Remember when kale was considered an underdog within the broader world of vegetables? Once relegated to salad-bar garnishes or a means of adding a pop of green to a drab plate of food, kale is now regarded as a superfood and routinely takes center stage in grain bowls, salads, and soups. It’s even shown up in cocktail recipes. Celery, in both the culinary and cocktail worlds, is on a similar journey.

And I’m here for it.

In my early bartending days, Sunday brunches consisted of cranking out bottomless mimosas and Bloody Marys, complete with bouffant, conversation-starting, over-the-top garnishes. I actually enjoyed taking cocktail picks and layering spicy peppers, pearl onions, stuffed olives, bacon slices, and various pickled vegetables, aiming for a “work of art” status that raised eyebrows but didn’t topple over. As a finishing touch (perhaps an afterthought?), I’d dutifully drop in a lean and leafy celery stalk, only to watch guests either lift it out and set it aside or just use it as a convenient way to stir their cocktail.

A decade – and hundreds of Bloody Marys – later, I began to take celery seriously as a cocktail component. The year was 2018, and headlines were popping up everywhere, touting the health benefits of drinking freshly pressed celery juice. Do you remember that era? I gave the trend a go, pressing and drinking so much celery juice that its savory, vegetal flavor profile was constantly on my mind. What else could I do with so much celery surplus? What could I make with it?

How would it taste in a cocktail?

Celery adds a savory, vegetal flavor profile to drinks

I had a wild idea to make a celery cordial and combine it with lemongrass-infused gin, muddled cucumber, Yellow Chartreuse, and fresh lime juice for an herbaceous riff on one of my favorite cocktails, The Last Word. I even felt pretty satisfied with the name I chose for it: The Grassed Word. That particular recipe has to be in my top-ten list of favorite drinks that I’ve created over the years, and when I had the chance to let celery shine this past summer at one of our wine dinners, I couldn’t pass up on the opportunity.

The twist? The cocktail had to be free of alcohol. While simply serving freshly pressed celery juice would be refreshing and easy to execute, it would lack the complexity of a regular, full-strength cocktail and would fall flat alongside the dynamic salad course with which it would be paired.

Steve and I were hosting our friends, chefs Mirasol and Nicole of Forage Sisters, for our annual Summer Asado on the Mesa, a multi-course, wine-paired dinner that captures the height of the summer season. This year, it featured all of the July favorites: heirloom tomatoes, ripe peaches, juicy watermelons, and fresh, leafy greens. For the salad course, we paired our 2022 Dry Gewürztraminer with a salad of summer greens, smashed cucumber, crispy quinoa, black garbanzo beans, feta, and pickled onions, served over charred eggplant and tahini cream.

Delicious, right?

We had ten guests who had opted for our non-alcoholic cocktail pairing, and I had so much fun creating this drink! I wanted to mimic the salad’s green notes while also keeping the cocktail balanced in texture, acidity, and flavor profile. The theme of the dinner was “Willy Wonka meets garden-goth,” so each of the NA drinks stayed true in title to this vibe. 😏

Let’s make “Keep on Rowing” – a zesty, herby, tart, and refreshing celery-centric booze-free drink!

Or mocktail!

Or EANAB (Equally Attractive Non-Alcoholic Beverage)!

Or – my own ridiculous made-up name – ALAFAF (All Looks, All Flavor, Alcohol-Free)! 😜

For this non-alcoholic cocktail recipe, I made a celery drinking vinegar or “shrub” and combined it with Seedlip’s Garden 108, fresh lemon juice, basil syrup, and fresh cucumber juice. The celery shrub gives the cocktail a tart viscosity that provides depth, which is often lacking in many alcohol-free drinks. It’s even delicious and refreshing on its own with a splash of seltzer.

The resulting cocktail is multi-layered, pleasantly tart, and complex, which slows down your sips, complements a salad course, and leaves you satisfied.

Keep on Rowing: A Non-Alcoholic Celery-Cucumber Cocktail

• 3/4 ounce Seedlip Garden 108
• 1 ounce cucumber juice
• 3/4 celery shrub (see recipe below)
• 1/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 ounce basil syrup (see recipe notes)
• Splash seltzer water

1. Prepare the celery shrub 2-4 days in advance.
2. In a mixing tin, combine the Seedlip Garden 108, cucumber juice, celery shrub, fresh lemon juice, and basil syrup.
3. Add ice, shake well, taste for balance, make any adjustments, and strain into a chilled Collins glass.
4. Garnish with a herbal ice spike and top with a splash of seltzer.

Recipe Notes

• This non-alcoholic cocktail recipe yields one drink but can be easily batched for a crowd. Just hold off on adding the seltzer until you’re ready to serve the drinks.
• For the basil syrup, combine equal parts sugar and water in a small saucepan. I usually make an 8-ounce batch by combining 1 cup sugar with 1 cup water. Add a handful of freshly torn basil. Over low heat, stir the sugar, water, and basil until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature, allowing the basil to slowly steep. Strain and store in the fridge for up to two weeks.
• Don’t want to bust out your juicer for the cucumber juice? You can substitute a 4-5″ piece of cucumber. Just coarsely chop it, muddle it in a mixing tin, layer your cocktail ingredients, and strain off the solids, once you’ve shaken it all up.
• For the herbal ice spikes, pick whatever is fresh and in season and stuff the herbs into skinny ice molds. Here is the one I use, which is easily sourced on Amazon. For the ice in these photos, I used dill fronds and fennel flowers.

Celery Shrub Recipe

• 1 pound celery, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup water
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup white wine vinegar (I used a Prosecco vinegar)

1. Purée the chopped celery in a high-speed blender and slowly add water, beginning with 1/2 cup and adding more, if needed, so that the celery is fully blended.
2. Pour the celery-water mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a small mixing bowl, straining off the coarse solids.
3. Add the sugar and vinegar to the celery-water mixture and stir well.
4. Transfer to a sealable jar, shake well, and place in the fridge.
5. Shake the mixture over the course of 2-4 days, ensuring the sugar dissolves and the flavors coalesce.
6. Strain the mixture once more and store in a sealable jar in the fridge.

Recipe Notes

• In a time-pinch? You can make this celery shrub the day of, but it might not be as intensely flavorful. Truly, the vinegar only gets better with a little time. You can even make it a week or more in advance.
• Due to their high acidity and low pH, shrubs can last 6-9 months in the fridge. I’ve safely kept a few of mine up to a year, though!

I’m sending out the biggest thanks to my friend Skylar Taylor-Lahood for capturing these incredibly beautiful shots at the asado last July and to my friends Mirasol and Nicole for always providing the most deliciously creative menu with which to pair our wines and non-alcoholic drinks. As you can see on my face, I have so much fun making layered, complex, in-season cocktails for our non-drinking guests.

Have you made a celery cocktail before? If not, give this recipe a go and let me know how it turns out!

From the heart,

Jayme

Want to dig deeper into the world of shrubs?

If you want to learn more about making shrubs or drinking vinegars, visit this post, where I share a basic, go-to “universal” shrub recipe, along with a few of my favorite blends of fruits – here are a few more of my cocktail and mocktail recipes, featuring shrubs:

• Spiced Pineapple Shrub Sparklers
• Honeydew, Kiwi, and Shiso Sake Cocktails
• Pimm’s Cup with Blackberry and Lemon Zest Shrub
• Rhubarb and Strawberry Shrub Mojito