Bartender turns to Mother Nature to develop less processed drinks and mocktails
PLYMOUTH - A bartender in Plymouth, Massachusetts has become an herbalist so she can offer customers something better than processed and sugary drinks.
"Use the real thing"
"A lot of cocktails and liqueurs are botanically based, so it just makes sense. Instead of using the artificial stuff, I like to use the real thing from Mother Nature," Nikki Johnson told WBZ-TV.
Johnson shares her passion for plants by hosting botanical drink workshops. WBZ tagged along to Gate and Garden, an apothecary in Weymouth, where Johnson buys her ingredients for her workshops from fellow herbalist, Stephanie Hardie.
Johnson follows a ritual prior to shopping which she says starts with channeling a higher energy and a little guidance from a deck of herbal tarot cards.
"I'll ask the universe what would be good for this upcoming event or whatever I'm making the drinkable for. I kind of use it as a suggestion. Sometimes it's spot on," Johnson explained.
On this particular day, she said the universe told her to buy some marshmallow root to coat the throat and make the perfect "Mock Toddy."
Mocktails, sober curious and Dry January
"Last January I was shocked by the number of people who were coming into our cocktail lounge ordering a zero-proof drink, mocktails," Johnson said. "I think a lot of it is health driven because we know alcohol has some really bad effects as far as mental and physical health."
The sober curious movement and trends like Dry January are one of the reasons Johnson started her business Botanical Drinkable.
She has since created several signature zero-proof botanical elixirs. One of her favorites is "Midnight Divination," an electric blue mix that contains no artificial dyes and is made with Spirulina, a blue green Hawaiian algae.
When she's not mixing up elixirs, Johnson is teaching workshops. WBZ was there for an herbal holidays mocktail class that Johnson was teaching at The Root Greenhouse in Scituate and met Elizabeth Joseph.
Joseph told WBZ she wanted to take the class because she stopped drinking 2.5 years ago after having a seizure.
"I was very involved in drinking culture, going out on the weekends. I took a large step back from drinking. I've just been stepping into the mocktail scene and trying to shift the perspective around alcohol every day," Joseph said.
Joseph was there with her best friend Glenne Jackson who shares a similar belief.
"Drinking culture is a thing wild, and once you realize that your perspective shifts. It's fun to still have a cozy drink and the extra benefits in these are great," Jackson told WBZ.
"It feels like this is what my ancestors did not even that long ago. They harvested their own food and grew their own stuff and figured out their own natural medicines. So, it kind of makes me feel like a human animal again instead of just a cog in the wheel. It's so fun, I love it," Johnson said.