Must Make: Lavender Sage Earl Grey Mocktail & Lavender Sage Honey Simple Syrup

Want a great fresh simple syrup recipe? This simple syrup is straightforward and easy to make and use.

Sage and lavender offer unique and complementary flavor profiles. Lavender is a relaxing remedy with a long history of use for anxiety and sleep. While the wise mint family plant, sage will help you focus.

Then use it in The Common Sage, an Earl Grey based mocktail recipe below.  It’s a mellow, yet flavorful drink that’s balanced, complex, and a delight to sip. You’re gonna love it!

When making these recipes (or any other) “Everything is inspiration and the rest is practice.”

 

The following excerpt is from Botanical Bar Craft: A Guide to the Art of Apothecary Cocktails and Herbal Tonic Elixirs by Cassandra Elizabeth Sears. It has been adapted for the web.

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Lavender monograph

Some of you may be asking: What is a monograph?

A monograph is a text dedicated to a single subject; in this case the subject is a plant. The purpose of these plant profiles is to help you get acquainted. A monograph is a good place to start when you’re learning a new plant personality.

I hope they will give you the resources you need to go deeper than first impressions, because true knowledge comes from experience. These monographs are your introduction, but the relationship will only bloom when you touch, smell, taste, and spend time with these plants in a garden, in the woods and fields, and in your kitchen or behind the bar.

Each monograph covers several topics: habitat and cultivation; taste and energetics; actions and uses; constituents and chemistry; preparation

Lavender
Lavandula spp.  •  Lamiaceae

In the Greek herbal of Dioscorides, he instructs us to make medicinal wine by infusing Lavandula stoechas (Spanish or French lavender) in wine. Dioscorides states: “It dissolves thick fluids, gaseousness, pains of the side and the nerves, and extreme cold. It is effectively given with pyrethrum and sagapenum for epilepsy.”

Habitat and Cultivation

Native to the Mediterranean, lavender is a woody perennial that likes warm and well-drained sandy, chalky soils. Plants should be mulched well with straw or leaves for the winter in areas with harsh cold. Species used include Lavandula angustifolia and L. stoechas.

The plant prefers neutral to slightly alkaline soils; test your soil pH and amend accordingly before planting if needed. Plant seedlings 18 to 24 inches (46–61 cm) apart; lavender looks best planted in masses, and it’s traditional to plant it along walkways.

Lavender is best propagated by taking cuttings. It’s drought-tolerant once established. Prune older woody plants in the spring by cutting back stems by a third.

Taste and Energetics

pungent • sweet • acrid • bitter • diffusive • cooling

Actions and Uses

antiseptic • antispasmodic • aromatic • carminative • cholagogue • diuretic • nervine • perfume • sedative • stimulant • vermifuge

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The Complete German Commission E Monographs, a therapeutic guide to herbal medicine, approves Lavandula angustifolia for loss of appetite, nervousness and insomnia, circulatory disorders, and dyspeptic complaints. One nickname for lavender is palsy drops, as it was used for relieving tension headaches.

The Latin name comes from lavare, meaning “to wash.” Lavender has been used as an antiseptic agent and added to baths and soap for thousands of years.

Lavender is a relaxing remedy with a long history of use for anxiety and sleep, affirmed by modern research. It is especially useful for those with a high degree of neuromuscular tension that may negatively impact digestion and peripheral circulation. It is also beneficial for hyperactivity disorders and those who need to relax to focus, such as those with ADHD.

The essential oil of L. stoechas is being studied for its potential ability to protect the liver and renal function.

Constituents and Chemistry

flavonoids • phenolic acids • terpenes

Preparation

Lavender dries well when the stems are tied in bunches and hung upside down. It is a great ingredient for winter tea blends (aka syrups!) as well as a prime candidate for hydrosol distillation. It’s delicious in glycerite blends and infused honeys or oxymels.

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My recipes are a form of art inspired by nature.

Some of the names are nods to the stories of people and places that inspired the creation of a recipe or the choice of a particular ingredient. Good recipe names are evocative, creating a storyline to tickle the imagination of the imbiber.

Sometimes a new recipe is inspired by the function you wish the drink to serve. Other times a drink comes to life through the energy and flavor of a moment, and its tonic effects are one of the wonderful spontaneous benefits of making and drinking botanical beverages.

Recipe: The Common Sage

antioxidant • aromatic • carminative • nervine • nootropic

Drink sage to be sage. This wise mint family plant will help you focus. Garden sage is a nootropic, enhancing cognitive function through its antioxidant properties.

Ingredients

• Makes 1 drink
• 6 ounces (180 ml) brewed Earl Grey tea
• 4 ounces (120 ml) Lavender Sage Honey Tea Syrup (recipe follows)
• 2 ounces (60 ml) oat milk
• 1/2 ounce (15 ml) lemon juice
• 1 egg white
• 1/4 ounce (7.5 ml) juniper hydrosol, or 1/2 ounce (15 ml) juniper berry tea, or several drops juniper extract
• 1–2 dropperfuls rhodiola tincture
• Pinch ground cinnamon
• Whole nutmeg, for garnishing
• Small sprig dried juniper, for garnishing

Instructions

Brew some Earl Grey tea and allow it to cool. Put 6 ounces of the tea in a shaker tin with the Lavender Sage Honey Tea Syrup, oat milk, lemon juice, egg white, juniper hydrosol, rhodiola tincture, and cinnamon. Shake first without ice, then with ice. Strain into a coupe.

Grate some nutmeg over the surface of the drink. Light the juniper sprig on fire, and when the flame dies but the sprig is still smoldering, place it across the top of the glass and serve.

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Lavender Sage Honey Tea Syrup

Simple syrup is sugar and water combined in a one-to-one ratio. You can also make a rich simple syrup with a two-to-one sugar/water ratio. You can substitute all manners of herbal tea in place of water. I often make simple syrups using honey instead of sugar because I like honey’s floral taste and its health benefits. I also make what I call honey tea syrups, which are perfect to have on hand for nonalcoholic drinks. Just add one or two other ingredients to a honey tea syrup, and the result will be adequately complex. Honey in a drink also makes it foamy!

Generally, it is better to make syrups ahead of time and allow them to cool to room temperature before combining with the other ingredients for a drink. Otherwise, the warm tea may cause too much ice to melt, leading to excessive water and an unbalanced drink.

Ingredients

• Makes 1 cup (240 ml)
• 1 tablespoon dried sage or 2 tablespoons fresh
• 1 tablespoon lavender flowers
• Raw unfiltered honey

Instructions

Pour 8 ounces (240 ml) of hot water over the sage and lavender in a teapot or jar. Cover and steep for 15 minutes. Strain and add honey to taste (make it slightly sweeter than you would want to drink plain).

About Botanical Bar Craft

This book is both an herbal medicine book for bartenders and a mixology book for herbalists. My goal as a bartender-herbalist is to use the bar as an engaging platform for teaching about plants. In this book I invite you to step inside the fantastic and magical green realm of the plant kingdom—a colorful place of generous abundance, sparking unlimited curiosity.

Join me at the intersection of herbal medicine and craft cocktails. Both places are inspiring, sensually stimulating, fully alive, and free.

“In this beautiful and creative book, Cassandra weaves together the time-honored art of making cocktails with a fresh approach to incorporating botanicals for drinks that build wellness and taste delicious!”

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Recommended Reads

Calming Herbal Nightcap Mocktail to Mix Before Bed

About Thyme: Growing, Harvesting, and Drying Thyme