Category: Gin

Restaurant: Nourish Restaurant, Indianapolis

Creator: Amy Renee Sawyer

Inspiration: “Chakra represents a spiritual energy center in the body. The ‘root’ chakra is a play on the term that represents the energy from the ‘root’ or ground. In this case, the ground I refer to is central Indiana. We use local beets to energize this cocktail.”

Key Ingredients: Gin, red and golden beet juice, mandarin and cognac liqueurs, freshly squeezed lemon juice and grated nutmeg.

Price: $12

What the Judges Said: We editors here at RH are kind of health nuts. Once a week we do a sit-up, sometimes two. So you can imagine how thrilled we were to experience a cocktail containing beet juice. This will be about as unpleasant as walking into a gym locker room where 85-year-old Frank refuses to wrap a towel around himself, we thought. But Ms. Sawyer created a perfect counter balance to the dirt candy with the addition of two disparate liqueurs and a squeeze of acid. This cocktail drinks as beautifully as it looks. If only Frank looked half this good.

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