Cocktails to Make the Most of Tomato Season

For years, the tomato’s invitation to the cocktail party was limited to appearances in Bloody Marys and Micheladas. But by the beginning of last year, the savory cocktail trend had blown up — the briny Dirty Martini had opened up the floodgates for drinks that sounded like they’d stumbled onto the beverage menu from the dinner entrees. Tomatoes began making a stronger showing in interesting cocktails at influential spots, one of the best-known examples being the Caprese Martini (basil-infused Grey Goose vodka, olive oil, Lustau blanco, balsamic vinegar and, of course, tomato) at Jac’s on Bond in Manhattan.

The tomato is the MVP of summer, beloved and already established on restaurant menus, with fans eagerly awaiting their brief July-to-September season all year. Many enthusiasts look to make the most of that fleeting window by working heirloom tomatoes into as many dishes as they can, and more recently, cocktails have opened up an entirely new field of possibilities for just that.

The tomato is definitely having a moment. Luxury brands are making heirloom tomato-shaped bags and tomato-scented candles, and chefs at high-end restaurants are crafting clever trompe l’oeil dishes featuring the fruit. At bars, this looks like an absolute explosion of creative tomato cocktail riffs from some of the most brilliant mixologists. While we’ll always have room in our hearts for the humble Michelada, it’s now possible to savor every moment of tomato season with simple but stunning cocktails that shine with tomato extracts, syrups, honeys and more. Tomatoes have rolled their way into nearly every cocktail subcategory, too. So to highlight the something-for-everyone appeal of this flavorful trend, we’re rounding up examples from the world’s best bars, along with recipes for making some at home.

Martinis

The Martini might sound like the easiest format in which to include a tomato element, but no skilled bartender is content to stop there. Instead of turning into a lazy grab at tomato popularity, Martinis have become an ideal blank canvas. They’re already delicious and a crowd favorite, meaning they create a bridge of familiarity to bar patrons who might otherwise be reluctant to try a savory tomato drink. They’re also relatively pared-back, often spotlighting singular flavors, so bartenders choosing this path can really make tomato additions pop. 

Global bar manager at LPM, Tibor Krascsenics, calls the establishment’s Tomatini “unobtrusive and clean,” adding “it really lets the tomatoes and its balsamic vinegar shine.” The drink actually predates our current insatiable tomato thirst: bar manager Jimmy Barrat dreamed it up in 2010 for an LPM opening in Dubai because he felt the tomato reflected the restaurant’s Mediterranean concept. 

At Four Walls, a cocktail bar in Nashville’s The Joseph hotel, the Paisano provides an opportunity to flex another current cocktail trend: aesthetic splendor that elevates drinks into works of art. The centerpiece of the Paisano is a green tomato rosette ice cube, a green tomato that’s carefully peeled and constructed into the bottom of a rocks glass and then frozen overnight. A freezer Martini combo of olive oil-infused vodka, Manzanilla sherry and a green tomato water with spices is poured over the rosette, five or six drops each of chili oil and basil oil are added, and a lemon twist is expressed over top. As you sip, the flavors mingle and settle into each other, married by the green tomato character.

At the NoMad London, the Tomato Martini ups the ante on the Dirty Martini by finding more places to introduce different forms of tomato flavor. The drink was created by Leo Robitschek, vice president of food and beverage at Sydell Group, NoMad’s parent company. “Essentially, [it’s] a Dirty Martini that utilizes pickled tomato juice and tomato water in place of olives to achieve its savory notes and salinity,” says NoMad bar director Liana Oster. Other unique ingredients play an integral role, like Baldoria Dry Umami vermouth and Dolin Blanc vermouth infused with herbaceous, lemon-verbena koseret tea. But one of the most important factors is the tomato itself. Oster stresses the importance of freshness and ripeness because the drink is all about the flavor that the tomato imparts. 

At Earth at Hidden Pond in Kennebunkport, Maine, food and beverage director Robyn Mack and the team infuse vodka with locally-sourced cherry tomatoes to make their Pickled Tini. The funky drink also features vegetables sourced from the restaurant’s own garden that are pickled in bread and butter brine with red onion.

LPM’s Tomatini is an accessible place to start for the home bartender.

Sours

The tomato’s sweetness both complements a sour’s own sugar source and balances its tart citrus — and its acidity brightens tempers these elements. Take the Green Tomato and Serrano from Bresca in Washington, D.C. It mixes tequila and mezcal with lime juice, simple syrup, chili pepper and salted tomato water before getting a Collins-esque twist with grapefruit soda.

In Brooklyn, NY, Blueprint intentionally chose a restrained path. “Preserving the tomato ‘element’ was essential…and with that in mind, we tried not not to manipulate the tomato too much,” says general manager Robert Giles. They boil heirloom tomatoes before shocking them with an ice bath, coring them and blitzing them into a puree in a Vitamix. 

Giles says the drink’s other additions, like peach liqueur and Aperol, “serve to tone down some of the acidity of the heirloom and really allow the fruit to shine.” They garnish the drink with a basil leaf. “Italy got it right,” Giles adds. “Tomatoes and basil belong together.” Blueprint’s Friend of the Farmer Heirloom Tomato Sour is easy enough to make at home — just make sure you’re working with fresh, ripe tomatoes.

