Bring the garden to the party

The garden is sleepy and cold, and as the year ends, it's time for quiet reflection and celebration. In the garden, we can seek both.

I will assume most gardeners come to the reflection part quite naturally, and I will spend these words on the celebration. New Year's is when many of us lubricate the machinery of celebration with a drink or two. So why not bring the garden to the party.

After all, plants form the building blocks of all good drinks, from the juniper berries in the gin, to hops in the frothy brew.

My idea is to take what I could find merrily thriving in the herb garden and concoct a celebratory libation around it.

To accomplish this, I went to experts: John Tate, co-owner with Matthew Ceneviva of Tate's Craft Cocktails on Fourth Street. I presented Tate and Eric Reinstadtler, the bar manager and a craft-cocktail expert, with an array of herbs cut from the garden minutes before. They sniffed and muddled their way into making some fine drinks.

Each herb presents a profile to Tate and Reinstadtler that suggests combining it with a particular cocktail.

Tate opened his bar in May 2010. In the past few weeks, he has opened another in Dallas. The bar focuses on creating craft cocktails that feature fresh-squeezed juice from lemons, limes, grapefruits and oranges along with house-made syrups that feature ingredients such as figs and mint. They also make their own cola, tonic and ginger beer.

"The whole process is very culinary," Tate said, "the same way a beautiful plate of food will please and surprise you with taste in both the front and back of the mouth."

It's an excellent comparison. Tate's cocktails often reveal themselves slowly to the sipper, gradually showing their complex, underlying flavors and sensations.

The end result — using the finest products and the freshest ingredients — is a drink that invites savoring.

So, off to the garden to gather winter herbs.

First up is spearmint, still plodding along through the cold weather. It's as fragrant and refreshing as it was in the summer garden.

What immediately came to Tate's mind is a drink called an Il Fraschini, featuring an Italian liquor called Fernet Branca.

"Because Fernet Branca has spearmint overtones, it is the ideal drink to garnish with spearmint," Tate said. "This is a well-balanced drink, not tasting of gin, with slightly bitter overtones reminiscent of Italian digestifs."

Mint is one of the simplest plants to grow. Most growers have to use some sort of barrier to curb the plant's enthusiasm. Unlike a lot of herbs, spearmint likes a moist-to-wet soil and can sometimes be found growing wild around springs and streams.

We also had Kentucky Colonel mint, a variety with an exceptionally clean and clear flavor and aroma.

"Kentucky Colonel is the perfect match to garnish a peach-mint julep," Tate said. "The mint aroma complements the peach notes."

Many people find the bay tree too tender to grow in our climate, but a well-established plant can stand all but the kind of cold we experience once every decade. Michelle Hawks, who cares for the herb gardens at Reynolda Gardens, presides over a bay tree that is at least 12 years old and the size and shape of a hefty Christmas tree. Plant a bay in full sun and in well-drained soil. Protect the plant for its first few years in winter to get it established, and in extreme cold, consider rigging up a protective burlap barrier to keep it out of the wind.

Tate used the bay leaves to create a drink called Beautiful Cigar Girl.

"This is a drink characterized by apricot and the rich, dark taste of rum. We shook a little bay leaf in the ice in making this drink, bruising it and releasing flavors and then garnished with a sprig of bay leaf. The aroma of the bay leaf complements the rich tastes nicely," Tate said.

Rosemary is one of the more prominent evergreen herbs in the winter garden. Coming from the Mediterranean, it wants a well-drained soil that bakes in the sun. Many rosemary varieties flower in the winter, offering a pollen source to wayward winter bees. Rosemary is a shrub. Unless you buy the sprawling prostrate varieties, space should be allowed for a plant that can grow 4 feet high and wide. Tate combined the rosemary in a dry martini.

"Both the taste and the aroma of the rosemary is a wonderful complement to the natural herbals in the gin," he said.

The herb I didn't expect Tate to find a drink for is thyme, but he surprised me with a concoction called Mexicali Blues, a la the Grateful Dead. It is a beautiful, girly pink color from pomegranate liqueur, hiding a masculine punch from the tequila. Have a happy, herbally infused New Year.

Il Fraschini — Spearmint

Makes 1 serving

1.50 ounces Gordon's Gin
0.50 ounce Fernet Branca, an Italian amaro or bitter
0.75 ounce lemon juice
0.75 ounce grapefruit juice
2 dashes Angostura bitters
0.75 ounce simple syrup

Combine ingredients. Garnish with spearmint sprig.

Peach Mint Julep —
Kentucky Colonel Mint

Makes 1 serving

1½ ounces Bourbon (any) infused with peaches for two days
0.75 ounce simple syrup
4 mint sprigs, 3 with leaves removed

Muddle leaves of 3 mint sprigs. Add ice, bourbon and simple syrup. Strain, using kitchen strainer, into tall glass over fresh ice. Garnish with remaining mint sprig. Serve.

Beautiful Cigar Girl — Bay Leaf

Makes 1 serving

0.75 ounce apricot brandy
1.5 ounces Flor de Cana, a brand of rum
0.75 ounce simple syrup
0.75 ounce lemon juice
1 muddled slice apricot
Sprig of bay leaves, 3 or 4 leaves removed, the rest reserved for garnish

Shake all ingredients except bay sprig in shaker with ice. Strain into old-fashioned glass with fresh ice.