The virtues of the vegetable cocktail

In most cases, a radish is just a radish. In mixologist Giulia Cuccurullo’s world, it might also be a lychee.  

For more than a year, Cuccurullo has been experimenting with “future-proof ingredients” at Artesian, The Langham’s cocktail bar. First, she created a menu inspired by “ingredients of the future” (pandan, jackfruit and dates). Now the focus is vegetables. Alter Ego is a series of 16 cocktails that transform unexpected ingredients – most of them vegetables – into familiar flavours. Daikons have been pickled to resemble lychees. Mung beans have been cooked down to create walnut-tasting Old Fashioneds. Cuccurullo compares her approach to that of a chef. “If a combination of flavours works when you eat something,” she says, “why can’t it work in liquid form?”

People have been drinking their vegetables since at least the 1920s, when bartender Fernand “Pete” Petiot was said to have invented the Bloody Mary. Tomatoes remain popular with mixologists around the world: in London, NoMad, Mount St Restaurant and LPM all offer riffs on tomato Martinis. In Istanbul, Arkestra’s bistro Ritmo makes a vodka cocktail with clear tomato juice. Singapore gastrobar Fura lacto-ferments locally grown tomato with MSG before adding mezcal, parsley and basil.

The Michelin-starred Apricity in Mayfair makes Martinis from upcycled Brussels sprouts

But increasingly the options are becoming adventurous – be it a corn Old Fashioned at Kol Mezcaleria or Bangkok Supper Club’s Fish Sauce, which contains cabbage broth. “The culinary world has seen a significant shift towards more complex, layered flavours,” says Leo Robitschek, partner and vice-president of Sydell, the group behind NoMad. “This trend has naturally extended into the realm of mixology.” Robitschek also points to more sustainable practices: vegetable cocktails present new opportunities for food waste. At The American Bar at Scottish hotel Gleneagles, cocktails from the Book of Berries menu are made from discarded cucumber ends, aubergine skin and avocado stones. Michelin-starred Apricity makes Martinis from upcycled Brussels sprouts.  

Besides, who said a vegetable has to be savoury? I’ve had peas sweeter than I have pineapple. (True Laurel in San Francisco makes a Peacasso with aquavit, Espodol and snap pea syrup.) The same goes for carrots (see Sopwell House’s Sparkling Barnes), beetroot (Three Sheets adds it to its Bramble and Earth Martini) and parsnip (Himkok in Norway blends parsnip with maple syrup for a whisky-based cocktail). 

“Every ingredient has a different threshold,” explains award-winning bartender Ryan Chetiyawardana, “so you need to assess the right way to incorporate them to retain balance. Think about how you use an ingredient in your cooking – then you’ll better understand how to use it in a cocktail.” At Chetiyawardana’s Thameside bar, Lyaness, drinks contain potatoes that have been fermented to taste like vanilla ice cream. A favourite cocktail is the Goose & Gander, made with soda, Grey Goose vodka and a Szechuan pepper sauce that Chetiyawardana likes in drinks – and with nuggets.

As with Cuccurullo’s menu, vegetables offer mixologists a chance to work with superfoods, a good example being mushrooms. In Toronto, Library Bar’s aptly named Last Of Us cocktail features Candy Cap syrup and a mushroom garnish; New York’s Naro has a Martini made with mushroom butter-infused gin; and Bar Antoine at Pavyllon London makes a Boulevard Of Desire with mushroom white port. The latter comes with a garnish of smoking enoki mushrooms, known for their antibacterial, antiviral and anti-inflammatory properties. 

Hungry for your meat course? There are options for that too. At Flôr in Porto, bartender Jorge Morales has devised two intensely savoury cocktails – Clichéd and Sem Pena – that contain cod and chicken extracts distilled using a rotary evaporator. Similarly, Origin City and Uisce have been playing with beef fat. But perhaps the weirdest option out here is the Hot Doggin It at Brooklyn bar LilliStar, a Collins-style mezcal cocktail with vermouth, tomato water and mustard-seed agave. “With the hot-dog trend growing, we thought, why not make it into a cocktail?” says beverage director Christine Wiseman. As long as it’s delicious, why not indeed.