The Drunken Botanist: The Plants that Create the World's Great Drinks

by Amy Stewart

  Some people add another cup of simple syrup before the last 2 months of aging. If you’d like to experiment, try splitting the batch in two and adding ½ cup of simple syrup to one of those batches. Either way, the aging process will change the flavor.

  PART III

  At Last We Venture into the Garden, Where We Encounter a Seasonal Array of Botanical Mixers and Garnishes to Be Introduced to the Cocktail in Its Final Stage of Preparation

  Gardeners are the ultimate mixologists. Even the most ordinary vegetable patch yields the mixers and garnishes that make remarkable drinks: it is nothing for a gardener to produce lemon verbena, rose geranium blossoms, sweet yellow tomatoes, and deep red stalks of heirloom celery. A thousand cocktails can be mixed in a kitchen garden.

  Some plants, like mint for mojitos, should unquestionably be garden-grown. Others, like pomegranate for homemade grenadine, are worthwhile only if you live in a tropical climate or own a greenhouse and possess enough interest in horticulture to keep it alive and tend to its needs.

  Rather than give the complete history, life cycle, and growing instructions for every plant that can be used as a mixer or a garnish, a few are highlighted in depth and others are simply listed along with a few growing tips. The best gardening advice is local anyway; whether a particular plant suits your climate or your level of expertise and commitment is a matter to be discussed with your local independent garden center, where you’ll receive in-depth advice on planting varieties best suited to your area.

  For even more information, turn to your local Master Gardener group (usually run through a county agricultural extension office) or the knowledgeable farmers at your farmers’ market. Visit DrunkenBotanist.com for mail-order sources, growing tips, and further reading on culinary gardening.

  -- we begin with --

  herbs

  These herbs can be muddled into a cocktail, infused into a simple syrup or flavored vodka, and used as a garnish.

  GROWING NOTES

  Spearmint

  Annual herbs live for just one year and require summer warmth, sun, and regular water, while woody, perennial herbs need sun and summer heat to thrive, prefer their soil on the dry side, and generally won’t survive the winter if temperatures dip below 5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit. Dedicated cold-climate gardeners keep perennial herbs in a pot and store them in the basement in winter with minimal light and water.

  All of these herbs can live in a container, and most will grow indoors under bright lights. A conservatory or sunroom is ideal; even in a sunny window, they might need supplemental light indoors. An ordinary shop light with fluorescent tubes, plugged into a timer, is the most affordable solution. Garden centers and hydroponic shops also sell special grow lights and LED bulbs that screw into ordinary lamps, which may be somewhat more aesthetically pleasing.

  The best way to harvest herbs is to cut one entire stalk down to the base of the plant, then strip the leaves from the stem. If you don’t need that much, cut half the stalk. Just don’t pluck off individual leaves: the plant can’t easily regrow leaves from a bare stalk. Annual herbs tend to stop growing once they’ve flowered, so pinch off flowers on basil, cilantro, and other herbs you want to keep harvesting.

  • • • GROWING NOTES • • • herbs

  Angelica

  Angelica

  archangelica

  Biennial (blooms in second year). Use stems in infusions. Other species may be toxic; be sure to get A. archangelica, called garden angelica. (See p. 140.)

  Anise hyssop

  Agastache

  foeniculum

  Perennial. Cut flowering stalks back to encourage rebloom. Try the bright yellow Golden Jubilee or the classic Blue Fortune. (See p. 180.)

  Basil

  Ocimum basilicum

  Annual. Genovese is the classic large-leaved variety. Pesto Perpetuo and Finissimo Verde are small-leaved, bush varieties that may overwinter indoors.

  Cilantro

  Coriandrum

  sativum

  Annual. Slow Bolt or Santo won’t bloom and go to seed as quickly as other varieties. If you’re growing it for coriander seeds, not cilantro leaves, look for C. sativum var. microcarpum. Seeds should be thoroughly dry and golden brown before using. (See p. 156.)

  Dill

  Anethum graveolens

  Annual. Dukat produces more foliage before setting seed. Fernleaf is a dwarf variety.

