I always get my best cocktail ideas when I’m eating. I love a good caprese salad. Oddly enough, it has all the components of what I look for in a cocktail- great acidity, herbal notes, a creamy texture and just a touch of salinity. Instead of simply infusing the ingredients into a spirit or making a syrup, I thought it would be more fun to create a more abstract vision for this drink.

When tomatoes are out of season, I like to use cape gooseberries in my caprese salad. Cape gooseberries or golden berries as they’re also known, are a relative of the tomato, but are more closely related to a tomatillo. They have an amazing sweet and tart flavor that is a mix between sweet and savory. They kind of taste like a cherry tomato mixed with mango. They were the main inspiration to my caprese-ish cocktail that combines gooseberry shrub, basil, gin and burrata to make a mighty fine cocktail.