Shake up your bar routine with a microgreens cocktail that tastes fresh, looks vibrant, and uses the same greens you grow for salads. This garden gimlet pairs gin or vodka with a bright microgreens syrup made from spicy salad mix or pea shoots for peppery citrusy notes.
The color is vivid and the flavor clean, so it plays beautifully with lime, cucumber, or herbal accents. Use harvest trimmings, reduce waste, and wow guests with a farm to glass highlight any night.
Follow the simple steps, batch for parties, and garnish with a tuft of greens for a crisp, photogenic finish.
Name
Microgreens Garden Gimlet
Yield
1 cocktail
Time
5 minutes active
30 minutes to make syrup ahead
Glass
Chilled coupe or Nick and Nora
Equipment
Shaker, jigger, fine mesh strainer, optional muddler
Ingredients
Microgreens Garden Gimlet
• 60 ml gin or vodka
• 22 ml fresh lime juice
• 22 ml Microgreens Syrup
• 2 small sprigs spicy salad microgreens for garnish
• 2 to 4 drops 20 percent saline optional for brightness
• Ice for shaking
Microgreens Syrup make ahead
• 20 g loosely packed microgreens spicy salad mix or pea shoots work well
• 200 g sugar
• 240 ml water
• 5 ml neutral spirit optional to help preserve
• Pinch of fine salt optional to balance
20 percent Saline optional
• 20 g fine sea salt
• 100 ml water
Method
Microgreens Syrup
- Warm water and sugar just until dissolved then cool to room temperature.
- Blend the syrup with microgreens for 20 to 30 seconds until vivid green.
- Refrigerate 20 minutes to infuse.
- Strain through a fine strainer then a coffee filter for clarity.
- Stir in neutral spirit and a small pinch of salt.
- Label and refrigerate up to 14 days. Shake before use.
Saline
- Stir salt into water until clear.
- Store in a dropper bottle in the fridge for several months.
Cocktail
- Add gin or vodka, lime juice, Microgreens Syrup, and saline to a shaker.
- Fill with ice and shake hard for 12 to 15 seconds.
- Double strain into a chilled coupe.
- Garnish with dry, clean microgreens. Avoid wet leaves.
Notes and swaps
• For a spicier profile use radish or mustard microgreens. If punchy, reduce syrup to 15 ml and add 7 ml plain simple.
• For a softer profile use pea shoots and add 1 thin cucumber slice to the shaker.
• Zero proof version use a non alcoholic gin or 60 ml chilled green tea with 2 drops orange blossom water.
• Batch for eight cocktails combine 480 ml spirit and 180 ml Microgreens Syrup in a bottle. Keep cold. Add 180 ml fresh lime at service and shake each drink to order.
• Color tips keep syrup cold, sealed, and out of light. If it dulls, add 2 ml fresh lemon juice to brighten.