Named after the striking purple-blue berries of Dianella caerulea or Blue Flax Lily, the Dinky Dianella is our Australia Day Cocktail for 2021.
Dinky Dianella Australia Day Cocktail – Photo © Cocktails & Bars
Every year since 2015, Cocktails & Bars has been creating a brand new Australia-inspired cocktail for Australia Day. Each cocktail features at least one Australian native botanical, and this year, the key ingredient comes from The Gourmantic Garden, our very own urban edible garden.
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Dianella caerulea or Blue Flax Lily
Our 2021 Australia Day cocktail features the edible berries of Dianella caerulea, more commonly known as the blue flax-lily, blueberry lily, or paroo lily. The Australian native shrub with attractive foliage grows to a height of one metre and during summer, produces edible blue-purple berries. They can be harvested and stored in the freezer to use later in cocktails. You can read all about it in the article on How to Grow Blue Flax Lily / Dianella Caerulea at our sister website.
Dinky-di is an Australian slang word for dinkum, meaning genuine and honest hence the name given to this cocktail.
Dianella caerulea berries have a delicious sweet-tart flavour and contain tiny seeds which release a nutty flavour when chewed. To retain that combination of flavours and textures in the cocktail, the Dianella berries are muddled and added to the glass over ice before the shaken gin-based cocktail is poured on top. Don’t be tempted to muddle the berries in the shaker then strain the cocktail or you’ll miss out on the nutty flavour of the berries that comes from the seeds.
The cocktail is served on crushed ice, however to delay dilution for photography purposes, tiny ice cubes from these mini ice cube trays were used.
Warning: If you are foraging for the berries, please ensure you are confident in identifying the plant as some may look similar but could be toxic.
Dinky Dianella Australia Day Cocktail Recipe
The recipe for Dinky Dianella is now available in my 260+ page digital book, GROW YOUR OWN COCKTAIL GARDEN 1 Part Grow Guides, 1 Part Cocktails & a Dash of Flavour Pairing available as a digital download. Get your copy HERE.
Updated 26 June 2023
