The Hottest Drinks In Auckland Right Now? They’ve Probably Got Tomato In Them
Bars from Jervois Rd to Britomart are putting tomatoes at the centre of cocktails.
First came the dirty martini, then the pickletini and now, as our apparently insatiable appetite for savoury drinks continues, the tomato cocktail is taking hold across Auckland.
The thick, viscous, hangover-boosting bloody mary might be the first drink that comes to mind when we consider the sweet, acidic fruit lending a hand to alcohol, but in Auckland, the tomato is being utilised beyond just its classic juice.
At Jervois Rd institution Andiamo, the martini gets a slightly sweet, deeply savoury, Italian-accented rework with the caprese martini.
In Britomart at Alma, it’s found in an earthy, spicy, boozy number that mixes vodka and manzanilla sherry with tomato water and chilli.
At Panacea, the boundary-pushing cocktail bar on O’Connell St that turns flavours like Tim Tams, butter chicken and grilled kangaroo into balanced, thoughtful drinks, tomatoes feature throughout the menu: in a zero-ABV drink, a butter chicken-flavoured cocktail, and a drink inspired by pineapple pizza.
At Sagrado Cantina in St Kevin’s Arcade, the michelada – a perplexing but delicious combination of cold lager and tomato juice served over ice – was proclaimed by Jesse Mulligan as “the world’s most refreshing drink”.
While a bloody mary consistently features the same profile, this modern use of tomato is far more versatile. In some cocktails, it puts its most savoury forward with the sweet acidity a ripe summer tomato promises. In others it’s a background player, adding a layer of depth or balancing out otherwise sweet and fruity flavours.
“Tomato adds lift and structure,” Chathu Weerasekara, bar manager at Andiamo says. “It gives the drink a fresh acidity that works in the same way citrus might, but with more depth and a softer edge.”
The multi-use nature of tomato in cocktails is a key part of its popularity, alongside changing tastes of drinkers across the city and, as PJ Renaud, mixologist at Panacea Bar says, social media.
“I hate to mention TikTok, but it’s impossible not to in this case,” Renaud says. “TikTok came in with these new trends, like the Negroni Sbagliato and Parmesan Espresso Martini, where people were slowly edging out of their comfort zone. And I think because of those international trends and because we have so many talented bartenders here in New Zealand, people were really ready to experiment.”
At Panacea, the Cut My Life in 2 Pizzas features bacon fat-washed rum mixed with parmesan, pineapple and tomato, clarified and served in a short glass over a big cube of rocks ice. It’s mind-bending at first.
“I’ve had it described as like having a cold slice of pizza when you’re hungover,” Renaud mentions when he sets it in front of me.
Unsurprisingly, you get the pineapple first, but the cocktail quickly opens up, and the tomato makes itself known in a mellow, balanced finish. It’s a good example of tomato being used as a balancer rather than the main event.
Jason Jeremy, restaurant manager at Alma, thinks the rise of tomato cocktails is down to our pursuit of the new.
“Everyone wants to do something new,” he says. “Back in the day everyone would do a seasonal-based cocktail with seasonal fruit, but not many people used to do a savoury cocktail, so I think everyone wanted to have a play around with it.”
Although, he says, not many of the tomato cocktails he’s had across Auckland have been purely savoury – something that can’t be said of the tomato cocktail at Alma.
The deceptively complex drink doesn’t just use tomato water. Instead, the team make a gazpacho with heirloom tomatoes, garlic, onion, cucumber, anchovy paste and worcestershire sauce, which is then passed through a fine mesh strainer, frozen and left to defrost through a cheese cloth for 24 hours to create a powerful flavour burst of a clarified gazpacho water. That is then mixed with chilli-infused vodka, manzanilla sherry and olive brine to create a savoury, umami burst that truly whets the appetite.
“The idea was to try and combine a bloody mary with a dirty martini,” Jeremy says.
“When you go out, you really can’t drink more than two bloody marys because they’re so rich, whereas with a short drink you can have maybe three or four. The idea was to offer that flavour profile without filling you up.”
Renaud echoes these thoughts.
“Savoury cocktails are super in fashion,” he says. “But the two main savoury cocktails people know are the dirty martini and the bloody mary.”
A bloody mary, he explains, is great at brunch, when you’re hungover, but the last thing you want at midnight on the dance floor is a thick, heavy drink. Conversely, the dirty martini is simply too boozy for a lot of people and will, for lack of a better term, “knock you on your ass”.
For Renaud, the idea in using tomato is to take these savoury cocktails and make them more sessionable for people.
“The best thing about tomato is that it has a very similar acid and sugar makeup to strawberries,” Renaud says. “So it’s very easy to integrate into cocktails like you would a strawberry.”
At Andiamo, the team took a similar approach in developing the caprese martini.
“When we refreshed the venue in October last year, there was a real focus on bringing more energy and fun into the drinks list,” Weerasekara says.
“I wanted to create something playful that could almost pass as a salad in a glass, it’s a bit tongue-in-cheek. Tomato, basil, olive oil and balsamic are such simple ingredients, but together they’re sophisticated and instantly recognisable as Italian.”
For Weerasekara, the focus is on the infused vodka. The team add fresh diced tomatoes and basil leaves to Absolut vodka and leave it to infuse for 24 hours. It’s then strained and fat washed with olive oil (where olive oil is added to the spirit and left to steep, frozen to separate the fats from the liquid, and then removed. It gives the alcohol a lip-smacking consistency), before a final strain sees it crisp, clear, and ready to be served.
While all three say there has been a hint of reservation from some diners, most people are excited when they see these savoury offerings on the menu, and those who aren’t fully on board tend to be after drinking them.
“Everyone’s surprised at how ‘drinkable’ it is,” Weerasekara says. “There’s an expectation that a martini will be very spirit-forward and quite intense. This one is clean and expressive but softer on the palate than people think. It’s become one of those drinks that once it goes out to a table, suddenly everyone is ordering them.”
Not just at Andiamo, it seems. Aucklanders are going mad for tomatoes – put down your dirty martini, and go all in.
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