Our friends Matt and Jenny Dorsey have a new book, “Healthy Cocktails,” which includes so many ideas for easy, all-natural, low-sugar, and low-alcohol drinks. Have a calm, cold pick-me-up with some better-for-you booze. We’re staying healthy by drinking our veggies — thanks to the two cocktails below! If peas and carrots aren’t typically your thing, we highly recommend giving them another try.
Carrot juice gives this veggie cocktail a vibrant color, while being slightly heavier to balance out the intensity and directness of London Dry gin. Orange blossom water (a by-product of bitter orange oil production) is a specialty ingredient, popular in the Middle East for its distinctive perfume. We love this beautiful root veggie and its health benefits. With beta carotene, fiber, vitamin K1, potassium, and antioxidants, carrots are packed with good stuff! They take 2-4 months to mature, but spring is the perfect time to plant them, so if you have a full sunlight patch out back, it’s time to prepare your endless supply for this delicious drink.
Ingredients
1 ½oz.London Dry gin
1 ½oz.fresh carrot juice
1oz.fresh orange juice
¾oz.sweet syrup
½oz.fresh lemon juice
3-4drops orange blossom water
Instructions
Combine all ingredients over ice and shake.
Pour into old fashioned glass with a large ice cube.
Garnish with an orange blossom flower, if desired.
Veggie cocktails are meant to evoke the essence of salad in a glass: refreshing, bright, and a little floral — an all-around a feel-good beverage. The use of Old Tom here allows the demure qualities of snap peas to stand out, while providing a supple mouthfeel and adding some body to the otherwise airy note of tarragon. Peas are an excellent source of vitamins and antioxidants, and have a high amount of protein and fiber relative to other vegetables. Late spring is the best time to grow peas, so if this becomes your new favorite drink, get out the gardening gloves and plant your own! There’s little as satisfying as growing cocktail ingredients like this — embrace the green thumb!
Ingredients
4sugar snap pea pods
8-10tarragon leaves
¾oz.sweet syrup
2oz.Old Tom gin
½oz.dry vermouth
Instructions
Muddle snap pea pods, tarragon, and simple syrup in a cocktail shaker.
Add gin and vermouth with ice.
Shake vigorously and double strain into Old-Fashioned glass filled with crushed ice or a large ice cube.
