Beverage: A Toast to Good Health

Consumer interest in fresh, good-for-you ingredients is rejiggering bar menus.

By Allison Perlik, Senior Editor -- Restaurants & Institutions, 3/1/2008

Carrot juice meets potato vodka in Room’s Carrot Gingerini.

RECIPE: Dragon Well from Saucebox, Portland, Ore.

RECIPE: Jungle Juice Cocktail from Beleza, Atlanta

In image-conscious Los Angeles, diners are famously devoted to diets that help them stay fit. Fresh, healthful ingredients are the order of the day, not just at meals but in drinks, too—and the latter category includes cocktails.

"People here think about everything that goes into their mouths," says cocktail consultant Ryan Magarian, who designs distinctive libations for Los Angeles-based SBE Entertainment Group, which operates hot spots Katsuya, S Bar and Hyde Lounge.

"I want to keep drinks light, fresh and unexpected."

Given that context, good-for-you ingredients as diverse as açai berries and bell peppers play leading roles in Magarian’s repertoire, lending flavor and flair to signatures such as the Celery Superstar (celery juice, lime juice, serrano chile, vodka and simple syrup, shown at l.) and the Vitamin A (muddled lime, açai juice, simple syrup and blanco or plata tequila).

Yet so-called "healthy cocktails" with ingredients rich in vitamins and other nutrients aren’t just a West Coast trend. Now that just-squeezed fruit juices and fresh-cut garnishes no longer are enough to set operators apart, bartenders increasingly reach for ingredients that pack nutritional punch: vegetables well beyond cucumbers and tomatoes, fruits including melons and blueberries, herbs such as chamomile and lavender, and even "superfoods" such as açai and goji berries.

"There’s a big [trend toward] using healthy ingredients and creating cocktails that not only taste but feel healthy," Magarian says. "They’re not heavy, not coating your tongue, not sticky like a dessert. ... It’s like having a nice, light salad of a cocktail."

For consumers, the appeal of such concoctions clearly can be as much about novelty and taste as it is nutrition, and opinions vary on whether any alcoholic drink can be considered healthful. Still, bartenders say customers are buying in.

A Garden of Ideas

Stephen Kowalczuk, mixologist at contemporary steakhouse Room in Atlanta, says the allure of individuality—along with today’s more health-conscious culture—means customers are more open than ever before to trying drinks such as the Carrot Gingerini (potato vodka, carrot juice and ginger syrup) and the Green Pepper Margarita (silver tequila, green-pepper juice, orange liqueur and lime).

Guests also are intrigued when Kowalczuk adds herbs in unexpected places, drizzling chamomile simple syrup over vodka martinis and lavender-and-red-clover syrup into classic gin versions.

"If you’re daring enough to try unusual ingredients and tell customers it’s absolutely going to be wonderful, they’ll have confidence and try it," he says.

As with any mixer, successfully incorporating uncommon juices, pulps and purées requires a thorough knowledge of spirits and plenty of experimentation to determine what works best.

In the Carrot Gingerini, Kowalczuk matches carrot juice and potato vodka—both earthy flavors—but he notes that carrots’ sweetness also melds well with rich, dark liquors such as cognac. Celery, on the other hand, blends better with botanical-accented gin or more-neutral vodka, neither of which will overpower the vegetable’s delicate flavor.

Magarian, too, looks for corresponding and contrasting notes to balance recipes. For the Vitamin A cocktail, highland-style tequila complements the tart açai juice with its own vivid, fruity profile, while the Celery Superstar uses mud-dled serrano chile to spice up low-key celery juice.

Super Troopers

At Beleza in Atlanta, cocktails share the restaurant’s emphasis on Brazilian influences and natural foods. Mixologist Lindy Colburn uses agave nectar rather than cane sugar as a sweetener, and tropical fruits figure heavily in her drinks.

Colburn calls on acerola, the sweet, tart Brazilian cherries prized for their high vitamin-C content, to flavor a mojito. Antioxidant-rich açai berries headline her house-made energy-drink cocktail, which also includes acerola, citrus juice, organic vodka and guarana (a South American fruit with a high concentration of caffeine) mixed with organic vodka.

Another unique recipe component is soursop, a creamy-fleshed, high-antioxidant fruit also known as guanabana.

"The taste is like a cross between banana and kiwi, but with a floral note in there," says Colburn, who blends the soursop juice with gin, mineral water, fresh citrus juice and elderflower syrup and serves the refreshing quaff on the rocks.

Vegging Out

Perhaps the most-fun example of the collision between healthy dining and cocktails comes from Jack’s Lounge in Louisville, Ky., where bar manager Joy Perrine uses hollowed-out vegetables as a vehicle for savory, house-infused vodkas.

A shooter trio dubbed Veggie Implosions offers a cherry tomato filled with red-pepper-and-lemon vodka, a cucumber with dill-orange vodka and a small potato with rosemary-, garlic-, lemon- and peppercorn-infused vodka.

"You see fruits like pineapples and coconuts filled with sweet drinks, so I thought, why not do vegetables with savory drinks?" Perrine says.

The vegetables, cut flat on the bottom to sit sturdily on the plate, vary seasonally. Some, such as cucumbers and tomatoes, are served raw; the potatoes are fully cooked.

"We wanted to do a drink and hors d’oeuvres together, something that can be passed, that you don’t need a knife and fork to eat," she says. "You just take a sip, roll it in salt and pepper, and pop it in your mouth."