Cucumbers, sugar snap peas, fennel: Spring cocktail ingredients are currently cosplaying as parts of a farmers’ market haul. Introduce a green snap to your next drink by borrowing inspiration from the garden.
“This time of year, we get so excited with the world waking back up,” said Annie Williams Pierce, the owner of Law Bird, a bar in Columbus, Ohio.
In 2017, she won the title of most imaginative bartender from the United States Bartending Guild, with a martini that featured a blanc vermouth infused with sugar snap peas. She used a pressure infusion, but there’s an even faster, easier tool that home bartenders can use to add instant vegetal flavor: the muddler.
Using a muddler (or the end of a wooden spoon or rolling pin) to crush fruits, vegetables and herbs imparts their flavors and aromas into the final drink. Unless you’re building the cocktail directly in the glass (or are fine with more texture), Williams Pierce suggests a double strain to catch every smashed bit before serving.
“It adds a little extra layer of refinement,” she said.
To do so, strain the shaken cocktail into the glass through both the Hawthorne strainer (or the strainer on top of your shaker) and a small fine-mesh strainer.
Williams Pierce suggests avoiding barrel-aged spirits, which can overpower delicate flavors. Instead, look to clearer, botanical-leaning ones, such as gin, a grassy tequila or pisco, which enhance the drink’s savory notes. Should you want to double down on the greener elements — or don’t want to make a market run — incorporate an herbaceous liqueur (such as a quality fennel liqueur, Chartreuse or génépy) or green-leaning bitters.
“My staff has to keep me from putting celery and green cardamom bitters in everything,” Williams Pierce said. “We put it in margaritas. We put it in gimlets or daiquiris, anything thatap just going to want that little extra oomph.”
Simple syrups offer another excellent means to a garden-fresh end. Try infusing a standard sugar syrup with mint, celery leaves, basil or tarragon and swapping it into your next drink. Or make a cucumber syrup by juicing peeled cucumbers (in a juicer or a blender) and combining the strained juice with equal parts sugar by weight. As this method doesn’t use any heat to extract flavor, it keeps the refreshing essence at the forefront. But, Williams Pierce suggests, if you’re not using it right away, add a bit of vodka to the mix to help stabilize it.
When plucking ingredients from the garden or the market or the store, “freshest is best, obviously,” Williams Pierce said. This is especially true when working with herbs, she continued. “They do not have the world’s longest shelf life,” she said. “If you’re going to get them, commit to using them.”
Plenty of traditional cocktails can easily be modified into seasonal variations. The snap pea gimlet combines muddled snap peas with gin, lime and mint simple syrup. In a mildly peppery take on the Pimm’s Cup, arugula, mint sprigs, cucumber slices and citrus wheels are crushed together, and the drink is garnished with even more leafy greens. (Williams Pierce suggests incorporating the aromatic leaves alongside mint and cucumber for an extra layer of crisp flavor.) Combined with lime juice and something bubbly — alcoholic or not — you have the ideal spring formula for a bright, savory spritz.
“If all of your green flavors are coming from fresh vegetables and already nonalcoholic-based things, then thatap an absolute no-brainer to turn that into a NA,” Williams Pierce said. Combine muddled snap peas with lemon or lime and a splash of club soda, swap in mint simple syrup for the standard in your next lemon- or limeade, or mix up a celery sour mocktail, which adds both stalk and leaves to an elegantly green nonalcoholic drink.
Looking from garden to the bar offers drinkers the taste and often color of the season. Vegetables for spring? Groundbreaking.
Arugula-Mint Pimm’s Cup
The classic Pimm’s Cup calls for lemonade or ginger ale, lemon juice and Pimm’s No. 1, a gin-based liqueur, and is garnished with fresh fruit and a generous spray of mint. Itap a simple recipe that encourages many an adaptation. This peppery, springtime take adds a bouquet of arugula, muddled alongside cucumber, mint and citrus. Fresh arugula also makes it into the garnish, increasing the garden-to-glass energy of the final drink. Topping up with ginger ale leans this Pimm’s Cup a bit more toward mild and sweet, though you can riff further by using lemon soda or ginger beer or a combination of ginger ale and lemonade instead.
By Rebekah Peppler
Total time: 5 minutes
Yield: 1 drink
Ingredients:
- 8 to 10 arugula leaves
- 2 fresh mint sprigs
- 2 (1/4-inch-thick) cucumber slices (unpeeled)
- 2 thin lemon slices
- 1 thin lime slices
- 2 1/2 ounces Pimm’s No. 1 liqueur
- 1/4 ounce simple syrup
- Ice
- 3 to 4 ounces ginger ale, chilled
- A small batch of mint, arugula sprigs, cucumber slices, lemon and/or lime slices, to garnish as desired
Preparation:
1. In a cocktail shaker, combine arugula, mint, cucumber slices, lemon slices and lime slice. Muddle until the arugula, mint and cucumber are all smashed and the citrus juices are released. Add the Pimm’s No. 1 and simple syrup. Fill with ice, cover and shake vigorously until chilled, about 15 seconds.
2. Fill a highball or Collins glass with ice. Strain the cocktail into the glass, then top up with ginger ale and stir gently to mix. Garnish as desired.
Snap Pea Gimlet
Served cold and up, this bright green combination of snap peas, gin, lime and mint-infused simple syrup is about as fresh as it gets. Depending on the gin you choose, your drink will shift slightly in flavor. For example, using a London dry gin (such as Beefeater, Tanqueray or Sipsmith) will lend a clean, crisp, juniper-forward backbone to your gimlet. Hendrick’s adds a distinct cucumber note, and Plymouth gin results in a more mellow, citrusy drink. Whatever you use, make sure to crush your snap peas well to ensure their crunchy green flavor comes through — and save the extra mint simple syrup (it can be stored in the fridge for a few weeks) to swap in for standard simple syrup in any number of cocktails, whether a frozen daiquiri, sherry cobbler or hard lemonade.
By Rebekah Peppler
Total time: 45 minutes
Yield: 1 drink
Ingredients:
For the mint simple syrup:
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup water
- Very small pinch of flaky sea salt
- 1/2 cup tightly packed fresh mint leaves (from 6 to 8 fresh mint sprigs)
For the cocktail:
- 6 sugar snap peas
- 1 (3-inch) strip lime peel
- 2 ounces gin
- 3/4 ounce fresh lime juice
- Ice
Preparation:
1. Make the mint simple syrup: In a small saucepan over medium heat, stir together the sugar, water and salt until the sugar and salt dissolve, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and add the mint leaves. Set aside for 30 minutes, then strain through a mesh strainer into a bowl (feel free to really push the leaves against the strainer to extract the most flavor and liquid) and cool completely before using. You should have 3/4 cup. The mint simple syrup will keep stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks.
2. Prep the cocktail: While the mint leaves steep, freeze a coupe or Nick and Nora glass for at least 15 minutes and up to 1 hour. (You can also fill the glass with ice and water, stir for 30 seconds, pour out the ice and water, and pour the finished drink into the now-chilled glass.)
3. When ready to assemble the drink, add the snap peas and lime peel to a cocktail shaker, and use a muddler or wooden spoon to crush until the snap peas are well smashed. Add the gin, lime juice and 3/4 ounce mint simple syrup. Fill with ice, shake vigorously and strain into the chilled glass.
This article originally appeared in .
