Agave y Sandia
1.5 oz 100% agave tequila .5 oz Combier or another orange liqueur 4-5 chunks fresh watermelon ¼ fresh lime 3-4 sprigs‘Margarita’ spearmint or rosemary Optional: fresh jalapeño slice Reserve a chunk of watermelon or herb sprig for garnish. Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker and crush with a muddler or wooden spoon, being sure to release all the watermelon juice. Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Add garnish.
Read MoreRosemary-Ginger Cocktail
1.5 oz vodka .25 oz ginger liqueur (see note) 1 lemon wedge Sprig of rosemary For the most rosemary-ish possible cocktail, pour the vodka into a cocktail shaker and muddle (crush) the rosemary, then cap it and let it sit for an hour or two. This only works if you start early, so otherwise, combine the vodka, ginger liqueur, juice from the lemon wedge, and most of the rosemary in a cocktail shaker, muddle, shake vigorously over ice, and strain into a cocktail glass using a fine mesh strainer to keep out the herbal bits. Garnish with the rest of the rosemary sprig. (Note: Add more...
Read MoreGrow Your Own: The Heart of Agave Tequila Garden
Tequila! I could go for some right now. So of course, the folks at Log House Plants also put together a collection of plants based around the flavors in tequila. They’re a wholesale nursery, so they’re growing the plants for sale at retail garden centers and gourmet grocery stores on the West Coast. Look for them in your local indie garden center/grocery store, or order them online from the Territorial Seed Company, who has joined in this effort and put together a great collection of cocktail-friendly plants and seeds. Here are the plants in our Heart of Agave Tequila...
Read MoreHerbalicious
It is with great excitement that I report to you on the arrival of a new gin, a gin that cannot even properly be called gin because its predominant flavor is not juniper but—are you ready? Sage. That’s right. Sage. It comes from the same clever people at Art in the Age who brought us Root, a liqueur inspired by traditional Pennsylvania Dutch recipes for root beer and birch bark beer. They also make a ginger liqueur called Snap, and a rhubarb concoction called Rhubarb Tea, made in honor of early American botanist and friend of the founding fathers John Bartram. Intriguing, right? ...
Read MoreHerbs. Now.
Buying herbs at the grocery store is a sign of defeat. Not defeat, even, because defeat would suggest that you tried and failed. It’s more like inertia. Because really, if you can’t grow a few herbs, you have just given up on having any kind of interaction with the plant kingdom or the parcel of soil around your home. This is the year to change that, and the reason to make that change is because there are so many very nice cocktails that just require a pinch of some herb or another. A cocktail should be an impulsive decision, one that doesn’t require a trip to the grocery store. If...
Read MoreRosemary
If you live in our mild West Coast climate, rosemary is practically a weed. Just buy a plant and stick it in the ground and you’ll have it forever. In fact, it takes temperatures below about -20F to kill it. Look for the upright form of rosemary, not the trailing groundcover variety. The favorites among chefs are ‘Barbeque‘ or ‘Tuscan Blue’, with wide, aromatic leaves, ‘Roman Beauty’, a compact variety bred to have higher essential oil content (also sold as ‘Chef’s Choice’), and ‘Arp’, which is the most cold-hardy of the bunch. If you’re really...
Read MoreBooks by Amy Stewart
The Drunken Botanist
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