  Fennel

  Foeniculum vulgare

  Perennial. Both Florence and sweet fennel produce tasty seeds. Perfection and Zefa Fino are grown for their bulbs. (See p. 180.)

  Lemongrass

  Cymbopogon

  citratus

  Perennial. West Indian varieties are grown more for their stalks, East Indian for their leaves. Either works in cocktails.

  Lemon verbena

  Aloysia citrodora

  Perennial. A woody shrub that can grow four to five feet tall. Leaves have a bright, powerful citrus flavor. (See p. 175.)

  Mint

  Mentha spicata

  Perennial. Look for spearmints like Mentha x villosa ‘Mojito Mint’ or Kentucky Colonel. Other mints to experiment with include chocolate mint, orange mint, and peppermint. (See p. 325.)

  Pineapple sage

  Salvia elegans

  Perennial. A sturdy sage with red, trumpet-shaped flowers and leaves that really do smell of pineapples.

  Rosemary

  Rosmarinus

  officinalis

  Perennial. Arp is the most cold-resistant upright variety. Roman Beauty has higher oil content and a more compact habit. Avoid the prostrate or climbing varieties; the flavor is unpleasantly mentholated.

  Sage

  Salvia officinalis

  Perennial. Holt’s Mammoth is a classic cooking variety. Any silver-leaved variety will work; the purple and yellow cultivars are not as flavorful.

  Savory

  Satureja montana

  Perennial. This is the winter savory, a woodier herb with a flavor closer to rosemary. The summer savory, S. hortensis, is used more as a fresh seasoning in eggs and salads.

  Scented geranium

  Pelargonium sp.

  Perennial. Although commonly called geraniums, they are actually pelargoniums. Breeders have created astonishing fragrances, from rose to cinnamon to apricot to ginger. Leaves are fragrant but strongly flavored; use for simple syrups and infusions. Blossoms make good garnishes.

  Thyme

  Thymus vulgaris

  Perennial. English thyme is the standard culinary thyme, but lemon varieties are also excellent. Creeping, woolly varieties are not as tasty.

  GARDEN-INFUSED SIMPLE SYRUP

  Almost any botanical ingredient, from lemon peel to rhubarb to rosemary, can be infused into a simple syrup. This is an easy way to showcase seasonal produce and add a twist to a basic cocktail recipe.

  ½ cup herbs, flowers, fruit, or spices

  1 cup water

  1 cup sugar

  1 ounce vodka (optional)

  Combine all the ingredients except the vodka in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer and stir well, until the sugar is dissolved. Let the mixture cool, then pour through a fine mesh strainer. Add the vodka (if using) as a preservative and keep refrigerated. Good for 2 to 3 weeks; lasts longer in the freezer.

  SPANK YOUR HERBS

  The secret to getting the essential oil out of any plant in the mint family (including mint, basil, sage, and anise hyssop) is to bruise the leaves without crushing them. This expresses the oil from the modified trichomes, or tiny hairs, on the surface of the leaf without cluttering up the drink unnecessarily with chlorophyll. Get the most flavor out of the fresh leaves by spanking them—just place the leaf in the palm of one hand and clap your hands briskly once or twice. You’ll look like a pro and you’ll release fresh aromatics into the drink.

  SPEARMINT

  Mentha spicata

  lamiaceae (mint family)

  Thanks to the heroic efforts of tourists returning from
Cuba with sprigs of mint plucked from their mojitos, mail-order nurseries now offer Mentha x villosa ‘Mojito Mint’ for sale, which they claim is distinctly different from most spearmints. “In a perhaps typically Cuban understated way its warm embrace lingers until you realize you want more,” reads the catalog copy for this herb.

  Never order a mojito in a bar that does not have fresh mint in evidence. Mint is so easy to grow that it is practically a weed; there is no excuse not to have a ready supply of it. Mint can live in a pot in the parking lot; it can grow in a window box; it can, for that matter, sprout in a rain gutter or between the cracks in the sidewalk.

