Like many chefs dedicated to searching out the highest-quality ingredients, bartenders are reaching for fresh fruits and juices, garden herbs like cilantro and lemon verbena, and a few uncommon extras such as jalapeño, lemongrass, and chilies to give cocktails that extra kick.
“From the garden to the glass” is how bartender Jeff Raposa refers to this new-market mixology. “Whatever’s in season, that’s the big thing.” A seventh-grade social studies teacher by day, Jeff works as a private bartender in Los Angeles during the off-season and on the Vineyard each summer. He works small dinner gatherings and large cocktail parties in people’s homes, serving wine and beer and making specialty drinks. Bartenders, he says, “are rivaling chefs” in creativity, reaching for blood oranges and kumquats in the winter, watermelon and blueberries in the summer, to add a new twist to traditional gin, vodka, tequila, and whisky cocktails.
The summer before last, Jeff says, he had a huge barrel of fresh mint he clipped daily for making drinks. One night while working at a client’s home, he used the mint to make mojitos with fresh lime juice and rum, then grabbed some blackberries from the fridge, crushed a few into the mojitos, and served up a colorful new summertime cocktail.
When the client, an NBA basketball player, next returned to the Vineyard, he asked Jeff about making those blackberry mint mojitos again.
“Why not throw in a twist,” says Jeff. “It gives it an extra taste, and it looks really cool.” The good news, reports Jeff and other bartenders interviewed, is that all these things are easy to do yourself. These trends from restaurants and bars are spreading to homes. People can look to their own gardens to fuel their creativity, or even plant a cocktail-centric herb garden featuring lavender, tarragon, rosemary, thyme, or basil for drinks.
Richard Very, who runs the bar at l’étoile restaurant in Edgartown, says he works to take the classic cocktails to the next level by balancing them with the freshest elements he can find. His own mantra: “fresh ingredients – nothing prepared, nothing processed.”
L’étoile’s gin and tonic, for example, goes beyond the traditional cocktail poured over ice. He crushes some cucumber slices in the gin, and adds splashes of fresh lime and grapefruit juices, some mint, and just a small amount of tonic water. Those flavors make it very refreshing, he says. “It’s an awesome summer drink. People love it.”
He suggests looking to see what’s available around you to mix up your repertoire. With the abundance of ripe peaches in the summer, he adds fresh peach purée to margaritas, a drink variation that’s easy for people to try at home. He also serves a crushed-watermelon-and-basil cosmopolitan as a twist on the usual cranberry-vodka combination.
At l’étoile for the past three seasons, Richard views his job as bartender as a “mood stabilizer.” An avid clammer, oyster diver, and kiteboarder, he also doles out tips to help summer visitors make the most of their Vineyard stay.
Though he doesn’t reveal his own secret clamming spots, he does recommend using fresh clam juice to make a great Bloody Mary. It may sound strange, but the clam juice adds a heightened salty flavor that’s hard to describe, he says. It’s done out West and called a Bloody Caesar, though it’s usually made with bottled clam juice. On the Island, he says, why not use fresh clam juice? He suggests freezing fresh clam juice in an ice tray and popping the cubes out when you make a Bloody Mary (or Bloody Caesar).
For the home bar, Richard mentions a favorite bartenders’ tip: Make a few different simple syrups, the sweetener used in many cocktails, by adding flavors such as lemongrass, cinnamon, fresh ginger, or vanilla. Richard might add lavender to one simple syrup batch or lime and mint to another. This can also be done easily at home.
So this summer, when you head out to your garden or the farmer’s market, think about drinks as well as dinner.
The following fresh and fruity drink recipes, including one that’s alcohol-free were originally published along with this article:
Plum, Cherry, and Nectarine Sangria
Jeff Raposa’s Tips for Making Cocktails at Home
1. Fresh-squeezed juices make the best drinks. For citrus fruits, use a hand-held juice press or juicer.
2. Like food, drinks taste great with fresh herbs. Add mint or basil to drinks such as margaritas for a clean, crisp taste.
3. Keep a can of frozen limeade in the freezer. It comes in handy when you don’t have fresh lime juice. Also, it’s presweetened and can fill in for a simple syrup.
4. IKEA sells great long ice cube trays. Add fruit and herbs to water before freezing to liven up drinks. The ice cubes look great in champagne flutes.
5. Cocktails like mojitos are better with crushed ice. Wrap ice cubes in a clean dish towel and hit a few times with a heavy kitchen object like a saut é pan.
6. An alternative to alcoholic cocktails are Italian-style sodas. Add a splash of Torani syrup to a glass, then top with soda water and a splash of milk. The milk, he says, makes it look interesting. Torani, based in San Francisco, comes in many flavors and may be purchased online at www.shop.torani.com.
Making Simple Syrups with Richard Very
Bartenders prepare simple syrups as a way to sweeten drinks quickly without having to dissolve the sugar. You can easily make a simple syrup at home, by using roughly one part sugar and one part water. Bottled and tightly capped, it keeps for about a month in the fridge and will be ready to make summer cocktails whenever guests arrive.
Try experimenting, as bartenders are doing, by adding flavors such as vanilla, Island honey, lavender, fresh ginger, or rosemary. “It’s super easy,” Richard says. Tie up some lavender or other ingredient in a piece of cheesecloth, and let it steep in the syrup for about an hour. With lavender syrup on hand, he can make what he calls Norton Point lemonade or a lemon-lavender martini.
Simple Syrup
- 2 cups water
- 3 cups light cane or refined sugar
1. In a 4-quart saucepan, add water and bring to a boil. Add the sugar and stir until it comes to a boil again. Remove from heat and let the syrup come to room temperature. When cooled, put the syrup in a bottle, cap tightly, and store in the fridge.
Lime-Infused Syrup
Follow directions above to make a simple syrup. Cut out a 10-inch-wide cheesecloth circle. Cut two limes in half and squeeze and save the juice. Wrap the crushed lime rinds in the cheesecloth and secure with a rubber band. Like a tea bag, steep the citrus rinds in the just-boiled syrup for at least an hour. When cooled, add the lime juice and mix well.
Lemon-Lavender Syrup
Follow directions above for lime-infused syrup, substituting two lemons and adding to the cheesecloth a handful of lavender blossoms.
Lime-Mint Syrup
Follow directions above for lime-infused syrup, adding to the cheesecloth a handful of mint (leaves and stems) that have been bruised or crushed slightly with a muddler or your fingers.
