velvet

02/09/2026

🌿Hogweed / Bärenklau 🌿

Pisco • distilled common hogweed seed• cognac •
verjus • grapefruit oils • raspberry eau de vie

This is a true forager’s favourite. The seed of common hogweed (Wiesen-Bärenklau / Heracleum sphondylium) is an absolutely unique local spice. Hard to describe unless you have tasted it yourself. It is peppery, parsley alike, with an almost bubblegummy fruitiness.

Sarah and Ruben go pick it together every year and are filled with nerdy joy for each head of fresh green seeds they spot in the field. Manos made a fruity, easy to drink yet boozy Pisco Gimlet out of it thus year, served on the rocks.

We serve a single hogweed seed on a hogweed pâte de fruit jelly together with our Hogweed drink, so you can get an idea of its raw wondrous flavour.

This post is too short for our flexible in flavour Pâte de fruit jelly recipe, but feel free to comment „pâte de fruit“ and we’ll send you the recipe for this easy pectine based vegan jelly.

🌿 foraged by us in Berlin
🥃 drink by .sintichakis
📷 shot by Sarah S. Fischer

21/08/2026

🍀Woodruff / Waldmeister🍀

Irish whiskey • woodruff tincture* • white vermouth • vetiver • mirabelle eau de vie • mezcal • poiré

Woodruff, Waldmeister, the “master of the forest”, a very unique herb that is famous in Germany for Maibowle (infused into white wine) or as an aroma in ice cream and sweets. Few people however know the real flavour of woodruff / Waldmeister, as the sweets in question are usually flavoured with a synthetical substitute.

The real thing tastes of tonka bean, hay and a bit like vanilla. It’s always a beautiful pairing with strawberries or irsish whiskey.

After we forage ours in May from a beautiful, rich spot in Brandenburg, we always wilt and then preserve the woodruff as a 96% ABV tincture, capturing both its signature aroma and chlorophyll green colour for the months to come. Woodruff only releases its aroma after bruising and wilting due to enzymatic processes kicking in, the very fresh plant exibits only a fraction of that aroma.

🌿🌿Woodruff Tincture 96%🌿🌿

100 g fresh woodruff (weigh before wilting)
600 ml 96% pure drinking alcohol

• weigh woodruff before all other steps and note down, then wash and pat dry
• firmly bruise all leaves by crushing between the palm of your hands, then leave spread out to wilt for enzymatic aroma development for at least 2 hours
• measure 96% spirit in the 1:6 ratio shown above based on the weight of fresh woodruff you wrote down
• vacuum bag spirit and wilted woodruff together and sous vide at 60°C (not higher, danger of explosion!) far away from open flames
• alternatively as a low tech version, seal together in a jar at room temperature for 24 h
• strain and bottle, use within 1 year
• maximum recommended daily intake of woodruff tincture made this way is 25 ml, due to woodruff’s high coumarin content

🍀 foraged by us in Brandenburg
🥃🍶 drink and tincture by
📷 shor by Sarah S. Fischer

20/08/2026

16/08/2026

🌼Meadowsweet🌼

Bourbon • distilled meadowsweet blossom • moscatel sherry
• calvados • dry vermouth • angostura bitters

A true forager’s favourite, meadowsweet blossoms are a rare find around Berlin - but if one does find them, the reward is a unique aroma of sweet almond combined with a weird iodine note. Some say it smells a bit like hospital or that orange antiseptic there.

These medicinal notes work beautifully in a boozy dark shortdrink, only a few drops of the meadowsweet distillate add proper layered complexity to this Bourbon Manhattan by Ayleen.

🌼 foraged by us in Berlin
🍸 drink by .re
📷 shot by Sarah S. Fischer

14/08/2026

🌿Tagetes🌿

Gin • distilled tagetes leaf • cassis • quinquina • citric acid • soda • tagetes blossom

It's a real shame that some plants have a name that can be hard to sell (or pronounce). Especially when they are this delicious. Try the aroma of tagetes in this Gin Collins by Manos, which collects frequent praise by guests that were brave enough to try pronouncing it 😏

Tagetes is sometimes refered to as marigold, which can be misleading as it is used for different plants aswell. It is endemic to and used in Southern American and Mexican cuisine, particularly the varietal "Huacatay" (Tagetes minuta). Its greens exude a pungent herbal and fruity aroma that can remind one of elderflowers.

While other tagetes varietals can boast pompous and colorful blossoms, the ones of tagetes minuta are the modest type (as pictured), but still make for a beautiful garnish.