  Mint really will take over the garden if given a chance. To slow it down, plant it in a one-gallon plastic pot and sink the pot in the ground. The runners will find a way around the pot eventually, but at least you’ll have a head start. Give the plant plenty of water—a perpetually damp spot near a leaky hose bib is perfect—and cut it before it blooms or goes to seed as the offspring tend to revert to a parent strain and won’t be nearly as good. The flavor may change as the plant ages, so some gardeners root a runner every few years to replace an older plant.

  The mint to grow is spearmint; it has a brightness and sweetness to it that seems to melt into sugar and rum. Look for Mojito Mint or Kentucky Colonel, the variety most favored by Southerners for a mint julep.

  Spearmint, also called green mint, comes from central and southern Europe, where it has been cultivated for centuries. Pliny the Elder said that its scent “does stir up the mind.” It also stirs up any number of drinks, adding a green and almost floral note to sweet and fruity cocktails that would otherwise be too cloying.

  WALKER PERCY’S MINT JULEP

  There are those who believe that a well-constructed mint julep is intended to last all day, that there is no second mint julep, just one large, powerful drink that grows gradually sweeter and more watered down as the ice melts and the sugar and bourbon settle together at the bottom of the glass.

  Southern writer Walker Percy insisted that a good julep should hold at least 5 ounces of bourbon, a quantity that sloshes right over anyone’s daily limit. This recipe remains true to his vision, but you may use less bourbon if you wish to feel like more of an upstanding citizen.

  5 ounces bourbon

  Several sprigs fresh spearmint

  4 to 5 tablespoons superfine sugar

  Crushed ice

  Into a silver julep cup, a highball glass, or a Mason jar, press 2 or 3 tablespoons of superfine sugar together with a very small quantity of water, just enough to make a sugary paste. Add a layer of fresh spearmint leaves. Press them gently with a muddler or wooden spoon, but do not smash them. Pile on a layer of fresh finely crushed ice. Mr. Percy prefers that you reduce the ice to powder by wrapping it in a dry towel and banging it with a wooden mallet. To that layer, add a fine sprinkling of sugar and a few more mint leaves that you have spanked, but not crushed, by clapping them loudly between your hands.

  Top with another layer of crushed ice and continue in this manner until the glass is so full that it seems that it cannot possibly hold a drop of bourbon. Pour in as much as it will, in fact, hold, which turns out to be right about 5 ounces. Now carry your julep to the porch and remain there until bedtime; there will be nothing else to your day but the slow draining of the glass and the pleasant drone of the cicadas.

  -- moving on to --

  flowers

  Flowers are most often used as a garnish or frozen in ice cubes for decoration, but some can be added to simple syrup or vodka infusions to add flavor or color. The blossoms of the plants in the herbs section (p. 320) are also edible and safe to use. Just don’t add any flower to a cocktail unless you’re sure it’s edible. hydrangea, for instance, contains a little cyanide, which makes it a less-than-ideal drink ingredient.

  GROWING NOTES

  Lavender

  • • • GROWING NOTES • • • flowers

  Borage

  Borago officinalis

  Annual. Deep blue flowers are gorgeous in drinks or frozen into ice cubes. Leaves taste vaguely like cucumbers. Traditional Pimm’s Cup garnish.

  Calendula

  Calendula

  officinalis

  Annual. Bright yellow and orange petals can be infused for their color. Alpha is a reliable orange variety; Sunshine Flashback is deep yellow; Neon is orange-red.

  Elderflower

  Sambucus nigra

  Perennial. Grown for flowers or fruit; use flowers in infusions and syrups. Try the dramatic Black Lace or Sutherland Gold, with chartreuse foliage. Some North American species produce cyanide, so get yours from a fruit nursery. (See p. 206.)

  Honeysuckle

  Lonicera x

  heckrottii

  Perennial. Gold Flame is tough, vigorous, and loaded with fragrant flowers.

  Jasmine

  Jasminum officinale

  Perennial. Hardy to about 0 degrees Fahrenheit. French jasmine, sometimes called J. grandiflorum, requires a warmer climate but can be grown indoors. (See p. 218.)

