Cocktail stories: Tomato Tree, Sip & Guzzle
A savoury ode to nature, technique and cultural exchange, we learn more about Sip & Guzzle’s Tomato Tree.
*This feature was originally published in the July 2025 issue of The Spirits Business magazine.
Consider the history and evolution of the cocktail as you sip the Tomato Tree. Invented in New York in the 1800s, the craft of drink making was studied and tranformed by Japanese bartenders more focused on flavour and technique than working from existing structures. Those luminaries have in turn inspired a new wave of American bars like Sip & Guzzle, which opened in New York’s West Village in January 2024.
The space is a dual-concept one, with Guzzle, an American-style tavern upstairs, and Sip, a Japanese-influenced den downstairs. Together, the bar captures the beauty of that long cultural curiosity between the two nations, which Sip head bartender Ben Yabrow (pictured) notes extends to fashion and animation.
The Tomato Tree is Sip’s signature drink, and it requires some level of reflection and reverence. “It’s been our most popular cocktail downstairs since the first week,” Yabrow says. “It’s probably the only untouchable cocktail on that menu.”
The drink started simply, a mix of tomato water, St-Germain, and Sauternes. Over the course of a decade, that recipe has changed, with it now existing among a cohort of tomato-forward creations that seek summer flavours without relying on fruity sweetness. Whereas some of these savoury cocktails centre on specific dishes or food memories, the Tomato Tree is more contemplative than nostalgic.
“The idea behind it, as it’s evolved, is taking inspiration from a tree itself, where each ingredient represents a different part of the tree,” Yabrow says. “In the kitchen, they call it tip to tail when you’re butchering something, but for us, it’s the whole part of the actual plant.”
The tomato water represents the fruit of the tree, while a split base of gin and shochu, both infused with dill, along with a basil garnish, represent the leaves. The St-Germain remains, standing as the flower, while mastika, the Greek liqueur made from gum-tree sap, is the tree itself.
For Yabrow, it has the perfect level of savoury, a drink refined over time — sturdy, complex,and evergreen. “It doesn’t really follow a classic cocktail recipe,” he says, calling it somehow still light, refreshing, bright and smashable. “We have people who come just for that drink, and they’ll get like, six of them over 90 minutes.”
Tomato Tree
Ingredients
54ml Tomato water
4ml Dill-infused Roku gin
8ml Dill-infused SG Shochu Kome
12ml Skinos Mastiha
12ml St-Germain
2ml Clarified lemon juice
Method: Combine all ingredients and shake. Garnish with a marinated cherry tomato, and a basil leaf in a salt-rimmed glass.
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