Elements: Pandan Cocktails

Originally hailing from the Moluccas archipelago (aka “The Spice Islands”) in eastern Indonesia, pandan has been a staple ingredient of Southeast Asian cuisines for centuries. More recently, pandan has contributed its flavor and deep verdant color to pastries and dishes across Instagram. Herbaceous, nutty, and underscored with a fragrance of vanilla, pandan naturally lends itself to a host of cocktail applications, and its slender, blade-like leaves add dramatic flair as a cocktail garnish.

Pandan’s complex flavor allows it to effectively reach across the sweet-savory spectrum. This superpower gives it incredible versatility—whether in an indulgent dessert drink or a light, unfussy highball. “Pandan is strong and will stand out in cocktails, but also subtle enough that it can still let the spirit shine,” says Alex Law, lead bartender for Bar Podmore in Honolulu. “It works well with everything from gin or agave to whiskey or rum.” Law taps into the ingredient’s flexibility to create Shoots and Leaves, a low-proof Bamboo riff that also references the Aperitiki style of melding tropical flavors with Italian motifs in the same drink.

As malleable as pandan can be, it’s not the “bartender’s ketchup” type of ingredient that can instantly bring balance to cocktail chaos. Pandan’s flavors can overpower a drink if not properly accompanied by the right ingredients. This was a challenge faced by Vay Su, partner in cocktail pop-up Double Dragon Bar in Los Angeles, when designing his 93 ’til Infinity cocktail. “I wanted to use ingredients that would highlight all [pandan’s] characteristics,” he says. “The problem I ran into is that all those flavors have a perceived sweetness on the palate.” His work-around involved using rye whiskey infused with oolong tea, a one-two punch of spice and tannins that transforms pandan into a nuanced supporting player.

Pandan’s nutty sweetness also plays nice with tropical flavors, making it a natural fit for classic Caribbean drinks and modern tropical cocktails. At Seattle’s Zig Zag Café, bartender Eli Hetrick uses pandan syrup to make his Passion Fruit Colada, pairing pandan with passion fruit and coconut. “The pandan serves primarily as a subtle aromatic and earthy note within a bright, juicy, and tropical build,” Hetrick says. “It also offers a subtle and lingering finish to the drink—a nice contrast to the rest of the flavors, and an enticing reason to take another sip.