  Lavender

  Lavandula

  angustifolia

  Perennial. English lavenders like Hidcote and Munstead are best for culinary uses, or try the French Grosso and Fred Boutin (L. x intermedia). (See p. 330.)

  Marigold

  Tagetes erecta

  Annual. Petals are bright orange, red, or yellow and have a sharp, spicy flavor. There are many new varieties, but African Marigold is the classic vigorous orange version.

  Nasturtium

  Tropaeolum majus

  Annual. Dwarf Cherry is a mounding variety, compact enough for a container. Other varieties can turn into sprawling vines. All produce peppery flowers in orange, red, yellow, pink, and white.

  Rose

  Rosa spp.

  Perennial. Choose a highly fragrant hybrid tea like Mister Lincoln for rose petal infusions, or a rugosa variety if you want to cultivate the rose hips. (See p. 221.)

  Sichuan button

  Acmella oleracea

  Annual. The yellow flower buds contain a compound called spilanthol that produces a Pop Rocks–like reaction when chewed. A bit of a gimmick, but a fun cocktail garnish nonetheless.

  Viola

  Viola tricolor

  Annual. Johnny-jump-ups, and closely related pansies, are edible but not particularly flavorful. Useful as a garnish.

  Violet

  Viola odorata

  Perennial. Old-fashioned sweet violets are highly fragrant and very short-lived. Not to be confused with African violets. (See p. 225.)

  LAVENDER

  Lavandula angustifolia (syn. L. × intermedia)

  lamiaceae (mint family)

  Lavender doesn’t often turn up behind the bar for the same reason it isn’t used often in cooking: the sharp, floral fragrance seems just right in a perfume but all wrong as part of a meal. However, any gardener who loves growing lavender will eventually want to try it in a drink. And it is used in gin, infused vodka, and liqueurs.

  English lavender, Lavandula angustifolia, is somewhat sweeter and better suited for flavoring—lavender scones and cookies are baked with this variety. Hidcote and Munstead are two popular varieties; both will grow up to two feet tall and form a solid hedge.

  The only other lavender to consider for a cocktail would be L. × intermedia, a hybrid grown in France for perfume and soap. Try Grosso, Fred Boutin, or Abrialii. The flavor may be a bit sharper than English lavender, but the plants do a better job of tolerating hot, muggy summers. Many other species of lavender contain mildly toxic compounds and should not be eaten.

  Situate lavender in full sun, give it well-drained soil, and top-dress with pea gravel rather than mulch. It wants no fertilizer and very little supplemental water. Lavender must be sheared back in late fall to keep blooming; cut back most of the foliage, but never cut down to bare wood. Lavender likes a Mediterranean climate but can be coaxed along in all but the coldest areas; it will tolerate winter temperatures to
–10 degrees Fahrenheit.

  Lavender’s dry, astringent perfume is perfect with a botanical spirit like gin, or it can be used to infuse a simple syrup.

  LAVENDER-ELDERFLOWER CHAMPAGNE COCKTAIL

  1 ounce lavender simple syrup (see p. 324)

  1 ounce St-Germain

  Champagne or other sparkling wine

  1 sprig fresh lavender

  Pour the simple syrup and St-Germain in a Champagne flute and top with Champagne. Garnish with a sprig of fresh lavender.

  LAVENDER MARTINI

  4 sprigs fresh lavender

  1½ ounces gin (try Dry Fly from Washington State, which contains lavender)

  ½ ounce Lillet blanc (see note)

  Lemon peel

  In a cocktail shaker, muddle 3 springs of the lavender with the gin. Add the Lillet, shake with ice, and strain into a cocktail glass. To get all the crushed lavender buds out of the drink, double-strain it by placing a fine mesh strainer over the glass before pouring. Garnish with the lemon peel and the remaining lavender sprig.

  Note: Lillet will stay fresh in the refrigerator for at least a few weeks. If you don’t have any, this drink also works with the more traditional dry vermouth.

  -- continuing straight ahead to --