Grow Your Own Cocktail

After clocking eight hours in office, grumbling for an hour in standstill traffic and spending two hours helping her children with homework, it takes Priya Mansingh only ten minutes to put together everything needed for an impromptu girls-night-in with her friends. She mixes fresh peaches with champagne for festive Bellinis, garnishes shimmering red Cosmopolitans with delicate nasturtiums, steeps elderflower in sugar for a simple cordial, and tops off a homemade berry smoothie with pineapple sage stems. But the star of her party remains her signature gin-and-tonic with a cucumber Mexican sour gherkin. The same size as an olive, gherkins are the latest addition to her ever-expanding cocktail garden box.

“I have been gardening for the last 20 years. I read about cocktail gardens online and it was a sudden inspiration for me to try a new project. I might not be able to distill the actual alcohol, but I can grow my own garnishes, herbs, fruits and vegetables. Technically, almost anything can make it to a cocktail,” says the 41-year-old lawyer from Bengaluru. “Let’s be serious, wouldn’t you just love to end a really hectic week with a glass of vodka flavoured with freshly-plucked sweet strawberries? A few plants and a bottle or two can make life so much easier.”

With a surge in availability of specialty seeds, temperature-controlled mini greenhouses and garden landscaping services, home owners have started experimenting furiously with the once- forgotten kitchen garden. Forget the occasional pot of oregano, tulsi, curry patta and thyme—the adventurous now opt for different kinds of berries, chives, lemon, lavender, tomatoes and rhubarb.

Says Anubhav Malhotra, who runs Garden Homes, a landscaping firm in Mumbai, “Cocktail gardens used to be known as ‘mint beds’, since it was the most popular and easy herb to grow for drinks. But keeping a small mint [plant] to garnish your juleps is old news. Today there are at least 40 to 50 new varieties of imported seeds and equipment being added to the market every month. So why stick to the boring? If you want to be really adventurous, then try a spicy Virgin Mary made with your tomatoes or garnish summer drinks with frilly marigold petals and crystalised lavender. The home garden market has drastically changed and one must keep up with the new trends.”

Growing interest in garden-to-glass cocktails also spells good news for beverage trainers like 34-year-old Dhruv Chadha in Delhi. He is ecstatic to find more and more people opting to make their own drinks at home. “I think it’s great that there is interest in basic mixology and homemade cocktails. While going out to drink is fun, making your own drinks at home has its own special charm. Not only is it less costly, drinking anything that is made from scratch always leaves a better impression on guests,” he says. “And it really isn’t all that difficult or time consuming. I would suggest keeping a basic bar which is stocked with some inexpensive wine for sangrias, a good bottle of flavourless vodka, one bottle of dark rum, some glasses, a strainer, ice bucket and cocktail shaker. This will give you plenty of opportunities to play around with flavours and garnishes— depending on the season.”

Laurent Guichoux, academic director of Vatel School of Hospitality in India, agrees that domestic cocktail-making is a trend that’s here to stay. “On one hand, we have a lot of interest for professional careers in the beverage industry. But we also find that people are equally enthusiastic about making cocktails and other drinks for their friends and family. A course in beverages will teach you everything you need to know about ingredients, sourcing, preparation and presentation. And it goes beyond just alcohol-including smoothies, cold-pressed juices, mocktails and shakes. It is something that anyone can learn. For some, it is even relaxing— vent out all your anger on the cocktail shaker,” he jokes.

While making cocktails might be a walk in the park for some, is keeping a garden full of fresh supplies equally simple? Sriram Aravamudan, director of My Sunny Balcony in Bengaluru, explains what it takes to start off your own herb patch. “My first recommendation is to understand the climate of your city and your budget. If you have time and resource, then professional help is worth it. Else start with something small, like a box full of fresh herbs, spring flowers and simple fruits from your local plant nursery. There are a lot of magazines such as BBC Gardeners’ World or websites online that can provide information on what plants grow under what conditions. My top advice is to water regularly and adequately. Never over-water a plant, especially small delicate herbs and flowers. A lot of people feel the more you water, the better the plant grows. That is really not true,” says Aravamudan. “There has definitely been an increase in customer interest with regards to kitchen and herb gardens. Some want a large-scale operation with a greenhouse, fountains and even scarecrows. Others are happy with a few boxes, planters or window hangers full of herbs and small plants,” he adds.

According to Malhotra, dividing your garden into categories makes planting and growing much easier. “Gardens are like homes: you need some amount of planning and upkeep. For a basic cocktail garden, I recommend categorising your plants based on use. For example, one batch of plants for simple sugar syrups such as Thai basil, orange mint, aniseed flavoured herbs and rose-scented geraniums. You can also keep a gin garden with cucumbers, basil, lemon thyme, Cuban mint, cilantro and rosemary. Flowers make great garnishes and lavender, rose and petunia are good options. If you have land, then an orchard with apple, orange, mango and lemon trees is a great idea. Else, miniature fruit plants can be kept in a smaller garden,” he says. And the cost for all this? “Anything between Rs 1,000 for a small box of herbs to Rs 8,000 for exotic herbs and imported fruits to Rs 1 lakh for orchards and large-scale landscaped gardens. It really depends on your requirements and availability of space,” replies Malhotra.

For Athreya Chidambi, c0-founder at My Sunny Balcony, everything is ultimately a matter of your own taste and effort. “Planting a plant is the simpler part. Choosing, watering and nurturing it is where hard work really comes into play. Growing any kind of garden is not difficult, it requires understanding, patience and sustained effort,” he says.

With nurseries and landscaping firms now rolling out novelty items such as ‘a garden in a box’, ‘seed paper’ (paper which once planted grows into a herb or small shrub), natural pesticides, garden watering services and a huge variety of imported seeds, there’s plenty for home gardeners like Mansingh to be excited about. “Once in a while, I like to save a bit of money and then splurge it on some exotic plant or seed. Right now I am keeping my eye out for Spanish tomatoes. My family likes to make fun of my ‘obsession’ with plants. They often joke that gardening has become my version of retail therapy,” she concludes.

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