The Drunken Botanist: The Plants that Create the World's Great Drinks (62 page)
Read The Drunken Botanist: The Plants that Create the World's Great Drinks Online
Authors: Amy Stewart
Tags: #Non-Fiction
-- we begin with --
herbs
These herbs can be muddled into a cocktail, infused into a simple syrup or flavored vodka, and used as a garnish.
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Annual herbs live for just one year and require summer warmth, sun, and regular water, while woody, perennial herbs need sun and summer heat to thrive, prefer their soil on the dry side, and generally won't survive the winter if temperatures dip below 5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit. Dedicated cold-climate gardeners keep perennial herbs in a pot and store them in the basement in winter with minimal light and water.
All of these herbs can live in a container, and most will grow indoors under bright lights. A conservatory or sunroom is ideal; even in a sunny window, they might need supplemental light indoors. An ordinary shop light with fluorescent tubes, plugged into a timer, is the most affordable solution. Garden centers and hydroponic shops also sell special grow lights and LED bulbs that screw into ordinary lamps, which may be somewhat more aesthetically pleasing.
The best way to harvest herbs is to cut one entire stalk down to the base of the plant, then strip the leaves from the stem. If you don't need that much, cut half the stalk. Just don't pluck off individual leaves: the plant can't easily regrow leaves from a bare stalk. Annual herbs tend to stop growing once they've flowered, so pinch off flowers on basil, cilantro, and other herbs you want to keep harvesting.
herbs
Angelica Angelica archangelica | Biennial (blooms in second year). Use stems in infusions. Other species may be toxic; be sure to get |
Anise hyssop Agastache foeniculum | Perennial. Cut flowering stalks back to encourage rebloom. Try the bright yellow Golden Jubilee or the classic Blue Fortune. (See |
Basil Ocimum basilicum | Annual. Genovese is the classic large-leaved variety. Pesto Perpetuo and Finissimo Verde are small-leaved, bush varieties that may overwinter indoors. |
Cilantro Coriandrum sativum | Annual. Slow Bolt or Santo won't bloom and go to seed as quickly as other varieties. If you're growing it for coriander seeds, not cilantro leaves, look for |
Dill Anethum graveolens | Annual. Dukat produces more foliage before setting seed. Fernleaf is a dwarf variety. |
Fennel Foeniculum vulgare | Perennial. Both Florence and sweet fennel produce tasty seeds. Perfection and Zefa Fino are grown for their bulbs. (See |
Lemongrass Cymbopogon citratus | Perennial. West Indian varieties are grown more for their stalks, East Indian for their leaves. Either works in cocktails. |
Lemon verbena Aloysia citrodora | Perennial. A woody shrub that can grow four to five feet tall. Leaves have a bright, powerful citrus flavor. (See |
Mint Mentha spicata | Perennial. Look for spearmints like |
Pineapple sage Salvia elegans | Perennial. A sturdy sage with red, trumpet-shaped flowers and leaves that really do smell of pineapples. |
Rosemary Rosmarinus officinalis | Perennial. Arp is the most cold-resistant upright variety. Roman Beauty has higher oil content and a more compact habit. Avoid the prostrate or climbing varieties; the flavor is unpleasantly mentholated. |
Sage Salvia officinalis | Perennial. Holt's Mammoth is a classic cooking variety. Any silver-leaved variety will work; the purple and yellow cultivars are not as flavorful. |
Savory Satureja montana | Perennial. This is the winter savory, a woodier herb with a flavor closer to rosemary. The summer savory, |
Scented geranium Pelargonium | Perennial. Although commonly called geraniums, they are actually pelargoniums. Breeders have created astonishing fragrances, from rose to cinnamon to apricot to ginger. Leaves are fragrant but strongly flavored; use for simple syrups and infusions. Blossoms make good garnishes. |
Thyme Thymus vulgaris | Perennial. English thyme is the standard culinary thyme, but lemon varieties are also excellent. Creeping, woolly varieties are not as tasty. |
GARDEN-INFUSED SIMPLE SYRUP
Almost any botanical ingredient, from lemon peel to rhubarb to rosemary, can be infused into a simple syrup. This is an easy way to showcase seasonal produce and add a twist to a basic cocktail recipe.
