Creating a Cocktail Garden

[Mjx]

For the last few months I’ve been playing with the idea of a cocktail garden: sort of like an herb garden, but with plants you use fresh, in cocktails and other mixed drinks.

A couple of weeks ago, while visiting some friends, we ended up discussing this idea over a pitcher of mojitos, which was followed by their giving me a birthday present that included a lovely little lime tree in bloom, and a couple of the most fragrant mint plants I’ve ever come across: a fledgling mojito garden.

I’d love to take this further, but I’m been stymied by being unable to think of any other fresh plants that are regularly used in cocktails (presumably because I know next to nothing about cocktails), but I’m sure there must be quite a few.

If you were given free rein to grow (or have someone grow for you, if gardening is not your thing) your personal supply of fresh botanical ingredients for your favourite cocktails, what would you plant?

[FrogPrincesse]

Michaela,

I would plant plenty of citrus trees: lime, lemon, orange, grapefruit. Also other more exotic varieties of citrus such as bergamot or Seville oranges. Peach and cherry trees. Mint obviously. Borage for Pimm's Cups. A hive for honey. Ginger. Cucumbers. Chiles. Hibiscus. An olive tree. Blackberry/raspberry bushes for cobblers. I hope you have a big garden!

There is a book called the Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart that seems to be right up your alley. Lots of good ideas on her website regarding herbs and plants.

Edited June 18, 2013 by FrogPrincesse (log)

[Mjx]

FrogPrincesse, thank you, that is absolutely brilliant. And overwhelming; I've not the slightest clue as to what cocktails most of those would be used for (although I'm fairly certain a lot would be used for liqueurs/extracts, rather than [just] in their raw state)!

[ChrisTaylor]

You could get a lot of mileage with just the choice and peel before you even got into DIY liqueurs and syrups. Citrus juice is used in a lot of cocktails: lime and lemon especially, although orange and grapefruit juice also have their place. Lemon and, to a lesser extent, orange (and to an even lesser extent grapefruit) are common garnishes in cocktails. And the olive tree? Martinis! And we're still well within the realm of classic cocktails here. Nothing beta cocktails-style outlandish. This is the sort of project that, yeah, would be more about trees than shrubs. Of course, given your fondness for sweet stuff, a collection of citrus trees would be wonderfully versatile.

[Plantes Vertes]

I would suggest a money tree so you can move to a hot country and buy a greenhouse...

But in the meantime (I think you live in Denmark? So a fairly cool climate...) you could also grow some cucumbers for garnishes, rhubarb and strawberries for shrubs, blackberries for cassis, sloes and damsons for gin drinks, apples for garnishes and juice, juniper of course and honeysuckle, angelica, orris root, lavender and rosemary, chamomile, caraway, fennel, thyme and coriander for your house gin and for bitters, also gentian for bittering, with artichoke you can make Cynar, then you want Maraschino cherries, elderflowers, lemon verbena, lemon thyme...