How Cafe Culture Has Influenced Cocktails Beyond the Espresso Martini

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Bloody Marys

Bloody Marys may seem like a step backward, as they’re the one tomato cocktail that’s always been around. But talented bartenders are able to find opportunities for innovation even here, building on the classic drink’s different elements and adding new flavors, too. One particularly splashy example is the Doritos Bloody Mary at Someday Bar in Brooklyn, which pays homage to the work of Empirical and its buzzy Doritos spirit.  

At Bar Goto and Bar Goto Niban, owner Kenta Goto sees a Bloody Mary as he does other quintessential cocktails: a way to introduce different Japanese flavors. The Umami Mary uses the Japanese spirit shochu, specifically from iichiko. 

“iichiko works well with tomatoes, as it helps layer earthy, savory flavors together,” Goto says. “Earthy, savory and umami create something very satisfying.” The Umami Mary utilizes both iichiko Saiten and iichiko Silhouette with tomato and lemon. Goto infuses the Silhouette with dashi, a combination of dried bonito, kelp and mushrooms, and hobby bartenders shouldn’t be intimidated by this step. Goto says with a little extra attention paid to measurements, the Umami Mary is easy enough to make at home.

Punches, Gin Tipples and Gimlet Riffs

At other bars, tomatoes are starring in cocktails that are grounded in molecular mixology and expert-level techniques. Some are still accessible for home bartenders, who can learn a method like clarifying, while some are simply special wonders that must be enjoyed in the bars where they were created. 

Take the FSM, or Fish Sauce Margarita, at Tonari in Washington, D.C. Tonari is one of the first wafu-Italian (Japanese-style Italian) restaurants in the country, and bartender Harry Pham mirrors that fusion by innovating on the ever popular and approachable Margarita with influences from his Vietnamese heritage.

“Most people, when thinking of the Margarita, think of a delicious balance between sweet and sour and often welcome salt and spiciness,” Pham says. “I set out to develop a Margarita that encompassed those reminiscent flavors but also introduced an umami element. I’m a first generation-American, with both my parents from southern Vietnam, so my brain immediately thought of incorporating fish sauce into the drink.” To balance the pungent character of fish sauce, Pham looked to a favorite childhood meal, canh chua, Vietnamese sweet and sour soup. As a kid, Pham loved the soup’s broth-soaked tomato chunks, so he created a salted tomato syrup to nail that sweet, salty, acid-balanced umami.

Then there’s the Nightshade, a clarified milk punch from the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto. Director of beverage James Grant says the team blends cherry tomatoes and clarifies the juice using enzymes and filtration. That’s then added to tequila, gin, yellow bell pepper syrup (which they make by combining equal parts pepper and white sugar in a blender) and lemon juice, and the entire drink goes through another round of clarification (which you can do at home by adding milk, allowing the mixture to curdle and then straining it through a coffee filter).

At New York’s Oiji Mi, beverage director Chris Clark says the Snap Back was inspired by a hyper seasonal muchim (Korean for “mixed”) served at sister restaurant bom, which is a lightly dressed salad with snap peas and honey bomb tomatoes. This cocktail is another one that relies on a good infusion, something that may seem daunting but is super easy with patience and attention to detail. The Oiji Mi team infuses “halved, perfectly ripe” tomatoes into overproof London dry gin for 30 minutes. That gets added to citrus and Korean maesil syrup, or Korean plum syrup, which is also possible to craft at home.

The Hot Doggin’ It from Brooklyn’s Lillistar takes us a bit further into more adventurous territory. Beverage director Christine Wiseman says she “wanted to capture the essence of summer vibes” with this drink, which “[embodies] the spirit of grilling and chilling with friends on a rooftop.” And yes, it’s built around the essence of a hot dog. “I experimented with ingredients, infusing mustard seeds with agave and adding mezcal for the smoky effect of grilling,” Wiseman says. “The result was a balanced cocktail I knew we needed to add to the menu.” Mezcal, vermouth blanc, the agave-infused Dijon mustard and vinegar meet tomato in the form of a tomato water meant to capture a ketchup vibe. “I didn’t want the tomato to overpower the cocktail but rather contribute to its nice acidity.”

The Parasol Punch at Washington, D.C.’s Silver Lyan, owned by star mixologist Ryan Chetiyawardana, is a leap all the way into mad science to be relished at the bar — especially considering its prep is spread out during the course of a week. It’s named for the first man in London to use an umbrella, “an act that made him so hated by his contemporaries they used to throw tomatoes and other produce at him in the streets,” says Silver Lyan assistant general manager Alex Leidy. “We pay homage to that part of the story in our cocktail with a tomato honey syrup, made by lengthening local honey with a stock made from sun-dried tomatoes.” The cocktail utilizes a process called ATOM (“a ton of microorganisms”), a multi-stage ferment developed by the team at Chetiyawardana’s London bar Lyaness. This brings in blackberry puree, fresh blueberries and mulberry juice. Once it’s been strained and pasteurized, it’s flavored with green peppercorns, woodruff and hinoki essence, and the tomato honey is added.

While some of these cocktails might be a bit of an undertaking for the home bartender, they demonstrate just how much tomatoes are currently inspiring mixologists. With so many options from simple to lavishly complex, it’s a whole new world out there when it comes to savoring tomato season.

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