Edible Cocktails: From Garden to Glass - Seasonal Cocktails with a Fresh Twist [Paperback]

Natalie Bovis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 2012

Cocktails good enough to eat!

Your favorite food is fresh, local, and homemade—and now your cocktails can be, too!

Whether you're plucking fresh mint from your own garden or buying buckets of juicy blackberries from the farmers' market, taking these inspiring ingredients from garden to glass is what Edible Cocktails is all about. And mixing unique, delicious drinks like a Lavender Gin Sour or a Basil Grass Lemon Drop is easier than you think. Just try the following:

• Plant your own cocktail garden"
• Utilize seasonal, fresh farmers' market finds or pluck tasty treasures in the wild
• Infuse spirits and make homemade liqueurs
• Create homemade syrups, purees, and jams
• Use eggs, dairy, and even meat in your cocktail for modern mixology explorations

With full-color photographs and more than 100 cocktail recipes, you'll be infusing your life—and your cocktails!&151;with wholesome and homegrown ingredients in no time.

"

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Featured Recipe: Singing Pear

This sparkling cocktail is floral and fruity but not overly sweet. The floral notes in the elderflower liqueur are particularly nice with pear.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 ounce pear nectar (or 1/4 fresh, ripe pear that can be muddled into the cocktail glass with the lemon juice before adding the alcohol)
• 1/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
• 1 ounce cachaça
• 1/2 ounce elderflower liqueur
• Pinch nutmeg
• 2 ounces sparkling wine
• Lemon twist

Directions:

Shake all ingredients, except sparkling wine and lemon twist, with ice. Strain into a champagne flute, top with bubbly. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Review

Cheers for teaching how to plant a 'cocktail garden' from 'seedling to first sip' and use fresh farmers' market ingredients." --USA Today

"Bovis' guide contains over 150 recipes...sure to impress any guest. Sure there are millions of cookbooks and cocktail recipes out there, but Bovis' book is a new twist. Her eco-conscious and organic focus helps the aspiring bartender within us to understand what is going into the cocktails we all love to indulge." --Drink Me magazine

"Natalie Bovis is known for making some of the most delectable drinks on the planet and the ones she's included herein are no exception. As more and more bartenders are looking to craft bespoke ingredients for their cocktails, this volume will prove a great launching point. Detailed instructions on how to make your own syrups, jams, jellies, shrubs, infusions, liqueurs, bitters, mixers and garnishes provide a wealth of invaluable information for anyone looking to make the leap beyond pre-bottled ingredients." --in the Mix Magazine

"I truly appreciate [the author's] 'tools of the trade' where she shows what is needed before you try to mix up all this amazing deliciousness. These recipes are definitely more creative than the other cocktail books out there." - Sew Craft Table

"

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Adams Media; Original edition (April 15, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1440529728
• ISBN-13: 978-1440529726
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 0.8 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #130,778 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Gardening and creative cocktails! April 13, 2012

By Shala Kerrigan TOP 50 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Edible Cocktails: From Garden to Glass- Seasonal Cocktails with a Fresh Twist by Natalie Bovis proves once again that not only is gardening, working with compost, and going to farmer's markets a very sustainable way of life, it can also be very trendy and edgy. These recipes are sure to impress.

The introduction chapters are dense with information. You'll learn about the supplies you need to properly mix drinks, a bit about various alcohols, the types of spices you'll want to have on hand, and the sorts of things you can grow in your garden with gardening tips. It also talks briefly about farmers markets.

When I was tending bar, one of the other bartenders would make grow and pickle beans to put into Bloody Marys. That was a great idea, but this volume eclipses that by so much. There are savory drinks with specialty salt rims, sweet drinks that mix fresh fruit with good quality alcohol and drinks that combine flavors in wonderful ways.

It's not all alcoholic drinks though. There are also recipes for making different flavored syrups, jams, marmalade and other things using a garden bounty or what's in season at the supermarket. Agua Fresca and garnish recipes and ideas like candied limes can pair for non-alcoholic drinks for designated drivers and minors.

