street during this daytime family-friendly event, so he comes up with a spring cocktail and hands out recipe cards for it.

It's a delicious, light cocktail, which would be just as good if you omitted the gin.

Spring Cocktail

Zane hands out recipes for a spring-inspired cocktail at the festival.

For one drink:

Ingredients

6 strawberries sliced

6 mint leaves

2 tablespoons simple syrup

Juice from 1 lime wedge

1 ounce gin (replace with more tonic water for a non-alcoholic version)

1.5 ounces tonic water

Three drops orange bitters

Ice

Additional mint and whole strawberries for garnish

Directions

Add strawberries, mint, simple syrup and gin to a shaker and muddle gently for approximately 15-30 seconds to make sure all of the flavors are combined. [Note: I don't have a shaker, so I muddled it in a big measuring cup and used a regular strainer.]

Fill a glass with ice and strain the strawberry mint mixture over the ice. Add in the bitters and lime juice and top with tonic.

Garnish with a sprig of mint and a whole strawberry. 

Enjoy any time of year, especially with a good book at hand!

Readers: Do you like cold sweet drinks or would you rather they be plain or tart? I'll send one lucky commenter my very last ARC of the new book, so please include how to reach you.

🍹🍓🍹

My most recent release is A Questionable Death and Other Quaker Midwife Mysteries, out in April 2023.

The next book will be Murder at a Cape Bookstore, releasing in August, 2023.

Following that in quick succession will be "Murderous Mittens" in Christmas Mittens Murder and Murder Uncorked, both featuring my new wine bar manager Cece Barton.

Check out all my writing!

We hope you'll visit Maddie and her Agatha Award-winning alter ego Edith Maxwell on our web site, sign up for our monthly newsletter, visit us on social media, and check our all our books and short stories.

Maddie Day (aka Edith Maxwell) is a talented amateur chef and holds a PhD in Linguistics from Indiana University. An Agatha Award-winning and bestselling author, she is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America and also writes award-winning short crime fiction. She lives with her beau and sweet cat Martin north of Boston, where she’s currently working on her next mystery when she isn’t cooking up something delectable in the kitchen.