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Refills can be purchased at Downton Brewery, Dark Revolution Brewery (Old Sarum Airfield), Healthy Living (Devizes) & Regent Tailoring in Salisbury.

FUN FACT

THE MARTINI

During the Prohibition era in the United States, the Martini gained popularity due to its strong flavor and ability to mask the taste of bootlegged alcohol. It became the iconic symbol of rebellion and sophistication.

  • Aperol, Sour, Cocktail, Downton Distillery, Downton, Summer

    APEROL SOUR

    Aperol is a liqueur made from a blend of bitter and sweet oranges, herbs, and spices. It has a distinctive flavour profile that is both citrusy and slightly bitter. At...

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  • Virgina Creeper, Ben Moley, Blackberry, Orange Liqeuer

    Virginia Creeper

    Designed last month, this is a brand-new cocktail created by the talented Ben Morley a part time mixologist, who came to the distillery to both visit and create a series...

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  • Rocket & Fennel Gimlet

    Rocket & Fennel Gimlet

    Our garden has provided a lot this year in terms of fruit and vegetables. This cocktail celebrates two of these, fennel and wild rockets. This is like the ‘Rocket Gimlet’...

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  • Gin, Rosé & Red Berry Daiquiri

    Rosé & Red Berry Daiquiri

    Summer is the perfect time to enjoy fresh English fruits and what better way to do that than supporting your local fruit farm by picking berries yourself (or get them...

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  • Raspberry Gimlet, Explorers Gin, Wiltshire, Downton

    Raspberry Gimlet

    Raspberry Gimlet Recipe This is another twist on the gimlet and uses four ingredients. It is a light cocktail perfect to celebrate valentines’ day or enjoy in the summer with...

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  • Hot Toddy, Winter, Cocktail, Explorer's Gin, Downton Distillery

    Hot Toddy

    The hot toddy is one of the easiest cocktails to help you banish those winter blues. It's a warm sweet drink that you will be craving all winter, especially on...

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  • Smoked Blood Orange Mimosa, Cocktails, Downton Distillery

    Smoked Blood Orange Mimosa

    The champagne and orange mixture has been known to have different origins. In 1921, at Buck’s Club in London, the Buck’s Fizz was invented. It was a drink made up...

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  • Cocktail, Negroni, Chocolate, Downton Distillery

    Chocolate Negroni

    This is a twist on the classic negroni. For those that do not know the Negroni, it is to this decade what the Cosmopolitan was to the '90s—a zeitgeist (spirit...

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  • Autumn, Cocktail, Explorer's Gin, Cider, Downton Distillery

    Autumnal Apple

    Our Autumnal cocktail is a cider styled gin sour. The original cocktail was created by Chris Chamberlain a lead mixologist at Elixir Craft Cocktails. He used freshly pressed cider which...

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  • Vesper Martini, Downton Distillery

    Vesper Martini

    Ian Fleming, the author of the famous James Bond books, invented the vesper cocktail in his 1953 novel, Casino Royale. James Bond 007 ordered the martini in the film whilst...

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  • Queen's Platinum Jubilee Martini

    Queen's Platinum Jubilee Martini

    The Dubonnet cocktail is designed to showcase the finest gin you have in the bar. Originally an un-garnished cocktail from the 1930s, it is now served with a twist of...

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  • Samphire Martini, Downton Distillery

    Samphire Martini

    This martini sounds a bit unusual but is similar to the classic dirty Martini. As samphire is just coming into season in the UK, we couldn’t help but experiment with...

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  • Petruchio Cocktail, Aperol, Gin, Downton Distillery

    Petruchio Cocktail

    We loved the Campari sour and wanted to create something that could use another summer favourite, Aperol. In our research we did not have to go far as the Petruchio...

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  • Nick Nora Left Bank Cocktail

    Left Bank Martini

    This Martini reminds me of spring, it is light, fresh and puts some zing into your step. It was created by Simon Difford at the Cabinet Room in London for...

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  • White Lady Explorers Gin

    The White Lady

    The ‘White Lady’ was created for Zelda Fitzgerald at The American Bar, Savoy Hotel in the 1920s and named after her platinum blonde hair. Zelda Fitzgerald was an American socialite,...

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  • Bitter French, cocktail, negroni

    Bitter French

    Crossing two of our favourites, the Negroni and the French 75, results in a delicious cocktail called the 'Bitter French'. This relatively recent drink, defined by Campari, was created by...

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  • Hanky Panky Cocktail Getty images

    Hanky Panky

    The Hanky Panky cocktail is a gin martini, balanced between sweet and bitter with herbal flavours. The Hanky Panky cocktail was invented by Ada Coleman, known as “Coley.” Coley was...

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  • Pumpkin Gin Sour

    Pumpkin Gin Sour

    The clocks are going back, the evenings are drawing in and Halloween is upon us. Spiders’ webs and monsters adorn homes, shop fronts and pumpkins are appearing in abundance everywhere....

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  • The Bramble

    Bramble

    Blackberries appear towards the end of the summer months harkening the arrival autumn. Everyone has found memories of picking blackberries, getting scratched alongside their friends and family, followed by the...

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  • Passion Fruit Collins

    Passion Fruit Collins

    PASSION FRUIT COLLINS The name ‘Collins’ is appended to any mixture of alcohol, lemon, sugar and soda water. This is our twist on the famous Tom Collins. It is believed...

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  • Strawberry Basil Smash

    Strawberry Basil Smash

    The summer invokes memories of picnics, picking strawberries and the herbs growing in the garden. Basil works very well in cocktails as shown in the basil smash, so we thought...

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  • Sgroppino Explorer's Gin

    The Sgroppino

    Sgroppino is an Italian cocktail originating from Venice in the 1500s. It was used as a palate cleanser between courses normally with vodka as the base. We came across this...

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  • Breakfast Martini, Marmalade Martini, Orange, Cocktail

    The Breakfast Martini

    This is a modern classic that was created by the ‘Cocktail Maestro’ Italian bartender Salvatore Calabrese at The Lanesborough in the 1990s inspired by his breakfast consisting of marmalade toast....

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  • Lemon Curd, Lemon, Gimlet, Coupe Glass, Explorer's Gin

    Lemon Curd Gimlet

    I love experimenting with citrus fruit and gimlet and sour cocktails are amongst my favourites. Recently we had a jar of lemon curd left in the fridge that needed to...

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