What Craig LaBan’s drinking: The Aw Snap at Abe Fisher

A few years ago, I wouldn’t have gone for a cocktail that was green. I’d seen too many murky, pond-scum concoctions in the early, boozy, kale-smoothie days of the farm-to-cocktail trend. But the vegetable mixed drink is here to stay, and the master mixologists at Abe Fisher have mastered it, channeling seasonal produce through delicate but vivid house-steeped syrups, then pairing them with thoughtful combinations that showcase the ingredient without sacrificing the rest of the drink.

At a recent meal I enjoyed an extraordinary “Hungarian Duck” over duck egg-fried rice laced with crispy snap peas, and followed the tender legume theme straight to a glass of Aw Snap. This frosty coupé of a rummy beauty glowed a luminous pastel green thanks to a bright syrup of English snap peas perked with dill and a spark of white pepper. And its delicate vegetal sweetness shined right through, just enough to buoy atop two kinds of rum jazzed with spicy ginger and lime, plus a subtle oxidative note of Madeira with pithy Giffard grapefruit liqueur. The result was more breezy and refreshing than ponderously earthy, and was a bracing echo to what was on my plate.

Drink up, though: As the summer produce comes into its own, expect Aw Snap’s spring cameo to fade off the cocktail list by June.

— Craig LaBan

Aw Snap, $12, Abe Fisher, 1623 Sansom St., 215-867-0088; abefisherphilly.com