The Harrier cocktail interested me for two reasons; I had some grapefruits I needed to use badly (those bastards were $1.69/ea at the time) and the idea of lavender in a drink was very attractive to me, and hey, it was in bloom and gave me a reason to tinker around with making my own ingredients! So, in digging through Food & Wine’s 2007 Cocktail Guide I came across this drink developed by Greg Best of Restaurant Eugene in Atlanta, GA. Now, Greg named this drink after a breed of dog, but that didn’t occur until after I’d doctored that picture of the Harrier aircraft up there, so screw it. Plus, I’ve always loved the Harrier aircraft and am more of a cat person anyways. However, the dog reference makes FAR more sense given that this is a gin-based take off of the classic Greyhound cocktail, a simple mix of vodka and grapefruit juice. Sometimes my thinking cap fits a little loose, I’ll admit. 

The Harrier

• 2 oz gin
• 1/2 oz tincture of lavender (see below)
• 3 oz fresh grapefruit juice
• 1 fresh lavender sprig

Fill a shaker with ice and add all ingredients except the lavender sprig. Shake well and strain into an ice-filled collins glass. Garnish with the lavender sprig.

Let’s address the tincture of lavender first:

Tincture of Lavender

In a small jar, combine 2 1/2 ounces of vodka with 1/4 teaspoon dried lavender. Cover jar tightly and store for 1 week. Strain and store in airtight container for up to one month.

Simple enough, right? Well, not quite. I’m contrary and adventurous by nature; so when it said to use dried lavender I was like, ‘No way, piss off! Fresh is always better!’ and when it said 1 week I said, ‘1 week is for wussies! Longer is always better when it comes to infusing goodness, foo!’ Let’s see how my thinking goes.

Well, ZOOOM! The tincture of lavender you see there on the right side just SCREAMS through this drink. Yes, like a Harrier aircraft, not like the dog. And it completely takes over this drink. It’s very interesting and I think this has a lot of potential, but based on my mucking about with what I assume is supposed to be a milder flavor, it’s like you’ve taken a nice well-behaved Manhattan and thrown 1/2 oz of bitters into it just for the hell of it. No bueno. So folks, this one’s on me; I think there’s a good drink here and following the above instructions will give a much better balance. Not to say I didn’t keep my carpet bomb of lavender around, apparently it’s great for cuts and scrapes…sheesh.

The Harrier Rating: DNF (Well-behaved dog took off in a rocket with Capt. Grue)