Saturday 9 April 2016

Gin Garden

Gin has always been good friends with elderflower but it is less well known that it also gets on with cucumber, try a slice next time in your G & T. This recipe combines the two flavours with a refreshingly fruity and light creation.

  • 1/4 cucumber, peeled and chopped
  • 12.5 ml Elderflower cordial
  • 50 ml Gin
  • 25 ml quality apple juice

Muddle the chopped cucumber and elderflower cordial in a cocktail shaker to release all the cucumber juices and flavours. Then add the gin, apple juice and some ice and shake vigorously to chill. Double strain into a chilled Martini glass. Can be decorated with cucumber slices on the rim.

Creating a sublime cocktail

Cocktails can range in quality from the sublime to the terrible, but what is it that makes a really really good cocktail? A drink that when you sip it teases your taste buds and leaves you eager for more?

Cocktails are in the majority of cases a combination of sweet, sour, salt, and bitter tastes. For example a mojito combines sweet and sour and a negroni combines bitter and sweet. It is the perfect balancing of the tastes that leads to a really superb drink. It can be surprising how little adjustments can make a big difference to the finished result, just a ml one way or another can be the difference between good and great!