Skip to main content

How to make the Evertini, the ultimate après-ski cocktail

A Martini for the mountains

The Evertini cocktail.
Everline Resort

We’re still in snow season, which means hitting the slopes, après-ski drinks, and sweaters. The days are getting longer, for certain, but there’s still a chill in the air. Which calls for a special adaptation of a classic cocktail.

Meet the Evertini, a flagship sipper at Lake Tahoe’s Everline Resort & Spa. The drink has been described as a love letter to the giant spruce trees of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Fittingly, it includes spruce, in the form of infused gin you can make at home.

Recommended Videos

The most fun way, of course, is to forage for those spruce tips yourself. The season generally runs from late winter through spring, and the act does not require a lot. Plus, you get to hike in the woods.

What’s great about this cocktail is how you get so much with so few ingredients. There’s the mountainous side from the spruce, the arousing aromatics of the gin, the punch of the citrus twist, the roundness offered by the vermouth, and the briny, salty goodness that only a good cheese-stuffed olive can provide.

If you can’t find your own spruce tips, you can do so online or likely seek them out at an area market. Various species of pine work too but spruce is the ideal way to go. The tips add both aroma and flavor to the spirit.

Sure, spring is coming. But we’re still in snow-covered mountain mode. Let’s raise a glass to a few more frolics in the powder before we get into shorts and tee shirts. And even when we do arrive there, you might want to do so with this drink by your side.

We’re not here to take away your espresso Martini. Nor do we want you to give up your apple Martini. But if you like the staple drink and want to try something interesting, read on.

The Evertini

Created by Carly Stone, the food and beverage manager at Six Peaks Grille (at the Everline Resort), the Evertini is relatively simple but offers a refreshing twist on a bonafide classic. Stone hails from Lake Tahoe and boasts decades of hospitality experience. Feel free to mess around with gins of your liking, but if you’re looking for a good starting point, try Bombay.

Ingredients:

  • 2 3/4 ounces spruce gin*
  • 1 splash of vermouth
  • Blue cheese, oliv,e and lemon twist for garnish

*Spruce Gin: Pour 1 liter of dry gin into a container and add 1/2 cup of spruce tips. Infuse for 2-4 days, shaking and tasting daily until reaching desired flavor (Stone suggests 3 days). Strain the spruce tips using cheesecloth and rebottle the gin.

Method:

  1. Add gin and vermouth to cocktail shaker.
  2. Shake well to chill ingredients and strain into a Martini glass.
  3. Garnish with blue cheese olive and lemon twist.

Check out some related material at The Manual. We’ve got the bases covered, from how to infuse spirits to the best gins in the business. And if you’re lucky enough to get to the place that inspired the drink, read our Lake Tahoe hotels guide.

Mark Stock
Mark Stock is a writer from Portland, Oregon. He fell into wine during the Recession and has been fixated on the stuff since…
This season’s vodka cocktails are sharp and fresh
Make use of carrot in your cocktails
Ketel One Vodka

This spring the emphasis in the drinks world is all about freshness, with bartenders taking advantage of sweet, juicy, and delicious ingredients to make cocktails which have a fresh edge to them. Vodka is an easy choice of spirit to mix with as it goes with practically any flavor, but that doesn't mean that vodka cocktails need to be dull!

Two cocktails from the Ketel One brand show the direction of spring drinks, including a Sea Breeze which uses tart cranberry juice and sharp freshly squeezed pink grapefruit juice to create a tart and attractive drink for the new season. There's also an intriguing vegetal option which makes use of carrot and apple juice for both juicy flavors and a pretty orange color, topped off with a playful carrot garnish. It includes tamarind and ginger paste for sharp and zingy flavors too.
Ketel One Sea Breeze
Ingredients:

Read more
Get a taste of Marvel with these Daredevil-inspired cocktails
Try the flavors of Hell's Kitchen with these recipes
Devil’s Reserve

Daredevil is back on our TV screens after too long away, with the Daredevil: Born Again comeback being the must-watch series of the month. And if you love all things Matt Murdock and are planning a watch party with friends, then you can serve up some themed cocktails with these recipes from Devil’s Reserve. The appropriately named tequila expression from Cuervo has a sweet heat which is suited to blending with fruity and spicy flavors, making it the perfect partner for these drinks, which you can also pick up as a kit.
The Devil of Hell's Kitchen
Ingredients:

2 oz Devil's Reserve
2 oz Strawberry Juice
0.5 oz Chamoy
0.75 oz Fresh Lime Juice
Garnish: Dehydrated Strawberry Slice on a Pick

Read more
Here’s what bars are serving for spring cocktails this year
These are the drinks that the professionals are serving up this season
bars spring cocktails 0s7a9370

A new season means time for new drinks, and with the arrival of spring we're looking to spritzes and fresh fruits in our drinks. If you're looking for a little inspiration from the professionals for your home bartending, then we've got tips on drinks from zingy pineapple creations to sharp ginger concoctions for you to try out.
El Viaje de Kalani

Available at: Canopy by Hilton Cancun La Isla

Read more