Food

10 GORGEOUS GREEN LEAFY COCKTAILS

Courtesy of Oxwell & Co. Nutmeg Gin & Tonic.

We’re eating more green, thanks to the kale craze and new-found veggie love. We like the fact that we’re jamming nutrients with every bit. Now we’re drinking it. These fresh green leafy cocktails will surprise you -- beautifully.

1. NUTMEG GIN & TONIC

Oxwell & Co, a fabulous restaurant on Ann Siang Hill in Singapore, maintains an herb and vegetable garden (which supplies the kitchen and bar), nestled on the rooftop.

Mixologist Luke Whearty serves craft cocktails, with a lovely green embellished twist on a classic: Nutmeg Gin & Tonic (above). It features house-distilled nutmeg gin, clove-infused tonic and calamansi lime juice. It is garnished with a beautiful green nutmeg leaf from a local tree.

2. V-9

V-9, (above) developed by Tad Carducci and Paul Tanguay (aka The Tippling Bros.) for Mercadito Chicago, mixes up a concoction that can outpower any V8 we know. It’s made with “super juice” to give your cocktail a super-nutrient kick. Girls Gone Sporty rocks a lovely rim on this one.

V-9

Ingredients:

2 oz. herradura blanco
1 oz. super juice (kale, cilantro, pineapple juice and ginger root)
1 oz. lime juice
¾ oz. agave nectar

Directions:

Shake all ingredients and pour into rocks glass.
Garnish with cilantro leaf.

3. CARBONATED CELERY GIMLET

Drinking something green and grassy with celery notes might not sound so delicious, but the Carbonated Celery Gimlet, by Chef Steps, will pleasantly surprise you. It’s a cleaner, more sophisticated version of the Cel-Ray, a Jewish deli favorite formerly known as Dr. Brown’s Celery Tonic.

Unlike Cel-Ray, which gets its flavor from celery seed extract, the Carbonated Celery Gimlet calls for juicing the whole celery stalk. It makes for a truly exquisite green color. Add gin and lemon to make it a gimlet. Then add fizz.

Chef Steps, the experimental kitchen that collaborated with Nathan Myhrvold to produce Modernist Cuisine, gets super fancy with their CO2. (See Art, Science & Food Waltz.) But you can simply add sparkling water and it will still be a total delight.

Celery Gimlet:

Ingredients:

Ice 120g
London dry gin 84g
Celery Juice 80g
Tonic syrup 30g
Lemon juice 20g

Equipment:

Whipping siphon
CO2 cartridges

Directions:

Prepare 80 g Celery Juice. Keep cold in ice bath or refrigerator.
Combine all ingredients in a 1-liter whipping siphon.
Charge with first CO2 cartridge. Slowly release all gas.
Charge with second CO2 cartridge. Shake until ice melts.
Release all gas, and unscrew the siphon lid.
Pour into glasses to serve.

4. GREEN HORNET

The Green Hornet is an award-winning summer vegetable cocktail, created by Jesper Strauss, of ABSURT Cocktails , in Copenhagen. Gaz Regan adapted the recipe here.

Green Hornet

Ingredients:

6 sugar-snap peas
8-10 basil leaves
4 slices cucumber
60 ml (2 oz) Tanqueray No TEN
20 ml (.3 oz) simple syrup
20 ml (.3 oz) fresh lime juice
Cucumber peel, as garnish

Directions:

Muddle the cucumber, basil and sugar snaps in a mixing glass.
Add the gin, lime juice and simple syrup and shake well. Double strain into a chilled coupe.
Garnish: Wrap a cucumber peel around your index finger, make a small cut in the middle of the peel and place on the edge of the coupe.

5. GREEN GHOST

The Green Ghost dates back to the 1930’s. It first appeared in in the Cafe Royal Cocktail Book, in 1937, attributed to a J. B. Hurrell. Serious Eats recently shared it again. It totally elevates Chartreuse. We now believe in ghosts!

Green Ghost

Ingredients:

2 ozs gin
1/2 oz green Chartreuse
1/2 oz fresh lime juice (from 1 lime)

Directions:

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice.
Add gin, Chartreuse, and lime juice.
Shake until well chilled, about 15 seconds.
Strain into cocktail glass and serve.

