It's January and the nation's on a collective health kick, so it's no wonder restaurants are offering new creations made with ingredients like quinoa, celery, kale, wheatgrass, beetroot and fennel.
But forget salads, these nutritious foods play a lead role in the latest cocktail trend.
Drinks are renowned for often being filled with hidden calories but this new generation of superfood-boosted cocktails are packed full of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals.
These superfood boosted cocktails are packed full of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals
As sugar-loaded syrups and infusions usually play a key role in making cocktails taste good, it’s no wonder so many people steer clear of them during January.
Recently however there has been a surge in healthy alcoholic concoctions.
Belvedere vodka’s Claire Smith created a range of low-fructose, low alcohol cocktails that substitute coconut cream with coconut water and contain kale juice and basil leaves.
Her Pina-Kale-Ada also has pineapple juice, lemon juice and vodka.
But it’s not just the spirit companies who want to jump on the trend.
Throughout January, Marcus Wareing’s Tredwell’s restaurant, London, will team up with cold-pressed, organic juice and smoothie company BoBo’s Juicery, to offer a range of healthy cocktails.
The specially created virtuous drinks, priced at £8.50, will sit alongside the regular cocktail list throughout the month.
Made from a base of BoBo’s juices the cocktails will include the Strength-Giving Gimlet (gin, ginger, pineapple, wheatgrass) and the Hail Mary (vodka, beetroot, carrot, coriander, fennel, lime, parsley, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, and celery stick to garnish).
Treacle Edinburgh's Blueberry and Sage shrub has preserved blueberries macerated in cider vinegar
For those bending the rules in Dry January, London's Tozi restaurant offers the Celery Cure cocktail, £9, to banish the blues and keep the calories down.
Vegetarian restaurant Ethos, in central London, offers two vegetable-based brews, Sweet Pea (made with sugar snap peas and vodka) and Rum Remedy (sweet peppers, rum, basil, chilli and lime juice), both costing £7.50.
In Edinburgh, Treacle Bar and Kitchen's Root Ginger Smash with rum is made with honey, lemon and hot water while their Beetroot Smash, full of antioxidants and beneficial phytonutrients contains fresh beetroot, cassis, apple juice and Jack Daniels.
In London's Canary Wharf, Plateau Restaurant's Fair.ly Genuine is a low-calorie cocktail made with quinoa-based vodka, kiwi and cucumber, which is available until the end of the month
Made from seven-year aged Flor De Cana Rum, the Baobab Chika Wow Wow, £10, at Tanya's at MyHotel Chelsea's contains organic raspberry, cinnamon, agave, banana and sparkling water.
The Cadogan Arms in Chelsea is serving the Americano Revisited for £9.50 which is made with Kamm & Sons, Belsazar White vermouth, grapefruit bitters and soda. While in Tower Bridge, TwoRuba's Sweet 'n' Sake, £11, has apple, lime juice, kumquats and vodka.
HEALTHY COCKTAILS PACKED WITH VEGETABLES AND SUPERFOODS
Ethos's sweetpea cocktail has sugar snap peas
SWEET PEA
Ingredients: 50ml vodka; 100g sugar snap peas; 15ml sugar syrup; 5ml lime juice
Method: Muddle the peas with the sugar syrup and lime juice, add vodka and ice. Shake vigorously. Double strain and serve in a martini glass with a sugar snap pea garnish.
RUM REMEDY
Ingredients: 50ml rum; 15ml sugar syrup; 5ml lime juice; handful of basil leaves; half heaped tea spoon finely chopped chilli, one small sweet pepper.
Method: Muddle the basil, pepper, chilli with lime and sugar syrup. Add rum, shake vigorously and double strain into a martini glass. Garnish with a small chilli pepper.
CELERY CURE
Ingredients: 50ml Finlandia vodka; 25ml lemon juice; 20ml celery syrup (celery, sugar, water); celery stick
Method: Make the celery syrup by simmering equal parts diced celery, sugar and water in a pan for five minutes and then strain. Place ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice, muddle with celery, shake, double strain in to martini glass. Garnish with a curl of celery.
BLUEBERRY AND SAGE SHRUB
A shrub is a method of preserving fruit with an acid. It’s a fairly versatile process and can be twisted with different fruits and vinegars to suit the seasons. It is a great way to have drinks for a party as most of the preparation is done in advance. Feel free to play around with fruits and berries. Pineapple and mango make a great shrub in summer months and can be paired with rum or bourbon.
Method to make the shrub: Add equal measures of blueberries and caster sugar to a large kilner jar or any container with a lid. Glass is best here as plastics will stain. Leave to macerate for one week. Add five or six sage leaves and equal parts (to the sugar) of cider vinegar. Again allow to macerate for one week, then it’s ready to use.
Tozi's Celery Cure made with celery syrup
Cocktail ingredients: 35ml gin (Portobello Road Gin); 50ml cider vinegar; 37.5ml Blueberry and Sage Shrub
Method: Add the gin, cider vinegar and the shrub to a glass or jam jar. Half fill with crushed iced and mix with a bar spoon until the glass starts to frost. Fill the rest of the glass with crushed ice. Garnish with a couple of blueberries and a sage leaf.
BEETROOT SMASH
Ingredients: One pickled beetroot (use other half for garnish); 10ml Crème de Cassis; 25ml Jack Daniels; 25ml fresh lemon; 25ml apple juice; 12.5ml sugar syrup; one egg white; lemon wedge to garnish
Method: Roughly dice half the beetroot and smash with a wooden muddler in the bottom of a cocktail shaker. Hold other half of beetroot back as a garnish. Add the Jack Daniels, lemon juice, apple juice, sugar syrup and egg white to the beetroot. Shake quickly without any ice. Add ice and shake hard in order to mix in the beetroot. Double strain the cocktail into a tall glass over cubed ice. Garnish with a slice of beetroot and a lemon wedge.
Recipes contributed by Tozi,Treacle and Ethos
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-2903628/The-superfood-cocktails-packed-vitamins-minerals-antioxidants.html#ixzz3OcXGadYT
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