Dress up your night with this festive sparkling Antique Rose Valentine’s Day Empress Gin cocktail. It’s all decked out in pink with a fizzing bubbly mix of sparkling Rosé, Fever Tree Sparkling Grapefruit, lots of ice, and hints of fresh lime. The best part? A gorgeous splash of that vibrant indigo Empress gin.

For those of you who aren’t yet familiar with Empress Gin, it is a purplish-blue tone gin with notes of citrus, juniper, rose, and light spice. The stunning color is completely natural and comes from the popular Butterfly Pea flower which is commonly known to produce popular ‘blue tea’.

bold blues with butterfly pea flowers…

When brewed, the pea flower tea changes color from violet-blue to pink and magenta shades when combined with citrus or citric acid. It is a truly stunning ingredient to work with in drinks and cocktail recipes. It doesn’t really have a particular taste within the Empress Gin spirit. You simply taste a refreshing, delicious gin with the same stunning color-change effects.

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Upon tasting it, I knew I wanted to pair this gin with some form of grapefruit flavor. Enter Fever Tree’s Sparkling Pink Grapefruit.

Normally I would reach for lots of fresh lime, much like I did in this cucumber basil gin gimlet, but for this one? Nah. I found that bright ruby pink grapefruit flavor reigned supreme. It’s also perfect for those of you looking for a fun and easy Fever-Tree Pink Grapefruit cocktail with gin.

chilling and building your Valentine’s Day Gin cocktail

The rest of this Valentine’s Day Empress gin cocktail comes together fairly easy. I find that it’s most delicious when you build it right in the glass with fresh ice. It might seem tricky, however, to fit ice in a slender champagne glass like this one. I actually took a small cube silicone ice mold and filled each square in about halfway or a little less.

mixing on thin ice…

This made dainty thinner ice squares that I was able to fit into a delicate glass. It kept the cocktail icy cold and delicious. If you aren’t up for creating thin ice like this, simply build the cocktail in a mixing glass with regular size ice. Stir gently so as not to lose too much fizz.

When everything is chilled through, pour into your champagne glass and top off with either more sparkling grapefruit or more sparkling rosé to restore the fizz after pouring. This way you can still serve the cocktail ‘up’ while nice and cold.

make an Antique Rose Valentine’s Day Empress Gin Cocktail

To build the cocktail, simply add ice and pour in your Empress Gin plus a squeeze of fresh lime juice from a lime wedge.

Add Fever-Tree sparkling Grapefruit juice to your pink Gin cocktail

Top this off about halfway with the sparkling pink grapefruit juice. Now finish off by splashing in the sparkling pink rosé wine. I actually used Gancia sparkling Moscato Rosé. So no additional sugar or sweetener is added because the wine has a nice sweetness to it. The ingredients alone are enough to sweeten everything through while hints of lime lend light balance to the sugars.

If you can’t find Gancia’s Sparkling Pink Moscato, Barefoot Bubbly Pink Moscato works too or Risata’s Italian Moscato. Balance out the sweetness with more lime juice, if needed.

add sparkling rosé Wine to your Valentine’s day Empress Gin cocktail

The Italian sparkling Moscato is itself a sweet sparkling pink blush color. It tends to boast notes of ripe peach, strawberry, watermelon, and raspberry. A perfect fruity and bubbly finish for this festive sparkling Valentine’s Day gin cocktail.

To add a pop more of colorful purple, I grabbed a tiny splash more of the Empress Gin to float it right over the top. This gave it a stunning violet float for a vibrant colorful finish.

Last but not least, it wouldn’t be aptly named an Antique Rose cocktail without a touch of real rose petals…

add real roses for a floral finish

To finish, clip a little dried pink rosebud to the glass, or simply float a few rosebuds on the surface. Alternatively, you might top with dried rose petals! Additionally, you could rub the rim of the glass and dip in fun pink and gold sanding sugars before pouring your cocktail. This is another way to add drama and character to your festive fizzing pink Valentine’s Day cocktail.

If you’d like to use dried roses as a garnish:

To make these, just tie together a few fresh roses with some twine and hang them upside down. (This helps the petals to dry with an even, upright shape.) After a few days all the moisture will dry up from the flowers when they are stiff to the touch.

Once dried, take the roses down and leave whole for decorating or gently collect the rose petals in a jar to use later. If possible, dry the buds of the roses before they are open or purchase ‘spray roses’. These are a small variety of the rose flower. Perfect for using in recipes just like this.

if you don’t like it too sweet…

For a slightly dryer version of this cocktail, simply replace the Moscato variety of sparkling rosé with a dry sparkling rosé wine such as Prosecco.

look for extra dry.

Popular brands like LaMarca, Mionetto, and Chandon all make dry blush pink sparkling wines that you can add to a cocktail like this for a crisper, dryer finish. If you wanna take all the guess work out, just look for the words ‘Extra Dry’ on the bottle and you’re guaranteed a non-sweet rosé wine.

I hope you found this bubbly Valentine’s Day cocktail super fun and sip-able to make! If you try this easy Empress Gin Valentine’s Day drink, let me know in the comments below! Also, don’t forget to try a delicious strawberry Valentine’s Day rum cocktail just in time for the sweetest day of the year! Pair with these super simple chocolate covered strawberries and it’s sure to be a delicious success!

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