Allotment cocktails: why 'garden' garnishes are the next big thing in gin

Of all the invitingly inflorescent gardens on display at this year's Chelsea Flower Show, there was one which particularly piqued the imaginations (and the thirst) of those wandering among the anthriscus. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly for such a sun-dappled British event, it was the Silent Pool gin garden, blooming with blue Himalayan poppies, foxgloves and corydalis, as well as five of the botanicals found in the gin: camomile, lavender, rose, orris root and angelica.

Quick to locate the garden and walk the English oak boardwalk to its centre for a gin and tonic were Maureen Lipman, Phillip Schofield, Piers Morgan and Ed Balls; and while it’s unclear whether Her Majesty herself detoured from her 45-minute meander on Tuesday for a quick tipple, she is known to enjoy a gin and dubonnet with ice and lemon before lunch, so there’s a good chance she was tempted. 

The gin boom has never been more buoyant. Last year 47 million bottles of gin, worth £1.2 billion were served, according to the Wine and Spirit Trade Association, and the number of UK distilleries shot to 315, double the number five years ago.

So naturally a gin-themed garden went down a storm. David Neale, director of Neale Richards garden design, was already a fan of Silent Pool, a gin local to his home in Surrey, and worked with them to design an arrangement that would echo the taste of its 24 botanicals.

“It’s a beautiful gin,” he says. “My wife and I started buying it and enjoying a gin and tonic at the end of the day a couple of years ago and the first thing you notice is the bottle – it’s a beautiful teal colour which we tried to reflect in the planting of lots of blues and whites at Chelsea. The other amazing thing about it is that it uses water in the distilling process from the Silent Pool itself, a spring-fed lake at the foot of the North Downs, so we have pools here sprouting Iris fulva.

“Then there are the 24 botanicals – some of them, such as the South African cassia bark, need a very hot climate to grow – but many can be grown easily in the UK. The ‘Place To Grow’ category is all about creating a realistic garden with lots of planting ideas people can take home with them, and some people still don’t know how many of the ingredients in gin can be very easily grown, you just need to know where to plant them.”

Lavender prefers Mediterranean-style conditions with full sun and “free-draining” soil, he explains, whereas camomile (lovely grown in “lawns” for the aroma) and angelica grow better in part shade, so thrive if planted under the canopy of a tree.

“We also wanted to grow lots of pollinating plants, including foxgloves and geum, which give you a great bloom for your buck because they flower for up to six months of the year in wonderful shades of orange and pink,” he says. “Those plants brought wildlife to the garden, which was part of showing how the local honey used in the gin would be made.”

The only thing missing, in fact, was a juniper tree, but that was “far too obvious,” Neale says, and he’s not a fan. “It’s an evergreen with greeny-grey leaves and produces the berries that make gin, but it prefers an acidic-loving soil, which means many other plants can’t be grown near it,” he explains.

To make gin, you take a neutral, often grain-based, spirit and add flavours via botanicals through a re-distillation process: “The definition of gin is that it’s juniper-led, but then gins are constructed like perfumes,” explains Stuart Bale, head of innovation at Silent Pool.

“Distilleries might decide they’d like top notes of lemon verbena, jasmine and honeysuckle, which can all be easily grown in home gardens. Base notes might include Japanese knotweed, giant hogweed, elderflower, fern or mushrooms, so think about your allotment, if you survived the waiting list.”

While you need a license to produce the alcohol itself, the popularity of the Chelsea gin garden is part of an increasing trend for homemade “garden” cocktails.

“It’s field-to-glass drinking,” Bale says. “The drinks world often lags behind the food world with trends but this is the equivalent of nose-to-tail dining, which Fergus Henderson heralded in the late Nineties.”

When it comes to matching ingredients to drinks, try serving a sherry like Harvey’s Bristol Cream with citrus zest, he suggests, or a mushroom (once brined) in a martini for an amazing savoury taste. 

“White port and tonic, which is almost as popular as gin and tonic now, is delightful served with lots of ice, lemon verbena and honeysuckle in the glass, and beetroot works brilliantly in vodka cocktails and gives petrichor and an amazing colour to any drink,” he adds.

Gardener Sarah Raven recommends dropping pretty, blue, edible anchusa azurea flowers into an ice-cube tray before filling with water to jazz-up a gin and tonic. And foraged and home-grown plants, flowers, fruits and vegetables are appearing in glamorous glasses everywhere. In London, Dandelyan, which won “world’s best bar” at last year’s Spirited Awards, recently launched a new menu called “The Modern Life of Plants”. Drinks include sloe and ground ivy, as well as catnip (“which has a spicy, herbal taste”), “creamy” potato syrup and vermouth distilled with pollen.

The bar’s founder, Ryan Chetiyawardana, says: “After you’ve worked out how to use conventional garden plants in drinks – which can so easily be bought from supermarkets and planted – it’s great to try weirder ingredients and skew flavours for more imaginative cocktails.”

Silent Pool Gin Garden

50ml Silent Pool gin

25ml gewürztraminer

Chopped strawberries 

Geranium 

Stir the gin and wine together, then add a large sprig of geranium and as many strawberries as you like to each glass (alternatively make a syrup and add 25ml per glass). Garnish with a slice of grapefruit. 

English Garden by Oriole bar, London

40ml gin

80ml garden passata (blitz cooked cucumber, spring onion, carrots, tomatoes, celery and jalapeno to taste)

35ml piquillo pepper brine

12ml Worcestershire sauce

10ml lemon juice

Mix the ingredients into a tall glass with ice, adding passata to taste, then garnish with parsley or julienne carrots.

Sorrel Chablis by Little Red Door bar, Paris

500ml chablis 

6 large sorrel leaves

150g caster sugar 

Rip the leaves and infuse in the wine for 24 hours in the fridge, before straining out leaves. Add the sugar and gently heat while stirring until dissolved. Chill again and serve over ice.

Pine Whisky by Little Red Door, Paris

500ml Peated Whisky

10g dried pine needles 

Infuse at room temperature for 24 hours, then strain pine needles and enjoy over ice or sip neat.