Elements: Dill Cocktails

If you’re hoping to get more greens in your diet, head to the nearest bar. Across the country, bartenders are stocking lowboy coolers with farmstands’ worth of herbs and vegetables to create seasonal, savory drinks. Into this garden party comes a wave of options made with dill, the aromatic herb whose feathery fronds and distinctive perfume command attention. Despite its sometimes divisive character, dill is a dynamic cocktail ingredient, complementing the botanical, citric, and vegetal flavors of far-ranging spirits and modifiers.

At Opto, a Mediterranean-inspired restaurant in Manhattan, dill-infused vodka is the base of the evocatively named Fantasy is a Necessary Ingredient cocktail. “I love dill’s fragrance,” says Alex Tubero, Opto’s executive chef and partner, who created the drink. Because it’s used in so many culinary applications, dill gives the cocktail an almost nostalgic appeal, he says. “Growing up in a Jewish household, dill was always a very important step in my grandmother’s chicken soup, so in some ways it tastes like home and family.”

“Dill brings a fresh flavor and lots of aromatics to cocktails,” says Suzanne Gibson, bar manager of Current Charcoal Grill in Birmingham, Alabama. But, like most big personalities, dill can be divisive. If you use too much, or don’t offset its potency with care, dill can quickly overpower any recipe. That’s why Gibson combines it with lemongrass to make a syrup for her frothy sour, Green Gardens. The herbaceous sweetener highlights the vegetal notes of blanco tequila, so each component shines in tandem. “Lemongrass adds a subtle, tangy, almost ginger-like quality to the drink, and is a great background flavor to hold up the citrus and dill,” she says.

Bartenders muddle dill to complement the crisp botanicals of London dry gin for a cocktail at Kubeh, a Middle Eastern bar and restaurant in New York City. A dash of brine keeps the flavors bright and balanced. “Dill and pickles go hand in hand for me, so the touch of brine simply enhances the salinity and cuts the herbaceousness a bit,” says Betsy Nadel, Kubeh’s general and bar manager. “The combination makes every sip feel earthy and fresh.”

Do people ever raise an eyebrow when they see the drink’s ingredients? Sometimes, Nadel says, “but usually they’re game to try something new. I find that most people are intrigued by the idea of fresh dill in their cocktail.”

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