½ cup herbs, flowers, fruit, or spices
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 ounce vodka (optional)
Combine all the ingredients except the vodka in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer and stir well, until the sugar is dissolved. Let the mixture cool, then pour through a fine mesh strainer. Add the vodka (if using) as a preservative and keep refrigerated. Good for 2 to 3 weeks; lasts longer in the freezer.
The secret to getting the essential oil out of any plant in the mint family (including mint, basil, sage, and anise hyssop) is to bruise the leaves without crushing them. This expresses the oil from the modified trichomes, or tiny hairs, on the surface of the leaf without cluttering up the drink unnecessarily with chlorophyll. Get the most flavor out of the fresh leaves by spanking themâjust place the leaf in the palm of one hand and clap your hands briskly once or twice. You'll look like a pro and you'll release fresh aromatics into the drink.
SPEARMINT
Mentha spicata
lamiaceae (mint family)
T
hanks to the heroic efforts of tourists returning from Cuba with sprigs of mint plucked from their mojitos, mail-order nurseries now offer
Mentha
x
villosa
âMojito Mint' for sale, which they claim is distinctly different from most spearmints. “In a perhaps typically Cuban understated way its warm embrace lingers until you realize you want more,” reads the catalog copy for this herb.
Never order a mojito in a bar that does not have fresh mint in evidence. Mint is so easy to grow that it is practically a weed; there is no excuse not to have a ready supply of it. Mint can live in a pot in the parking lot; it can grow in a window box; it can, for that matter, sprout in a rain gutter or between the cracks in the sidewalk.
Mint really will take over the garden if given a chance. To slow it down, plant it in a one-gallon plastic pot and sink the pot in the ground. The runners will find a way around the pot eventually, but at least you'll have a head start. Give the plant plenty of waterâa perpetually damp spot near a leaky hose bib is perfectâand cut it before it blooms or goes to seed as the offspring tend to revert to a parent strain and won't be nearly as good. The flavor may change as the plant ages, so some gardeners root a runner every few years to replace an older plant.
The mint to grow is spearmint; it has a brightness and sweetness to it that seems to melt into sugar and rum. Look for Mojito Mint or Kentucky Colonel, the variety most favored by Southerners for a mint julep.
Spearmint, also called green mint, comes from central and southern Europe, where it has been cultivated for centuries. Pliny the Elder said that its scent “does stir up the mind.” It also stirs up any number of drinks, adding a green and almost floral note to sweet and fruity cocktails that would otherwise be too cloying.
WALKER PERCY'S MINT JULEP
There are those who believe that a well-constructed mint julep is intended to last all day, that there is no second mint julep, just one large, powerful drink that grows gradually sweeter and more watered down as the ice melts and the sugar and bourbon settle together at the bottom of the glass.
Southern writer Walker Percy insisted that a good julep should hold at least 5 ounces of bourbon, a quantity that sloshes right over anyone's daily limit. This recipe remains true to his vision, but you may use less bourbon if you wish to feel like more of an upstanding citizen.
5 ounces bourbon
Several sprigs fresh spearmint
4 to 5 tablespoons superfine sugar
Crushed ice
Into a silver julep cup, a highball glass, or a Mason jar, press 2 or 3 tablespoons of superfine sugar together with a very small quantity of water, just enough to make a sugary paste. Add a layer of fresh spearmint leaves. Press them gently with a muddler or wooden spoon, but do not smash them. Pile on a layer of fresh finely crushed ice. Mr. Percy prefers that you reduce the ice to powder by wrapping it in a dry towel and banging it with a wooden mallet. To that layer, add a fine sprinkling of sugar and a few more mint leaves that you have spanked, but not crushed, by clapping them loudly between your hands.
Top with another layer of crushed ice and continue in this manner until the glass is so full that it seems that it cannot possibly hold a drop of bourbon. Pour in as much as it will, in fact, hold, which turns out to be right about 5 ounces. Now carry your julep to the porch and remain there until bedtime; there will be nothing else to your day but the slow draining of the glass and the pleasant drone of the cicadas.
