Wildly refreshing

Botanicals might seem like a trendy buzzword in health and wellness circles, but that doesn’t mean it’s anything especially fancy, scary, or too new age. “It’s just plants, fruits, and veggies,” promises Brianna Wilkerson, a local beverage consultant known as the Beverage Botanist. “It’s not just obscure, strange, exotic plants.”

Craft cocktails

Using botanicals is far from a new fad. Examples like ginseng, lavender, chamomile, ginger, and turmeric have been used for centuries as medicines, intentionally as part of rituals, for decorations around homes, as perfumes, and to enhance flavors in food and drink. With such significant use over long periods of history, it’s no wonder that plenty of chefs, home cooks, beverage professionals, and amateur enthusiasts still infuse their concoctions with botanicals—including Beau du Bois.

‍

Du Bois, an award-winning bartender who has worked around the world, is the vice president of bar and spirits at Puesto, Marisi, and Roma Norte (a 2025 James Beard nominee for Best New Bar). He says botanicals are a great way to impart terroir and seasonality into different drinks, as well as a way to accentuate certain flavors. For instance, he says rather than simply grabbing for a bottle of St-Germain, a commercially produced elderflower liqueur, he prefers to make his own elderflower tea and sweeten it to taste. “All your cost control and palate intensity control is in your court,” he says. “[That’s why] our cocktails catch your attention because we've increased the control and the intensity of the ingredients.”

The beverage team at Haven Farm + Table takes it even further. The on-site restaurant at Fox Point Farms, a 21.5-acre working farm and residential community in Encinitas, sits just feet away from verdant rows of fruits, vegetables, flowers, herbs, and other plants that go straight from field to kitchen in the blink of an eye. Haven’s general manager and beverage director Ricardo Zarate Jr. says they always keep “seasonality and viability of volume” in mind when designing cocktails at Haven, like their Ode to James, a riff on a Bee’s Knees.

“Currently, we make use of a sage-infused honey,” he explains. “The earthy, piney notes of sage pair seamlessly with the gin, which itself is infused with golden beets, adding an unexpected twist.”
‍

He says anyone interested in dabbling with botanicals at home should feel empowered to experiment, and suggests taking notes about what works and what doesn’t. “When dealing with something like botanicals, it helps to track how your perception of the botanical changes over time. For example, how does the flavor of fresh mint change when made into a tea?” he says.

Du Bois agrees, suggesting that people try making mojitos two different ways—by muddling fresh mint, and by breaking the leaves. “There’s a much different flavor that’s going to come through,” he promises, saying that muddling often comes across much more bitter. “There always has to be a clear understanding in regards to the ingredient itself.”

Ready-made botanical blends

For beverage enthusiasts who prefer to let others do the work for them (no shame in that!), companies like Kove and Cool Hand Co. have built businesses on botanically based beverages, in both the alcohol and no-alcohol markets. All of Kove’s products use a proprietary blend of botanicals, which are then fermented into alcohol. Chris Clark, partner and head of brand at Kove, says it’s crucial to look at the history of different ingredients—where it’s from, how it’s been used, and what it can do—to not just understand, but respect the plant. He uses saffron as an example.

“What is saffron? What part of the world does it come from? What’s the history of saffron? How does it infuse, and how does it get highlighted in your finished product?” Clark says. “It’s a rabbit hole you can go down, but it’s really fun.”

On the no-alcohol side, Lucas Ryden, founder of Cool Hand Co., says seasonality is what inspired him to launch a line of shrubs, which are concentrated syrups made by combining different fruits with vinegar and sugar, with different combinations of botanicals added for variety. His core four flavors include blackberry-cacao nib-orange peel, pineapple-turmeric-ginger, strawberry- cascara-ginger, and strawberry-hibiscus-jalapeño.

His advice? Don’t be afraid to go big.

“One big lesson I've learned over the course of having a shrub company is that more ingredients and more potency is generally better in the long run,” Ryden says. “A lot of times people, especially when they start out making syrups or shrubs or that kind of stuff, they'll undershoot the ingredient ... a less is less kind of thing. If you want that fresh fruit flavor to shine, or if you want that botanical to really shine, I've found that a lot of times you want to use more than you think.” Plus, he adds, if the product comes out stronger than expected, you can always use less when mixing it with something else.

At the end of the day, no matter how you experiment with botanicals, Wilkerson says it’s a great first step in connecting with the earth. “Plants are medicine,” she says. People have used plants for health and healing since the dawn of time, so why not play with their flavors as well? She, for one, is happy that the age-old concept is facing a new renaissance. “People are understanding that certain botanicals are doing something awesome for you,” she says. “It's a really cool world to start to explore when you're thinking about plants and cocktails.”

Ask an expert

How to start experimenting with botanicals at home Jenny Griffith is a holistic living and herbalist expert and in-house herbalist at Heal Botanics at Fox Point Farms, where she infuses different botanicals into teas, essential oils, syrups, soaps, and other items.

Dried versus fresh: Fresh herbs often have a stronger aroma and are ideal for infusions like teas or cooking. However, dried herbs are more concentrated, shelf-stable, and perfect for tinctures or long-term storage.

Keep in mind: Always ensure that the herbs you’re using are properly identified and safe for consumption. For stronger infusions, use a higher proportion of dried herbs. When crafting tinctures, alcohol or glycerin extraction works best for dried herbs.

Flavor combinations: Some classic pairings include lemon balm and chamomile for a calming tea or mint and lavender for a refreshing beverage. If you're creating botanical drinks, try pairing herb-infused beverages with foods that have complementary flavors, such as serving a floral lavender tea with lemon-based desserts.

Tips and tricks: When experimenting with teas or tinctures, start small to find the right balance of flavor and potency. Cold
infusions are ideal for drawing out subtle notes, while hot infusions tend to amplify both flavor and aroma.

‍