CocktailsCharles Sieg
The Verbena: the off-menu Cosmopolitan cocktail with the tingling flower

The Verbena: the off-menu Cosmopolitan cocktail with the tingling flower

A ginger-and-yuzu tequila drink from the Chandelier Bar in Las Vegas, and the little flower bud that makes your mouth buzz.

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The drink

The drink is called the Verbena. It comes from the Chandelier, the three-story lounge on the casino floor of The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, which opened on December 15, 2010. Afar describes it as an off-menu cocktail, credits it to the bar’s former chef mixologist Mariena Mercer, and says it is the bar’s bestselling drink. Vital Vegas noted in 2019 that the Cosmopolitan had reported selling more than 629,000 of them, worth $9.4 million.

Afar describes the flavor as spicy, refreshing, and fragrant, and as margarita-like: blanco tequila, ginger, and citrus that includes yuzu, kaffir leaves, and calamansi. Vital Vegas says it has “sort of a lemonade vibe.”

The bud

The garnish is the point. The Szechuan button goes by many names, including buzz button, paracress, and toothache plant, and its botanical name is Acmella oleracea, according to Wikipedia. The flower bud has “a grassy taste followed by a strong tingling or numbing sensation,” often with heavy salivation and a cooling feeling in the throat. The compound behind it is spilanthol, which Wikipedia says is responsible for the trigeminal and saliva-inducing effects of the plant.

Vital Vegas puts it more vividly: chewing one is “like having a sparkler in your mouth, but without the second degree burns.” Afar says your mouth tingles within seconds of eating it and that it “will quite literally make your mouth water.” Neither page says when in the drink to eat the bud, so that part is left to the drinker.

How to order it

Ask for it by name at the Chandelier. Afar says “you won’t find this cocktail on the menu,” and gives no special phrase beyond that. This is where a Vegas visit gets less certain. In an October 4, 2025 article, Vital Vegas reported that the Cosmopolitan now serves the Verbena pre-mixed from a bottle, packed by St. Bart’s Brewing Company in Napa and labeled “Verbena Yuzu Margarita.” The writer says the back label lists “Rum with natural flavor,” so the bottled version is not the same drink as the one in the recipes below. Ask the bartender which version you’re getting.

A published home recipe

The Perfect Purée company, which makes the yuzu product the drink is built on, publishes the recipe and credits “Mariena Mercer, The Cosmopolitan.” It makes one drink:

  • 1½ oz Herradura Blanco tequila
  • 2 oz The Perfect Purée Yuzu Luxe Sour blend, thawed
  • 1 oz lemon juice
  • 1 oz ginger syrup
  • 1 Szechuan button flower, for garnish

Shake everything except the flower over ice, strain over crushed ice into an old-fashioned glass, and garnish with the button. Vital Vegas lists the same ingredients.

One caution. Vital Vegas added an update on October 9, 2025, saying that Mercer Boarini, the drink’s creator and now a Wynn Resorts mixologist, told the site the recipe it had shared for years was wrong, and that the page was corrected. The page does not say what the earlier version contained, and no source here says the corrected list is the creator’s exact spec. Treat it as a published home version rather than the bar’s formula.

Where accounts differ

  • Ingredients. Afar names kaffir leaves and calamansi, which the Perfect Purée recipe does not list. The yuzu sour blend may account for some of that, but no source here says so.
  • Creator’s name. Afar calls her Mariena Mercer. Vital Vegas calls her Mariena Mercer Boarini.
  • The recipe itself. See the correction above.

Sources

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