Cocktail & Other Recipes Cocktail Type Nonalcoholic

Garden Collins

Lauren “LP” Paylor’s non-alcoholic highball is extra-refreshing.

By
Audrey Morgan
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Audrey Morgan
Audrey Morgan is the associate editor at Liquor.com, where she writes and edits features, explainers, bottle reviews, bartender profiles, and more.
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Published 01/6/23
Garden Collins non alcoholic cocktail

Liquor.com / Tim Nusog

Lauren “LP” Paylor likes looking to classic cocktails for non-alcoholic drink inspiration, which led to this herbaceous and slightly vegetal N/A take on the Tom Collins. The bartending pro and CEO of Focus on Health swapped the classic’s gin for Seedlip Garden, a non-alcoholic distilled spirit that is flavored with peas and a garden’s worth of herbs, including rosemary, spearmint, and thyme. 

Paylor bolsters the ingredient with brewed green tea. “I love using green tea in my beverages,” she says. “The tannins and herbaceous elements work beautifully in a range of beverages from a spritz or highball to an Old Fashioned.” When brewing the tea, allow it to steep longer to produce a stronger drink that can stand up to other ingredients, and cool to room temperature before using.

Lemon and a syrup made from freshly-juiced celery round out the spirit-free twist, and Paylor tops her creation with ginger ale to make a drink that’s just as quaffable as the original.

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 ounces Seedlip Garden

  • 1/2 ounce brewed green tea

  • 3/4 ounce celery syrup (recipe below)

  • 3/4 ounce lemon juice, freshly squeezed

  • 1 ounce ginger ale

  • Garnish: garden herbs such as rosemary and spearmint

  • Garnish: lemon peel

Steps

  1. Add Seedlip Garden, lemon juice, green tea, and celery syrup to a shaking tin filled with cracked ice.

  2. Shake for 10–15 seconds to mix ingredients together and to chill your beverage.

  3. Strain into 10-ounce highball glass over a large ice cube.

  4. Top with ginger ale and stir with a barspoon.

  5. Garnish with fresh herbs and a lemon peel.

  6. To make celery syrup: Juice 7-8 celery stalks in vegetable juicer until you get 400 grams (roughly 1 2/3 cups) of juice. Place 800 grams (roughly 3 1/3 cups) of granulated cane sugar in the celery juice and stir until sugar particles are dissolved. Place into an airtight container and refrigerate.

What Is a Collins?

Collins-style cocktails are similar to sours in that they contain a spirit, citrus, and sugar, but they are typically lengthened with soda water. The most well-known example is the Tom Collins, made with gin, lemon juice, simple syrup, and club soda. There’s debate as to who invented it, and it bears similarities to gin punches served in London bars in the 19th century. However, an enterprising barkeep by the name of John Collins christened the drink the Tom Collins, likely due to its inclusion of Old Tom gin. 


The drink was reportedly first recorded in Harry Johnson’s seminal 1882 book New and Improved Bartender’s Manual. In the 1948 book The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks, David Embury defined a Collins as “a lemonade made with charged water and spiked with gin or some other liquor.”

Where Can I Buy Seedlip?

Seedlip Garden can be purchased directly from the retailer, on Amazon, at non-alcoholic bottle shops like Boisson, and from many standard liquor stores.

What Special Tools Do I Need?

To make the celery syrup, you will need to make fresh celery juice using a juicer or extractor. (If you’re using store-bought celery juice, keep in mind that most bottled versions include a blend of celery juice and lemon juice.) Many bartenders prefer to measure ingredients for syrups and other modifiers using grams to ensure accuracy. If you are measuring ingredients for the celery syrup in grams, you will need a kitchen scale.