It's Friday!  I'll drink to that!  (well, technically I will drink to any day of the week.. )  What better way to kick off the weekend than with a refreshing, slightly bubbly, slightly herbaceous cocktail?  

ingredients:

2 oz gin

1 oz dry vermouth

juice from 1 lemon

1/4 cup fennel, roughly chopped

3 orange slices (or 6-8 clementine slices.  grapefruit also works deliciously here)

1 oz maple syrup

topo chico or other sparkling/soda water

optional: orange slice (full slice from clementine or half slice from regular sized orange), fennel stem (make sure it's a hollow one) and fennel frond for garnish 

method:

Combine gin, vermouth, chopped fennel and orange slices in cocktail shaker and muddle together.

Add lemon juice and maple syrup and fill shaker with ice.  Shake and strain into lowball glass filled with fresh ice (fill glass about 3/4 way full), top with Topo Chico.

If you're feeling fancy, garnish with hollow fennel stem, frond and orange slice.  Drink directly from the fennel "straw" for more fennel-y goodness!

serves 2