Hi, Friends of Cocktails! Green Cocktails were a big thing in the 80s, thanks to melon liqueur, but today I’ll show you a more “crafty” approach to making green, flavorful, and balanced cocktails. These will be suitable for modern cocktail bars and home mixologists, and the secret is in fig, mint, and basil tintures, all with zero artificial coloring added. It’s a simple process and the tinctures will actually keep their vibrant color thanks to the alcohol content.
We’ll also use our 3 tinctures to make 3 cocktails with 3 different spirits. But first, the idea for this actually came from a Friend of Cocktails, Ruben Neideck, head bartender at the Velvet Bar in Berlin, where, according to their Instagram page, they mix with plants the local seasons provide. I hope I’ll get a chance to visit the bar soon. , but meanwhile we’ll get to try some of their cocktails, including the drink called the Fig Leaf using fig tincture.
We’ll only needt two ingredients, fig leaves and 96% alcohol, but I figured why stop there, so we’ll do mint and basil as well, using the same recipe. And just like when making Limoncello, the high proof alcohol is essential, here for more than one reason. Firstly, it will extract almost all of the aroma and color from the leaves in the form of chlorophyll, but the high ABV will actually keep it bright green as well by preventing the enzymatic browning reaction that would usually turn green extracts brown.
So that means no need for blanching. All we need then is a sous vide to say “It’s Cocktail Time”.
Green Tincture
● 200mL · 6.66oz 96% Grain Alcohol
● 33g Mint, Basil or Fig Leaves
Start by cutting up the leaves to increase the surface area and to make it easier for alcohol to pull out the chlorophyll. For the basil and mint I’ll first pull the leaves from the stems, but the fig leaves can be chopped whole. Now place that in the sous vide bag along with the alcohol, then carefully seal the bag, trying to release as much air from the bag as possible before doing so. And making a double seal is always a good idea here.
You’ll see the liquid turning green, but the real magic will happen in the sous vide bath. You’ll want that to get up to 60°C or 140°F before you place the bags in for 2 hours. Make sure you don’t have the bags floating on the surface, so weigh them down if needed. After 2 hours it’s time to strain out the leaves with a coffee filter.
I’ll be storing these in my dasher bottles, because a few dashes of these tinctures will be enough to give a nice color and flavor profile to your cocktails. You should be aware that while there’s plenty of flavors in our tinctures, they’re not really suitable for batched cocktails. That’s because they will start browning once diluted, so use them fresh, like we’ll do right now for our three cocktails, starting with the Mint Drop.
Mint Drop
● 60mL · 2oz Bourbon
● 22.5mL · 0.75oz Lemon Juice
● 22.5mL · 0.75oz Simple Syrup
● 5 dashes Mint Green Tincture
● 2 drops 20% Saline Solution
Add the ingredients into a chilled shaker, along with plenty of ice, then shake hard to chill and dilute. While there’s no small parts of mint leaves in here, I’ll still double strain this cocktail, to keep out any small parts of ice. I’m serving this up, into a coupe glass. Garnish with a small mint leaf and that’s the Mint Drop. Let’s give it a taste, before we make the Basil cocktail!
It’s minty, citrusy, fresh, and a lot easier to make than the Bourbon Smash. You could make the Mint Drop with gin as well, but maybe go for lime juice instead of lemon if you do. Speaking of gin, I’ll use it in the second cocktail, with basil tincture, and some other fun ingredients. Let’s make the Basil Balm Cocktail.
Basil Balm
● 45mL · 1.5oz Gin
● 15mL · 0.5oz Shochu
● 22.5mL · 0.75oz Simple Syrup
● 22.5mL · 0.75oz Lemon Super Juice
● 16 dashes Basil Green Tincture
● 2 drops 20% Saline Solution
Same as before, add the ingredients into a chilled shaker and shake to chill and dilute. This will open up the herbal flavors even more, and all that’s left is to double strain, this time into a rocks glass over a clear ice cube. Garnish with a basil leaf, of course, and that’s the Basil Balm. Two down, one to go. This one is herbal, citrusy, bright, and clean - and way quicker than a Gin Basil Smash.
For the third cocktail, I could make the Fig Leaf, but you can find that recipe on the Velvet Bar’s instagram, so give them a follow and see it for yourself. So let’s make something a bit different. I’m calling this Figment of Your Imagination. To make it I'll mix light rum, acidified wine, gomme syrup, our fig tincture, some saline solution and soda water.
Figment of Your Imagination
● 45mL · 1.5oz Light Rum
● 15mL · 0.5oz Acidified Wine
● 15mL · 0.5oz Gomme Syrup
● 100g Soda Water
● 8 dashes Fig Leaf Green Tincture
● 2 drops 20% Saline Solution
We’ll build this one right in the glass, so grab a chilled highball glass, add a clear ice spear or some ice cubes and add the ingredients, remembering to keep the soda for last. Now give everything a quick stir with a bar spoon, and garnigh using a tiny fig leaf - or you can cut a small piece from a bigger one. Then, enjoy the Figment of Your Imagination. Cheers.
Nutty, refreshing and quite complex for a highball. Best cocktail of the day in my opinion, but with that we’ve reached the Bottom of The Glass. Before I go I’ll just remind you that you can use fig leaves for more than just tinctures.They are commonly used as a wrap for cooking meat, fish, or rice dishes, plus a few other uses, which I mention in this post, where I made a Fig & Cream Soda and used it for a wonderful highball cocktail. Until next time, cheers Friends of Cocktails.