Roxbury Rose Garden: Chamomile-Infused Whisky Cocktail

Photo by Michael Piazza

Last year, many of us made significant investments in our overall well-being, from becoming plant parents to not letting that bottle of gummy vitamins congeal in the medicine cabinet, quitting addictive habits or taking up journaling or meditative practices. As a collective, we have shifted toward living healthier lives. Recently I walked from Ripple Café in Ashmont all the way up to the South End, making a stop on Washington Street at one of Essential Body Herbs’ two locations. I was looking to restock some of my staple herbs, oils and tinctures that I more often than not turn into cocktail ingredients. Plant medicine is a part of my culture, often misunderstood or misappropriated. And while modern science is surely not to be discounted, it’s not lost on me that the pandemic has laid bare the deep intersections between the lack of access to comprehensive healthcare and socioeconomic opportunities in Boston’s predominantly Black neighborhoods of Dorchester, Roxbury and Mattapan, where the average life expectancy is just 59 years young. Businesses like Essential Body Herbs truly are essential, reaffirming the need to address health and wellness in communities that are continually overlooked, in a more restorative form of self care.

According to the National Institutes of Health, over a million cups of chamomile tea are consumed daily, with the herb being used to treat a host of ailments. Chamomile, rose and honey are the core elements of the Roxbury Rose Garden—essential ingredients for essential people in these very essential times.

Makes 1 cocktail

1½ ounces chamomile-infused Suntory Toki whisky (see recipe below)
1½ ounces coconut milk (can be substituted with a nut or dairy milk of your preference)
¾ ounce honey syrup (see recipe below)
2 drops orange blossom water
4 drops food-grade rosewater
orange peel, for garnish
dried rosebuds, for garnish
honey, for garnish
rose petal and sugar mixture (optional)

Chill a Collins or highball glass in the freezer. When glass is completely chilled, using a small spatula, brush or clean fingers (when you’re at home, friends!), trace a tapered, wavy pattern of honey from the rim to halfway down the inside of the glass. Affix rose petals to the honeyed glass, sprinkling crushed rose petals to fill in any gaps. Shake off excess and return glass to the freezer.

Alternatively, roll the top quarter of a paper straw—the section not in the cocktail—in honey and then in rose petals or rose sugar. Chill straw in the freezer.

Add rosewater, orange blossom water, 1 strip orange peel, honey syrup, coconut milk and chamomile infused Toki whisky to your shaker. Fill shaker with ice or a large cube, and shake well for about 20 seconds. Strain cocktail back into a short shaker; discard the orange peel and ice. Shake briskly for an additional 10 seconds without ice.

Fill chilled glass with crushed ice (cubes work well, too!). Strain the cocktail into glass and top with crushed ice. Mist the glass with rosewater, or express the oil of a fresh orange peel over ice.

FOR CHAMOMILE TOKI:
Drop 1 chamomile tea bag into 5 ounces of whisky in a jar. Seal and let rest at room temperature for 3 hours minimum to overnight for best flavor. The tea leaves/tea bag will absorb some liquid; gently press leaves/bag to extract the most concentrated drops of whisky.

FOR HONEY SYRUP:
Mix equal parts honey to very hot water. For an extra chamomile infusion, dissolve equal parts honey to very hot chamomile tea.

FOR ROSE SUGAR:
Grind rose petals into granulated sugar. Add a few drops of rosewater, a drop at a time to keep sugar from sticking to mix.

This recipe appeared in the Spring 2021 issue as part of a larger story called “A Toast to Togetherness.”