🌿 farmed by Isak Gumpert, Saxonia
🥛 drink by .sintichakis
📷 shot by Sarah S. Fischer
(Video by Ruben)

11/08/2026

🫐 Blackcurrant 🫐

Gin • juiced blackcurrants • apricot • indian rum
• madeira • amontillado • tonic • soda

This refreshing Gin & Rum Collins is just perfect for our terrace ☀️ with the musky, heavy fruit aroma that is blackcurrant, also known as cassis or Schwarze Johannisbeere in German. We get these divine berries from our favourite berry farmers, family Kolkwitz in Werder an der Havel.

It always surprises us, how few people especially internationally seem to know this berry, as it is just so delicious. It even used to be banned in the United States at a federal level for being a carrier of a pine tree fungus that endangered the local pine population 😳. What a baddy!

On menu for at least another two weeks 💜

🫐 farmed by family Kolkwitz, Werder an der Havel
🥛 drink by
📷 shot by Sarah S. Fischer

18/06/2026

🌱 Celery 🌱

Blanco tequila • milk-filtered celery juice* • verjus • cherry & quince eau de vie • drops of sotol

A favourite on our current menu: Savoury, juicy and crisp, with just a touch of smoke to complement celery’s subtle salinity.

*Milk filtration is a technique commonly used by bartenders to clarify entire cocktails. Milk is curdled via the introduction of acidity, the curds are then used to forn a superfine filtration layer. At Velvet, we have found it most suited for our plant-focussed approach to use milk filtration for single ingredients, specificly green juices such as juiced sorrel, celery or fennel. The finished crystal clear juice has the advantage of not oxidizing and browning anymore, compared to normal fresh green juices.

🍶Milk-filtered & fortified celery🍶

500 ml freshly juiced celery
250 ml vodka
4 g citric acid
200 ml fresh whole milk
150 g sugar

• add 4 g citric acid to every 500 ml of celery juice
• for every 500 ml of celery juice, pour 250 ml vodka over celery pressing leftovers to infuse for 1 hour
• strain vodka and juice, then combine them, now pour mixture into milk (not the other way around) and let sit to curdle for at least 45 minutes
• pour curdled mixture into a cheesecloth
• after 15 minutes of dripping, check drippings and put any non-clear juice that dripped through aside, then carefully (so as not to disturb the filtration layer) top up the cheesecloth with cloudy juice. Repeat this step until clear juice is dripping
• once you are finished with letting crystal clear juice drip, measure and sweeten with 150 g / L of sugar, then refridgerate and use within 2 months

Can add a special touch to all your Dirty Martini, Bloody Mary or Margarita experiments ☺️

🍸 by
📷 by .swantje.fischer

15/06/2026

A plate of this week’s produce, moving from spring into summer.

From top, clockwise:
🌱 Sage // Salbei
🌼 Elderflower // Holunderblüte
🌹 Rose // Rose
🌶️ Pointed Pepper // Spitzpaprika

📷 shot by .swantje.fischer

10/06/2026

🥖🥖🥖Sandwich Sunday at Velvet

This Sunday June 14th we’re partnering up with to bring you the first edition of our Sandwich Sunday!

Nina and our very own Inan are and will take over Velvet for an evening of sandwiches built on French and Turkish inspiration and seasonal ingredients.

Drinks by velvet.

Come hungry 😋

Starting at 19:00 hs - Terrace will be open ☀️

This will be a recurring event, we and the Tatas will keep you posted 🤗

08/06/2026

🌲 Spruce No. 1 🌲

Gin • distilled spruce tip • raspberry eau de vie
• mandarin & grapefruit oils • citric acid • white vermouth

🥃 Spruce No.2 🥃

Spruce tip infused vodka • sake • genever • honey • green chartreuse • verjus • distilled sichuan pepper

—

Get the one-two punch of fresh and sappy forest goodness. The young shoots of spruce tip (Fichte) harvested in May are an absolute favourite of ours. Citrussy, piney and grassy, they provide a perfect base for Gimlet style drinks.

Ruben’s Spruce No.1 has distilled spruce at its base for a clean yet boozy gin gimlet, served up and paired with citrus notes, while Manos‘ No.2 is based on the more sturdy and sappy vodka infusion of spruce, allowing for it to stand up against honey, sichuan pepper and Chartreuse - served on the rock.

Only a few pours of No.1 left, with Wednesday’s weekly menu change we are serving No.2. Best enjoyed on our terrace 🌞

🌲 foraged by us in Berlin
🍸 no.1 by
🥃 no.2 by
📷 shot by .swantje.fischer