Le Potager: Foraged and Garden Botanicals in Cocktails

One of the most charming features of the old cocktail list at The Surrey was its "Le Potager" chapter, the kitchen garden. Drinks there were built around market produce, and in some seasons around foraged plants, with tiny botanical notes printed under each recipe: prairie parsley, a member of the carrot family with a dill-like flavor; green juniper berries from the eastern red cedar; yellow sweet clover, named for its smell and loved by honey bees. It was a lovely idea, and it is one you can borrow at home, with care.

Start in the garden, not the woods

Before you forage anything, grow or buy it. A window box or small balcony can supply most of what a home bartender needs:

• Mint: spearmint for juleps and mojitos; other varieties for experiments.
• Basil: Genovese basil with gin and strawberries; Thai basil or opal basil for spicier drinks.
• Rosemary and thyme: robust, resinous, excellent in syrups and with gin, whiskey and grapefruit.
• Lemon verbena: intensely lemony and floral, superb in vodka or gin infusions.
• Shiso: minty, cumin-like, very good with Japanese whisky and citrus.
• Edible flowers: lavender, chamomile, nasturtium and violets, used sparingly.

Three ways to use botanicals

Syrups

Heat a 1:1 sugar syrup, remove it from the heat and steep the herb for 10 to 30 minutes, tasting as you go. Strain and refrigerate. Delicate herbs like basil can turn bitter if heated too long; for them, blend fresh leaves into cold syrup and strain.

Infusions

Steep the plant directly in a spirit. Soft herbs take hours, woody ones and spices can take days. Taste often. Over-infused spirits become grassy and tannic. A neutral vodka or a light gin is the easiest canvas.

Garnish and aroma

Often the best way to use an herb is simply to smell it. Slap a sprig of mint or basil between your palms to release the oils, and place it right where the nose meets the glass.

Foraging: the rules that matter

Foraging is where enthusiasm needs to meet discipline. Please take these seriously:

1. Never consume anything you cannot identify with complete certainty. The carrot family, which includes prairie parsley, wild fennel and Queen Anne's lace, also includes poison hemlock and water hemlock, among the most toxic plants in North America and Europe. Learn from an experienced local forager or a reputable regional field guide.
2. Know the law. Many city parks, including New York City's, prohibit removing plants. Ask permission on private land.
3. Avoid polluted sites. Roadsides, railway lines, sprayed lawns and dog-walking routes are not good places to pick.
4. Take little. Never strip a plant or a patch. Leave most of it for wildlife and for the plant to recover.
5. Mind specific risks. Sweet clover contains coumarin and can develop compounds that affect blood clotting when it spoils, so only use fresh, healthy material and in small amounts. Juniper is generally used in tiny quantities and is not recommended during pregnancy.

Foraged ingredients worth learning

• Spruce and fir tips: bright green spring growth with a citrus, resinous flavor. Wonderful in syrups.
• Elderflower: heady and floral in late spring. Make a cordial with lemon and sugar.
• Wild roses and rose hips: petals for syrups, hips for tart, vitamin-rich autumn cordials.
• Sumac (staghorn): the red berry clusters make a tart, lemony infusion. Be sure not to confuse it with poison sumac, which has white berries.
• Juniper: the defining flavor of gin. Green, unripe berries are brighter and more citrusy than ripe blue ones.

A simple garden cocktail

Muddle three or four fresh basil leaves gently in a shaker. Add 50 ml gin, 20 ml lemon juice and 15 ml simple syrup. Shake with ice and double strain into a chilled coupe. Float a single basil leaf on top. It tastes like a summer afternoon and takes two minutes to make.

A seasonal calendar (northern temperate climates)

Season	Garden	Foraged or market
Spring	Mint, chives, sorrel	Spruce tips, wild garlic, rhubarb
Early summer	Basil, lemon verbena, lavender	Elderflower, wild roses, strawberries
Late summer	Shiso, thyme, fennel fronds	Blackberries, staghorn sumac, peaches
Autumn	Rosemary, sage	Rose hips, apples, pears, quince
Winter	Bay, potted rosemary	Citrus, juniper, preserved cordials

Preserving the season

• Cordials: sugar, acid and flowers or fruit, such as elderflower cordial. Keep refrigerated; freeze in small bottles for winter.
• Shrubs: fruit, sugar and vinegar. Tart, refreshing and very stable.
• Infused spirits: the alcohol preserves the flavor for months.
• Frozen herbs: blend soft herbs with a little neutral spirit or syrup and freeze in ice cube trays.

Know the botanicals on the old menu

The Bar Pleiades list printed short botanical notes under its garden drinks, and they are a good lesson in using correct names. Polytaenia nuttallii, prairie parsley, is a North American member of the carrot family. Juniperus virginiana, the eastern red cedar, is actually a juniper, and its berries have a bright, citrus-pine character. Melilotus officinalis, yellow sweet clover, smells of hay and vanilla because of its coumarin. Learning the scientific name of a plant is the first step to identifying it safely, because common names vary from region to region and can refer to completely different species.

Common mistakes

• Over-infusing. Herbs turn bitter and grassy. Taste early and often.
• Bruising too hard. Pulverized mint releases bitter compounds. Press gently.
• Old herbs. Wilted herbs have lost their oils. Use them the day you pick or buy them.
• Guessing on identification. If in doubt, leave it out.

Respect the season

The joy of garden and foraged drinks is that they change. Elderflower in May, basil and berries in summer, rose hips and apples in autumn, spruce and citrus in winter. A menu that follows the season, as the "La Saison" and "Le Potager" chapters once did, gives people a reason to come back. If you want to go further, read our guide to spices in cocktails, which covers the winter half of the year.

Sources and further reading

• Poison hemlock, Conium maculatum (Wikipedia)
• Polytaenia (Wikipedia)
• Juniperus virginiana (Wikipedia)
• Melilotus officinalis (Wikipedia)