There’s nothing like a little mulling and shaking with your coworkers after a hard days work. For our August office outing, the SF office went to The Workshop to learn how to mix up a few farm fresh cocktails! Everything was dangerously tasty, which is why I’m posting the recipes here for one and all.

Note: when attending a mixology class with coworkers you may want to change out of your work clothes. Some of us did not dress appropriately for the sticky mess that ensued. Others just couldn’t resist the flounce of a floral apron.

Our first concoction was The Washhouse (aka a basil gimlet).

To make: take 6 freshly smacked basil leaves, 1/2 oz of fresh lime juice and 1/2 oz simple syrup and muddle till your heart’s content.

Add ice and 1 1/2 oz organic vodka.

Shake shake shake!

Finally strain the mixture into a glass, adding a sprig of thyme as garnish. Don’t skip the thyme! The herbs in these drinks were amazingly delicious.

Slurp away.

The gimlet was a big hit. Bottoms up across the board.

Next Thyme Vodka Lemonade.

To make: place a few springs of thyme, 4 lemon slices, 2 oz of lemon juice and 1/2 oz of simple syrup in a glass and muddled them up. Add ice and shake! Pour the mixture over ice, strained or unstrained.

Two tasty cocktails mastered.

For the third cocktail we switched gears and pulled out the bourbon to create a Blackberry Mint Julep.

For this drink add 10 or so blackberries, 6 mint leaves, and 1/2 oz of simple syrup to a glass and muddle. Pour over a glass of ice, strained or unstrained and garnish with a mint leaf.

At this point we were too busy drinking, breaking glasses, and spilling the julep onto shoes to take pictures of the process! So, how about some pictures of our lovely spread instead?

Last but NOT least we mixed up a Grilled Peach Old Fashioned.

We didn’t grill the peaches ourselves, but from what I can remember there is brown sugar involved which mades a tasty syrup to add to the drink.

To make: add a few peach slices (and some ooey gooey sauce), 4-5 dashes of bitters, and 1/2 oz simple syrup to a glass. Muddles away.

This mixture goes unstrained into a cup with ice. If you muddled well enough you might be able to suck this drink through a straw, otherwise you might be reaching for a spoon right about now .. and a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

After all that HARD work we took a moment to savor our old fashions before being given the option to make a larger drink, or two, from our favorite recipes.

We were surprisingly tame after all those drinks, though Yuri was serenading us toward the end of the evening. All in all the cocktails were well received. There might even be some basil and thyme growing at the office at this very moment. Cheers!