Cocktails — Explorer's Gin

Olivier Ward of Gin Foundry showcased Explorer's Gin on Channel 4 Sunday Brunch with a modern twist to a classic Mexican cocktail, the Paloma.

The Paloma is known for being a refreshing and thirst quenching cocktail in Mexico, an is usually made with tequila. In Spanish the word means ‘Dove’.

A light and fruity drink with a great fizz and one of the smoothest drinks you can mix, it is incredibly moorish and will make you go back for more. The fresh citrus really contrasts the western red cedar notes of Explorer’s Gin.

Ease of Making: Easy 

Glass Type: High Ball Glass

Taste: Bright, fresh with fizz

Recipe: 

• 30ml Explorer’s Gin
• 15ml freshly squeezed pink grapefruit
• 5ml freshly squeezed lime
• 5ml sugar syrup
• Soda
• A twist of lemon

Method:

• Add ice to a cocktail shaker
• Add the gin, grapefruit, lime and syrup
• Shake hard until well mixed, then strain into a glass
• Top up with soda and garnish with a twist of lemon peel

We hope you enjoy it as much as the Sunday Brunch team did!

This cocktail celebrates the original pink gin (and not the new pink gins). The colour of this cocktail comes from Angostura bitters and is also known as gin and bitters. Pink gin involves two ingredients gin and Angostura bitters - simple but delicious.

Angostura bitters was created by a German doctor called Johann Siegert who lived a Venezuelan town called Angostura. In 1820 he created a herbal medicine which was marketed as a cure to sea sickness. A British ship surgeon bought several bottles and mixed it with gin. This pink aromatic drink became famous and by 1850 it was being made in bars. It is a fabulous aperitif and a great way to show off your favourite gin. 

Ease of Making: Easy 

Glass Type: Martini Glass

Taste: Refreshing

Original Recipe:

• 50ml Explorer's Gin
• 3 dashes of Angostura bitters.
• Pour both into a cocktail shaker with ice
• Shake vigorously 

Method:

• Place ice into a mixing glass
• Add the Angostura bitters to the glass and stir for 15 seconds
• Drain off any excess water in the glass then add your gin
• Strain into a chilled martini glass
• Garnish with grapefruit peel twist

We are often asked what type of drink is 'Explorer's' good at making? 

It's wonderful in making a Negroni, Martini and French 75, but there is another unsung hero who is often overlooked: the Gimlet. The recipe is simple - lime juice and gin.

Within the bar world there are differing views as to what type of lime juice should be used, as the original recipe used 'Rose's Lime Cordial'. This was a brand that was established 1867 after Lauchlan Rose established a way to preserve lime juice with sugar instead of alcohol, as citrus was used on Navy and Merchant ships to combat scurvy. It's also the reason why sailors became known as 'Limeys.'

However, these days the debate is fresh lime vs. cordial vs. mixture. At the end of the day it's traditionally a two ingredient drink. I would suggest you explore and trial the different ways of making it. Switching types of cordial is an obvious method that will provide a new edge.

Ease of Making: Easy 

Glass Type: Coupette

Taste: Sharp and fresh, bright on the nose. Disappears too quickly! 

Original Recipe:

• 50ml Explorer's Gin
• 50ml Rose's Lime Cordial
• Pour both into a cocktail shaker with ice
• Shake vigorously 

Modern Twist:

• 40ml Explorer's Gin
• 40ml Rose's Lime Cordial
• 2.5ml Fresh lime juice
• Pour both into a cocktail shaker with ice
• Shake vigorously 

Last weekend we attended the most beautiful wedding in Italy, at a gorgeous vineyard just outside Modena. The wedding itself was a fairy tale but the heat made it a battle in trying to remain cool. After the vows were exchanged, people made their way into the scenic courtyard where they were greeted with either Champagne, Aperol Spritz or a Hugo Spritz. 

Whilst everyone knows the bright orange Aperol Spritz, which is highly fashionable in all bars, the Hugo is much lesser known. With condensation drops rolling down the glass, the tinkling of ice and the promise of cooling and refreshing mint, it had my name written all over it. 

One sip and that was it! What was this? Where did this drink come from and why on earth had I never heard of it!?

The Hugo Spritz originated from the Dolomites in Italy and has taken the Alpine bars by storm. Created in 2005 by barista Roland Gruber, it’s refreshing, light and incredibly moreish, almost like Maltesers. Once you pop you can’t stop! 

Back at home I tweaked the recipe slightly by replacing the Elderflower liquor with Elderflower cordial and then adding in 'Explorer's Gin.'

A summer cocktail for Adventurers – delicious!

Ease of Making: Easy 

Glass Type: Stemmed wine glass

Taste: Bright, floral and fresh

Recipe: 

• Mint leaves
• Lime slice
• 15ml Elderflower Cordial
• 25ml Explorer’s Gin
• 50ml Prosecco
• Splash of soda water

Method:

• Begin by adding ice to your wine glass
• Then tear some mint leaves and place them in the glass
• Add the elderflower cordial
• Add Explorer’s Gin
• Measure about 2 oz of sparkling water or seltzer and add to the glass
• Fill to the top with prosecco
• Give the drink a gentle stir and serve immediately
• Add lime

 You will not be disappointed! It’s easy to make and better than the Aperol Spritz!

How many of you know that this week (24th - 30th June) is Negroni Week?

For those that do not know the Negroni, it is to this decade what the Cosmopolitan was to the '90s - a zeitgeist (spirit of the times) defining cocktail that’s as beloved as it is hated. A little like marmite. How did this bitter concoction-made of equal parts Campari, vermouth and gin-go from relative obscurity to headlining every cocktail list worldwide?

The drink originated from Caffe Casoni in Florence, Italy in 1919. Legend tells that Count Camillo Negroni asked his friend, bartender Forsco Scarselli, to strengthen his favourite cocktail, the Americano, by replacing the soda water with gin. Scarselli added an orange garnish, rather than the lemon you’d usually get with an Americano, and the drink took off. Before long, everyone was coming into the bar for a ‘Negroni.’

In the last decade the Negroni has morphed into a mainstay of any self-respecting cocktail menu. This ubiquity is due, in large part, to sheer coincidence. The aughts saw a resurgence in two cocktail staples, gin and bitters which were pushed beyond Angostura by adventurous barkeeps.

The Negroni's popularity shows no sign of slowing. In 2013 the cocktail-industry bible Imbibe launched an event in its honour, and the first Negroni Week included 100 U.S. bars mixing up their best versions of the drink. Just two years later, in 2015, Negroni Week had expanded to 3,500 venues in 42 countries.

Ease of Making: Easy 

Glass Type: Rocks Glass

Taste: Bitter and refreshing (can they be the same?)

Original Recipe:

• 20ml Explorer’s Gin – the ideal contemporary London Dry
• 20ml Campari – this is what makes it bitter
• 20ml Rosso Martini – gives a balanced rich warm sweetness with citrus overtones

Method:

• Place ice into a cocktail shaker
• Add the gin, campari and rosso martini
• Shake vigorously
• Zest the rims of the rock glasses with orange peel
• Strain into rock glasses
• Garnish with orange peel