I love the creative flavors and ideas. There are several recipes for using meat in cocktails which is not something you'd ever expect, but bacon lovers would appreciate the novelty of the Bacon Cherry Creek Cocktail which combines a smoked bacon washed bourbon with a cherry cinnamon syrup (both recipes are in the book). For fresh, fruity flavors, you can't beat the peach puree Whiskey Bellini recipe.

If there is one thing that I don't like about this volume is that there aren't any mocktail recipes for non-drinkers. However, there were recipes my daughter would like to try that are non-alcoholic. She's wild for Roy Rogers, and loves the idea of making her own grenadine syrup. The chapter on jams, jellies and purees starts with instructions for making your own pectin from scratch using apples and the recipes use homemade pectin.

This is a book that makes me crave a large kitchen, and several evenings with good friends.
[I received a complimentary copy of the book to review on my craft blog- Don't Eat the Paste. My reviews are always my honest opinion]

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A great supporting player for your mixology skills August 7, 2012

By Graves VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

In "Edible Cocktails" Natalie Bovis has not created another great bar book full of nice drinks, she's created a cook book that can go with any other decent mixology tome.

A great many bar drinks today talk about adding syrups or other flavors to the liquors to alter their flavor but this can often send the reader out looking for these flavor agents. Although there are drink recipes in Bovis' book what stands out are the recipes for just these flavor agents: shrubs, puree's, mixes, jams & jellies (yes they are different), Syrups etc and how to infuse flavors into liquors.All are clearly laid out with explanation how to make, store and use them. More than just a book for the bar I found myself thinking of uses for some of these items in desserts and soups.

In the end this is not so much a bar book that can stand on its own. In that way it falls flat, like the great supporting actor who can't carry as the lead in a film but like the great supporting film actor it is well enough written and flexible enough to add to any other bar book you should have, making it better and easier to work with.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Innovative seasonal cocktails April 9, 2013

By Chicago Book Addict TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

If you love seasonal cooking and home mixology this is the perfect cookbook.

First, it's very comprehensive. You get recipes but you also get some great chapters on basics like mixology and gardening. This makes it a resource in addition to a cookbook, which I appreciated.

And the recipes themselves are great. There is a good range of more classic cocktails like the Sidecar, Pisco Sour, and Classic Martini as well as drinks that feel special and innovative. The book also gives you recipes both for the drinks themselves and the syrups, jams & jellies, purees, mixers and garnishes you will need to make them. There are also some fun infusion recipes including a whole section on meat-infused mixology! I will admit the latter was a surprise because I assumed the book would have a lot of recipes for seasonal produce, but meat-based items never even came to mind. Given the popularity of bacon right now I'm sure that the Smoked-Bacon Washed Bourbon will be favorite. Sure you could play around on your own, but the author's recipe is well-tested and saves the potentially wasted ingredients from experimenting. I also think that beyond making drinks in your own kitchen the infusions are great for gift giving. I know a lot of people who would be excited to receive some homemade Orange-Coffee Liqueur or Homemade Irish Cream.

That said there were a few things that would have made this book even better. The first would be more cocktail recipes. The book was very heavy on recipes for drink components which made me wish for a few more drink recipes. The second is I would have love more recipes that can be batch made or more instructions on which individual cocktails can be made well in pitcher version. This isn't just an issue with this book but with most cocktail books I've used. While I love the recipes that are here they aren't always practical for entertaining because I don't want to serve as party bartender all night long.

Those comments aside I still think this is a really fantastic book. The drink recipes are really unique and I love being able to serve my guests things that are nearly 100% scratch made. If you like this book I also recommendMix Shake Stir: Recipes from Danny Meyer's Acclaimed New York City Restaurants. Though it isn't as focused as starting with local ingredients the cocktails are seasonally based and also very delicious.