How To Drink With Verjuice
By Nicola Lando
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January 11th, 2019
Verjuice, or verjus, is an ancient ingredient that’s seeing a revival in modern kitchens. It’s the pressed juice of unripe and unfermented grapes. Verjuice has a sharp, fruity flavour with a gentle acidity that makes it a popular substitute for vinegar or lemon juice in cooking. But verjuice isn’t just amazing with food – it’s fantastic in drinks, too!
The famous Australian cook and restaurateur, Maggie Beer, is the first person to ever produce verjuice commercially. It’s thanks to her that this largely forgotten ingredient is back in the spotlight. These are just a few of the ways she recommends enjoying verjuice as a drink.
Straight Up
Maggie Beer’s verjuice is mildly sweet and fruity with a soft acidity and hints of florals. Maggie herself often enjoys a glass of verjuice poured simply over ice with a little fresh mint. On a hot and humid day, there are few things more refreshing.
Sparkling
For another refreshing drink, dilute Maggie Beer’s verjuice to taste with chilled sparkling water or soda water. Serve in a tumbler over ice with fresh lime and mint, or pour into a champagne flute for some non-alcoholic bubbly at parties. Cheers!
G, T & V
Put a Maggie Beer twist on your gin & tonic by adding a dash of verjuice. It does wonders to lift the flavours in the gin, and can even help to balance out the bitterness in an especially bitter tonic.
Verjuice Vodka Martini
If you’re looking for new ways to enjoy this classic cocktail, replace the vermouth in a Martini with verjuice. Shake 60ml of vodka and 15ml of Maggie Beer’s verjuice in a shaker half–filled with ice. Strain into a martini glass and garnish with a twist and/or bruised green olive. Serve immediately.
More Ideas for Verjuice Drinks
Buy Maggie Beer's Verjuice here.
For even more information on verjuice and how to use it, read our dedicated verjuice article.
About the author
Nicola is co-founder and CEO at Sous Chef. She has worked in food for over ten years.
Nicola first explored cooking as a career when training at Leiths, before spending the next decade in Finance. However... after a stage as a chef at a London Michelin-starred restaurant, Nicola saw the incredible ingredients available only to chefs. And wanted access to them herself. So Sous Chef was born.
Today, Nicola is ingredients buyer and a recipe writer at Sous Chef. She frequently travels internationally to food fairs, and to meet producers. Her cookbook library is vast, and her knowledge of the storecupboard is unrivalled. She tastes thousands of ingredients every year, to select only the best to stock at Sous Chef.
Nicola shares her knowledge of ingredients and writes recipes to showcase those products. Learning from Sous Chef's suppliers and her travels, Nicola writes many of the recipes on the Sous Chef website. Nicola's recipes are big on flavour, where the ingredients truly shine (although that's from someone who cooks for hours each day - so they're rarely tray-bakes!).
