Tarkhuna

The luminous emerald soda of the Caucasus: a syrup of fresh tarragon, sugar, and lemon steeped to a vivid green and diluted with sparkling water, the sweet, cooling, faintly medicinal anise drink invented in Tiflis in 1887

Origin: Tbilisi, Georgia

From the journey of Tarragon.

Tarkhuna is the tarragon made into a drink, and it is one of the most distinctive and beloved soft drinks of the entire Caucasus and former Soviet world. It was invented in 1887 in Tiflis, now Tbilisi, by the pharmacist Mitrofan Lagidze, who blended an extract of the fresh tarragon that grows so well in the Georgian hills with sugar and sparkling water to make a sweet, cooling drink of an astonishing, almost luminous emerald green. Lagidze's tarragon soda became famous across the Russian Empire and then the Soviet Union, where it was produced on a vast scale and where its startling colour and its sweet, faintly medicinal anise flavour made it a fixture of childhood; for millions across Russia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia, the taste of tarkhun still carries a powerful charge of nostalgia for the Soviet era. The brilliant green of the commercial drink owes much to added colouring; a homemade tarkhuna, made honestly from real tarragon, is a softer, more olive green, but tastes incomparably better, fresh and herbal and clean. Served very cold over ice on a hot day, tarkhuna is tarragon at its most refreshing, and a reminder that the herb the French reserve for sauces can also be the basis of a great drink.

Ingredients

Tarragon Syrup

  • 2 large bunches fresh tarragon (about 60g)
  • 200 g caster sugar
  • 250 ml water
  • 1 lemon, juiced

To Serve

  • 1 litre chilled sparkling water, to serve
  • ice, to serve

Method

  1. Make a syrup: bring the sugar and water to the boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves, then simmer for 2 minutes. Take off the heat.
  2. Strip the tarragon leaves from the stalks. Blanch the leaves in boiling water for 10 seconds, then plunge into iced water and squeeze dry; this fixes their green colour and softens the raw edge.
  3. Blend the blanched tarragon with the warm syrup and the lemon juice until smooth and vivid green. Leave to steep for 20 to 30 minutes as it cools.
  4. Strain the syrup through a fine sieve or muslin, pressing the tarragon to extract all the flavour. Chill thoroughly.
  5. To serve, pour a generous measure of the chilled tarragon syrup into a glass filled with ice and top up with cold sparkling water, about one part syrup to three or four parts water, to taste. Stir and serve at once.

Notes

Use French tarragon for the sweetest, cleanest flavour. The intense green of the commercial drink comes from added food colouring; if you want a brighter colour at home, a tiny amount of natural spirulina or a little spinach blended in will deepen it without affecting the taste. Balance the sweetness and acidity to your liking with more lemon. The syrup also makes an excellent base for a tarragon cocktail with gin or vodka.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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