Strawberry Spritz Recipe from Santa Barbara Botanic Garden's Beer Garden

We spent our time at the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden’s annual Beer Garden fundraiser pouring something a little different. Local breweries showed off specialty beers crafted for the event along the Garden's many pathways, while our table was serving two non-alcoholic spritzes — mocktail versions of the classic, built around real fruit and Persimmon Vinegar.

Figure Ate is the food brand of White Buffalo Land Trust, a nonprofit that practices and teaches regenerative agriculture at Jalama Canyon Ranch. Every recipe we bring to an event like this starts from the same place: real ingredients and a nod to the land they came from.

This year's Beer Garden also happened to fall during the Garden's 100th birthday weekend, which made pouring alongside 400 guests, the beer and food vendors, and acoustic musicians through the canyon even more special. Here's how we built our spritz — and the two recipes, so you can make them at home.

What Is a Spritz, Anyway?

A spritz is simple by design: a concentrate liquid or base spirit, topped with sparkling water and served over ice. Ours skips the alcohol and swaps in real fruit, botanicals, and Persimmon Vinegar for something you can sip anytime — hydrating, low-effort, and easy to adjust to taste.

The Santa Barbara Botanical Garden Native Plant Tradition

Every food or drink purveyor participating in the Beer Garden at the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden develops a bite or sip infused with a native plant grown on the Garden's grounds — it's one of our favorite details about the event. Past years have seen desert lavender steeped into a rice lager, wood mint folded into a cocktail, and bay laurel added to a wild ale.

For our two spritzes, we used yerba buena — a mint relative that grows along creeks and shaded canyon slopes throughout coastal California. We steeped it into both flavors: brightening the strawberry-hibiscus base and adding a subtle herbal note underneath the elderberry and blueberry version. 

Jesse Smith, our Director of Land Stewardship at White Buffalo Land Trust, developed both of these recipes. He's been part of Beer Garden for a decade — first as an attendee, now serving on the event committee that helps shape the food and beverage lineup.

(Photo by  Shannon Jayne Photograph)

Why We Used Elderberry: The Elderberry Project

Yerba buena wasn't the only native plant on our minds this year. At Jalama Canyon Ranch, we're also growing Western Blue Elderberry through The Elderberry Project, an initiative White Buffalo Land Trust leads to get more California-grown elderberry into farms, kitchens, and shelves statewide. It's a hardy, drought-tolerant native shrub, and most elderberry sold in the U.S. is still imported, despite the Western Blue Elderberry being native to California — the project exists to close that gap. 

How To Make A Spritz

Both of our Beer Garden pours started as a concentrate: fruit, botanicals, Persimmon Vinegar, sugar, salt, and water, simmered down and chilled. Once you have the concentrate, making a spritz is easy. Simply serve by mixing 1 part concentrate with 1 part sparkling water over ice — adjust the ratio stronger or lighter to taste

Strawberry Hibiscus Spritz Recipe

Bonus: Our Elderberry Blueberry Spritz Recipe

Yield: about 9–10 cups concentrate (enough for roughly 18–20 spritzes)

Ingredients:

• 7 cups water

• 1 cup strong elderberry and butterfly pea flower infusion

• 1 small handful fresh yerba buena

• 1 to 1½ cups blueberry juice or purée

• ⅓ to ½ cup Figure Ate Persimmon Vinegar

• ½ to ¾ cup granulated sugar

• ¾ teaspoon fine sea salt

• Optional: a small amount of lemon or lime juice, for brightness

Directions:

1. Brew the elderberry and butterfly pea flower infusion for about 10 minutes.

2. Off heat, lightly crush the yerba buena and steep it in the warm infusion for 10 minutes, then strain.

3. Combine with the blueberry juice, Persimmon Vinegar, sugar, and salt.

4. Add citrus gradually and taste as you go — the acid shifts the butterfly pea flower from blue toward purple.

5. Stir until dissolved, then chill.

6. To serve, mix 1 part concentrate with 1 part sparkling water over ice.

Getting the Sweetness Right

Fruit, juice, and vinegar all bring different amounts of sugar, so start with the lower amount listed in each recipe. Chill the concentrate, mix a small sample 1:1 with sparkling water, and taste it in that diluted form — the concentrate should taste noticeably sweeter, saltier, and more intense than the finished spritz. Add more sugar one tablespoon at a time until it's right.

Keep both concentrates refrigerated and use them within the week.

Looking for an electrolyte-forward beverage? Check out our guide to homemade electrolyte drinks for a different refreshing summer mocktail.

We'll be back at Beer Garden next year — hopefully with a few more spritz flavors in rotation.