It’s Pea Time For Cocktails

Springtime often ushers in fresh vegetables in cocktails, but we’re been seeing more drinks that incorporate peas this year. Whether it’s the trend of savory Martinis or people looking for slightly better-for-you beverages or craft mixologists digging into the in-season produce, peas —snap peas in particular — are having a moment.

For instance, the gin-based Oh My Darlin at Barn8 Restaurant & Bourbon Bar in Goshen, KY, uses a sweet pea syrup, along with Lillet Blanc, strawberry and lime, and is garnished with pea shoots. A Sweet Pea Margarita from Gran Coramino tequila uses a sweet pea and pineapple syrup made with frozen peas.

Oh My Darlin

Chez Noir in Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA, offers a Snap Pea Rickey as well as Snap Pea Ranch Water, both created by assistant general manager and bar manager Ashley Havens. For the Snap Pea Ranch Water, she blends crunchy sugar snap peas in floral Lillet for the base with a splash of blanco tequila to add to the green vegetal notes of the cocktail. It’s topped with club soda and rimmed with a combination of dehydrated pea pulp and salt.

True Laurel, a hyperlocal, sustainability-focused restaurant in San Francisco, offers the fresh and herbaceous Peacasso every spring, as soon as snap peas start to flourish. True Laurel’s bar director Nicolas Torres, inspired by a dive-bar-hopping adventure across Copenhagen, wanted to recreate the flavors he loved from local aquavits he sampled.

Torres worked with a local farmer to create a house aquavit. This base spirit is infused with fresh dill, toasted carraway, lemon peel, fennel seed and star anise, then mixed with snap peas, Solera Garnatxa (an oxidized wine from Catalunya), citrus and flat tonic. 

“For the snap peas, we want the bright green taste as well as the stewed pea flavor,” says Torres. “So we cook down some snap peas in syrup, let that cool, then add fresh snap peas and blitz it really quick to get a full ranged syrup.” A deconstructed snap pea garnish, styled atop one large ice cube to resemble a face, pays homage to Picasso’s cubism era. 

Rhubarb, an Appalachian-rooted, seasonally driven restaurant in Asheville, NC, offers the Snap To It, made with gin, a snap pea syrup, Dolin Genepy and lemon juice. “In addition to highlighting the versality of snap peas, this cocktail was also intended to spotlight Chemist gin, which is made here in Asheville,” says J Adams, Rhubarb’s beverage director and front-of-house manager. “It pairs well with the herbal components of the Genepy as well as the hints of anise from a spray of atomized absinthe.”

Mixologist Kevin Cabrey at Paseo Bistro in Mill Valley, CA, lightly muddles fresh pea shells in Gray Whale gin and infuses it for 15 minutes. It’s mixed with Lillet Blanc, Chareau aloe vera liqueur, Cointreau, Meyer lemon juice and egg white to make the Green Goddess cocktail (shown atop). For the bruleed snap pea garnish, he soaks a pea shell in agave for a few minutes than lightly torch until sugar caramelizes.

And at Chicago’s new Dearly Beloved, opening this week, mixologist Aneka Saxon incorporates fresh sugar snap peas in the Glendalough wild botanical gin for 24 hours to impart a garden fresh aroma, as well as exposing increased vegetal notes in the spirit. “I use it in Waiting for the Moon as the heart of this drink,” she says. “The sugar-snap-pea addition provides a beautiful contrast with the cheese cracker garnish. This drink pulls your palate back and forth between vegetal and savory while you enjoy it.”

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