I had a conversation with one of my favorite people this week. We talked about how quitting and giving up on stuff can make you feel old, boring, and simple. We also talked about how perceiving quitting as an absence or shedding of a substance or activity is your first mistake.

What am I talking about? All kinds of stuff: the headstrong thrill and indestructible notion of youth, habits, food, love, booze, cigarettes, calories. Quitting makes you miss these things, so don’t quit, just start doing something else to the exclusion of the undesirable. To that end, let’s talk cocktails.

I threw Aaron a little party and made some Raw Rhubarb Rosemary Cocktails. I sort of used this recipe as my guide but I was not vibing on white sugar that day so I adapted and edited.

Chop up a few sprigs of rosemary and get those heating up on the stove with 2 cups of water and about a 1/4 cup of raw agave nectar. Get this really hot and then let it steep for an hour and then set it somewhere out of your way.

The fun part is to chop up fours stalks of beautiful PNW rhubarb and put that in a blender with some lemon juice and another 1/8 cup of raw agave.  Once it’s a coarse puree you squeeze out the juice into a wide mouth pitcher. For this I used Aaron’s camping coffee maker, the kind that sits over a large nalgene bottle. It worked like a CHARM.

Pour the rosemary simple syrup into the pitcher with the rhubarb juice, squeeze the rest of your lemon into there, add a little over a cup of top shelf white rum, add additional agave to taste. Divide into highball glasses loaded with ice cubes! Garnish minimally.

Imbibe!