Southside Sips: Jarhn Blutstein’s Snap Pea Gin Sour

Jarhn Blutstein’s mind is always mixing. Inspiration for the classic-yet-creative cocktails she makes for her company, East End Mixology, now in its third year, can come from anywhere. Even a humble little lunch salad. 

Well, okay, for this particular cocktail, the Snap Pea Gin Sour — a bright, botanical mix of gin, herbal liqueur, fresh lime juice and, the star, fresh snap pea juice — that salad was maybe a bit better than humble.

“I got the idea for this drink from a spring salad I’ve had before with snap peas and mint that my husband has made for me,” she says. The husband in question: James Beard nominated chef Jeremy Blutstein of Montauk’s Mavericks.  

Jarhn, who also designed the cocktail list for Mavericks and is the former beverage director of Gurney’s Montauk Resort & Spa, launched East End Mixology when the COVID-19 pandemic put the kibash on convivial cocktail gathering (and the jobs that go with them). When the weather warmed and people began to cautiously convene outdoors, she was asked to bring her creative drink-making knowledge and prowess to a few al fresco gatherings, and the buzz of positive feedback followed. From there, East End Mixology — her in-demand cocktail catering company —  grew and grew, from a smattering of social events to over 70 last year.

Today, Jarhn builds her drinks menus from her deep knowledge of the restaurant and bar worlds, through her own love of the culinary world and through conversations with her husband. 

“I love all kinds of cocktails, and I love to cook as well and write recipes, too,” she says. “Jeremy and I are always talking about how to make great pairings. We’ll ask each other: ‘How are you using this flavor?’ We collaborate.” 

Jarhn is a big fan of Balsam Farms (293 Town Lane, Amagansett or 662 Montauk Highway, Montauk), where she often stops for myriad ingredients for her drinks, from edible flowers to fruit and, yes, vegetables, too. Here, she juiced snap peas, which provide the electric green hue of this drink, plugging directly into the power of spring. If you don’t have a juicer, no problem — Jahrn recommends hitting up Schiavoni’s Market (48 Main St., Sag Harbor) for their house-pressed fresh apple-ginger-celery-kale juice ($5.99) in a pinch. The key to the foamy top is twofold: Fee Brothers Cocktail Fee Foam is the secret to the frothy cap, and taking the extra step of dry shaking (that is, shaking without ice). “Dry shaking really aerates the drink and gives it a beautiful foam head,” she says, although if you wish to make the drink without the Fee Foam, that’s fine, too. Happy spring sipping!