Mixologist Jeff Naples—also known as the Beard Behind the Bar—has created 5 incredible cocktails that use farm-fresh ingredients from The Chef’s Garden. Enjoy!

To wrap up the Roots 2017 culinary conference, with its theme of Innovate, we ended with a bang! The final presentation, MC’d by Chef Adam Wilson, was titled, “Drink Your Veggies: Fresh Ideas for Vegetable Beverages,” with attendees able to enjoy unique non-alcoholic juices and cocktails created by Chef Anna Harouvis, then the Beard Behind the Bar (Jeff Naples) and then by Charlotte Voisey.

The use of edible flowers in culinary dishes and beverages was quite common during the Victorian era in England, as they appreciated them for their flavor and aesthetics. Desserts were “almost always lavishly decorated . . . Cakes often were flavored with rose water and caraway seeds, and candies with lemon verbena, lemon balm and mint. Both fresh and candied edible flowers decorated dessert plates, tea sandwiches, and petits fours . . . nonalcoholic elder-flower beverages ended many a fine meal.”

We’re happy to share that Jeffrey Naples will be part of Roots 2017: Innovate. Jeffrey is the guy with the beard behind the bar, a man who has traveled from the prairies of Iowa to the coasts of California to help open outstanding bars and restaurants. And, he gained the nickname that has stuck with him when he owned a restaurant in a smaller town in Iowa.