Hello and welcome!
My name is Corinne Mossati and I’m a Sydney-based drinks writer, author of GROW YOUR OWN COCKTAIL GARDEN, and founder/editor of The Gourmantic Garden (2020 – ), Cocktails & Bars (2015 – ) and Gourmantic (2009-2020). I have been writing extensively about spirits, cocktails, bars and cocktail gardening in more recent years.
I’m also a cocktail developer and I grow a wide range of botanicals that naturally end up in my cocktails. My cocktail garden was featured on ABC TV’s Gardening Australia and has won several awards including Randwick Council Garden Awards for Best Edible Garden and Eco Champion, first place winner in the Grow It Local Awards 2022 in the Best Veggie Patch Name category and runner up in Sustainable Gardener award in 2023. I’m a contributor to Real World Gardener radio program and am featured in several publications including Pip Magazine, Organic Gardener, Australian Bartender and Breathe (UK).
In 2023, I published my first book GROW YOUR OWN COCKTAIL GARDEN under the banner of Grow It Eat It Drink It books, followed by SHRUBS & BOTANICAL SODAS in 2024. I’m currently working on the next two titles.
For more information, visit In the Media page or my website, Corinne Mossati – Drinks Writer. Cocktail Gardener.
My Edible & Cocktail Garden
My garden is located in a coastal part of Sydney where I live with my wonderful partner and birds that have adopted us and made the garden their home. It’s situated in the Temperate Zone of Australia (Australian Plant Hardiness Zone 4, no frost, equivalent to Zone 10 in the USA). Like many urban dwellers, I don’t have a big space or a proper garden but a small courtyard that is open on three aspects and gets the sun for most of the day. The area is mostly paved aside from a border of poor-quality sandy soil that’s between 5-30cm deep sitting on concrete.
I started edible gardening in January 2019 with no prior knowledge. 95% of my garden is set up from repurposed materials saved from landfill, a deliberate direction I took to apply sustainability practices in the garden. Playing in the dirt – as I like to call it – grounded me and gave me a way to de-stress, get some outdoor exercise and maintain a healthy mindset.
My initial goal was to achieve a degree of self-sufficiency, to grow at least 3-4 types of produce that I would never buy again, to practise sustainability, minimise single use, repurpose and reconnect with nature and the seasons. As soon as I developed some gardening knowledge, I was eager to turn my garden-grown produce into cocktails.
I grow around 200 to 250 varieties of plants, mainly edibles which contribute to my cocktail garden. My passion is growing Australian native plants with over 50 types of bush food which enables me to learn about our native plants, share the knowledge and ultimately put them to use in recipes and cocktail ingredients.
My tagline is Grow It Eat It Drink It. It’s also the hashtag I use on Instagram and the banner under which I publish my books. My ethos is simple. I strongly believe there’s no such thing as having a ‘black thumb’. With a little know-how, anyone can grow their own food.
I hope I have planted the seed of interest and you know a little more about The Gourmantic Garden. If you’re contemplating growing your own food in a small space, be it a few herbs on your balcony or some veggies in containers, learning about bush food or contemplating growing in a raised garden bed, this website is for you. To be notified of updates, simply enter your email in the sidebar. I don’t spam. I’m too busy playing with dirt in the garden! You can also follow me on Instagram @the.gourmanticgarden.
If you’d like to know more about me, visit my website Corinne Mossati – Drinks Writer | Author | Cocktail Gardener
Updated 4 February 2024