Nothing in Between Cocktail Recipe

A tall, crushable mix of aromatic flavors from France, Mexico, and Japan comes together in the Nothing in Between cocktail from Denver’s Yacht Club bar. A white wine base of French Chardonnay is combined with sotol, shochu, matcha syrup, yuzu juice, and verjus — a juice made with unripe wine grapes — alongside the liqueurs Suze and St-Germain.

McLain Hedges, co-owner and beverage director at Yacht Club, created this cocktail, initially inspired by the complexities of Chablis, a crisp, mineral-forward white wine.

“With this drink, we thought, ‘where can we use this beautiful mineral-driven, slightly flinty Chardonnay that has so much texture and depth?’” says Hedges. “We started thinking about what spirits offer that very mineral expression as well — of terroir and whatnot — and we started thinking about agave and sotol and all of these other elements that could bring that full circle.”

Matcha, with a flavor profile that ranges from vegetal and savory to earthy and slightly sweet, was also an inspiration for Hedges, noting that its perceived tannin structure stands up to a variety of other ingredients. 

“Matcha has that beautifully earthy quality to it,” says Hedges. “Grassy and earthy. When you add these other components to matcha, it really does brighten it up into something that’s more uplifting, than something that is heavy.” 

The cocktail’s name: Nothing in Between? “The whole idea was essentially connecting the dots in between each ingredient,” says Hedges.

Why Nothing in Between works

“Some of the flavors make sense together,” says Hedges. “There [are] also a couple of things in there that I think are very untraditional, maybe that you wouldn’t see alongside those flavors. It certainly becomes a melting pot of global flavors, in a lot of ways.” 

As Hedges notes, the qualities of Chablis, a decidedly crisp, fresh, and acidic white wine, serve as the base and inspiration behind the other ingredients added. 

Sotol, a native spirit of Mexico, made from a shrub called desert spoon, tends to echo some of matcha’s characteristics: bright, grassy, earthy, and sometimes vegetal. Shochu, a Japanese spirit, can also express rich, umami qualities. The two liqueurs called for in this cocktail — Suze and St-Germain — feature the drink’s floral notes, with Suze providing layers of citrus, honey, and bitter gentian. Both the yuzu juice and verjus further add acidity, bright fruit, and a balancing tartness. 

In the end, each ingredient intentionally plays off the others in the Nothing in Between cocktail. As Hedges says, “The whole idea was essentially [to] connect the dots in between each ingredient.”