6. CHARTREUSE SMASH

Add some mint to a Green Ghost and trade out the lime for lemon, pour over crushed ice, and you’ve got yourself a Chartreuse Smash. It’s super-freshing green.

Chartreuse Smash

Ingredients:

10 mint leaves
1 oz. lemon juice, from about 1/2 lemon
2 tsp. turbinado sugar
2 oz. green Chartreuse
Sprig of mint, for garnish

Directions:

Place mint, lemon and sugar in a cocktail shaker and muddle.
Add chartreuse and fill with ice. Shake thoroughly.
Strain into a glass filled with crushed ice.
Garnish with mint sprig.

7. DILL MARTINI

This twist on a dirty martini is a perfect sip with a smoked salmon canape, among other savories. The Dill Martini, from Saveur, is pickley, tart, and hearty. Serve it well chilled. Maybe even try it sometime with Aquavit instead of vodka for some extra Scandinavian punch.

Dill Martini

Ingredients:

2 oz. vodka
½ oz.-1 oz. of kosher pickle brine
Splash of dry vermouth
10-12 mustard seeds
Whole baby kosher dill pickle, for garnish
A large fresh sprig of dill, for garnish

Instructions:

Shake vodka, pickle brine, vermouth, mustard seeds, and ice in a shaker.
Skewer the dill pickle and add it to a chilled cocktail glass.
Strain the martini into the glass and garnish with the dill sprig.

8. GREEN RETREAT

The Green Retreat, from the Napa Valley Grille, is an unlikely combo of celery, coconut, grapefruit and agave. We’re not sure how they come up with this idea, but it results in a form of ultra-wise alchemy. Girls Gone Sporty serves up the vegetal freshness balanced out with the sweet tart juiciness for a nice Napa chill.

Green Retreat

Ingredients:

1 stalk celery
1/8 oz agave
1 1/2 oz vodka
1 1/2 oz coconut water
1/2 oz grapefruit juice

Directions:

Muddle celery and agave.
Add remaining ingredients with ice. Shake.
Double strain through a fine sieve into chilled martini glass.
Garnish with baby celery leaves.

9. CELERY SUPERSTAR

The Celery Superstar, developed by House Spirits Distillery, features their top-rated small-batch produced gin, Aviation American Gin, spiked with green celery juice, lime, and serrano.

Celery Superstar

Ingredients:

1 thin Serrano chili slice
2 oz. Aviation American Gin
3/4 oz. freshly pressed lime juice
1 oz. freshly extracted celery juice
3/4 oz. simple syrup

Directions:

Shake over ice.
Serve up with celery leaves as garnish.

SHISO GIMLET

Shiso adds an astringent, sesame-like flavor to this gin gimlet. It’s balanced by a hit of sweet lychee juice and yuzu marmalade.

Shiso Gimlet

Ingredients:

1.5 oz. NOLET’s Silver Dry Gin
3 Shiso leaves
.75 oz. Pierre Ferrand Dry Curacao
1 oz. Fresh lime juice
.5 oz. Lychee juice
1 Bar spoon Yuzu Marmalade

Directions:

Shake and strain into a martini glass.
Garnish with a shiso leaf.

THE DRUNKEN BOTANIST: THE PLANTS THAT CREATE THE WORLD’S GREAT DRINKS

If you want to read more about how green (and other colored) herbs, flowers, trees, fruits, and fungi make wonderful spirits, check out “The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World's Great Drinks,” a new book by Amy Stewart, that takes glorious green in a whole different direction.

The book explores the vast variety of herbs, flowers, trees, fruits, and fungi that serve as the base and/or the flavoring and coloring of our alcoholic beverages.

Some are obscure plants, some are bizarre, some are even dangerous. Stewart dives into the biology, chemistry, history, etymology, and mixology of them all. Check out the more than fifty drink recipes and growing tips for gardeners.

Amy Stewart is the award-winning author, cofounder of the popular blog Garden Rant, and is a contributing editor at Fine Gardening magazine.

"Sipping an evening cocktail while flipping through this fine volume, I discovered that Ms. Stewart knew how to change a run-of-the-mill cocktail into an intriguing one."

—The Wall Street Journal

"Gardening can be an intoxicating hobby, especially if the botany is booze-related."

—The Associated Press

Algonquin Books (2013)