World Cocktail Day - Celebrating the Cocktail and all its forms!

There are two sides to Everleaf – the plants, botany & conservation side, and the flavour, texture & aroma side – the botanicals and the bars. The two are inextricably linked, but this post leans very heavily to the drinks side!  

World Cocktail Day

May 13th brings us World Cocktail Day, marking the anniversary of the first published definition of a cocktail - May 13th 1806 - in The Balance and Columbian Repository, a New York newspaper. Do look up the full thing if you’re interested (apparently, they render the heart stout!), but the essentials are that a cocktail should contain spirits of any kind, sugar, water and bitters. In that respect, I suppose you could call our Everleaf flavours cocktails in their own right – we use all those things – distilled ingredients, bitter macerations and infusions, water and a touch of sugar to balance it all out, but Everleaf is also a cocktail component. In its simplest form, we always recommend serving 1 part Everleaf to 3 parts light tonic as a spritz. However, the complex flavours of our three varieties absolutely lend themselves to experimentation, whether it’s pulling out the soft chamomile or bright fennel notes from Forest, the spicy immortelle or sweet strawberry from Mountain, or the savoury olive and thyme from Marine. There’s a lot to discover if you play around!

So to celebrate World Cocktail Day, check out some of our recipes on the website here, or have a look at the incredible entries in our recent Spritz Competition on instagram.

Everleaf Forest Non-Alcoholic Espresso Martini

This plucky cocktail was born in 1980s London and has been vanquishing post-dinner slumps ever since. We suggest our version with Everleaf Forest is even tastier than the original.

Ingredients: 50ml Everleaf Forest, 50ml espresso orcold brew coffee, 15ml sugar syrup

Method: Combine in a cocktail tin & shake with ice, strain into a coupette. Garnish with three coffee beans.

Everleaf Mountain Non-Alcoholic Negroni Sbagliato

The Negroni Sbagliato has enjoyed a wave of glory in recent years, it’s the ideal middle ground between a refreshing spritz and a bittersweet Negroni.

Ingredients: 50ml Everleaf Mountain, 10ml Everleaf Forest, dash of non-alcoholic bitters, splash of non-alcoholic sparkling wine (or kombucha).

Method: Build all the ingredients in a rocks glass over a large ice cube, stir and garnish with orange slices.

Everleaf Marine Non-Alcoholic Mojito

A refreshing blend of lime juice, mint leaves, and sugar, complemented by the effervescence of soda water. Think of Havana street parties (or brunch next week) and get mixing.

Ingredients: 50ml Everleaf Marine, 15ml Lime juice, 10ml Sugar syrup, 10 Mint leaves, Soda

Method: Build in a highball glass with crushed ice, churn briefly, top with soda. Garnish with mint bouquet.