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drink

Making Elderflower Cordial

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Elderflower Cordial

As spring made its appearance, we made the most of the outdoors and the Hampshire countryside.  One thing we noticed on a recent walk was the number of Elderflower trees in the vicinity of the house and decided we would make our own cordial this year.  Armed with a scissors and a bag, we ventured out to gather  a number of Elderflower heads.  It seems that this is a popular activity in Hampshire as it looked like a few people got to the easier to reach branches before us.

Elderflower Cordial

Elderflower cordial is a drink that can be tracked back to Roman times.  This may explain why it is used through out Europe.  The cordial is made from the flowers of the Elderberry tree and can be used in many different drink combinations such as diluted with water, sparking water, champagne or many other suitable cocktails.  Once home we looked up a few recipes and settled on the Jamie Oliver as it does not use as much refined sugar as the others we found.

A quick rummage through the cupboards and we found what we needed and started following the instructions to make the cordial.  It was easy to follow and great to know that it is an easy cordial to make.  The hardest part was cleaning the flower heads and the number of insects we shook off was a little surprising.  A note for next time that we should shake the flower heads out before harvesting!  We left the mix over night to steep which meant that the kitchen smelt wonderfully of a sweet elderflower mix in the morning and we could not wait to enjoy the cordial!  We bottle just over two litres of the cordial ready for use.

The cordial is fantastic and doesn’t taste as sugary as others we have tried.  It will make a great addition to our future parties and cocktails over the summer.  Especially our Swedish Midsummer party in June.

Elderflower CordialElderflower Cordial

 

6th July 2017
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Cocktail of the Week | Bramble

Bramble Cocktail

As Autumn continues we are enjoying the best that the season has to offer.  Rummaging through our drinks cabinet we found the key ingredients for this week’s cocktail, The Bramble.

The Bramble is a newcomer to the cocktail scene having been first created in 1984 by Dick Bradsell, who was credited with changing the face of the scene in the 80s.  The drink is based on the gin fizz (a new one to try in future!).  It is described as a spring drink, but with the blackberry used in it, if feels more like an autumnal one to us.

For this week’s cocktail, you will need:

  • 2 measures of gin
  • 1 measure of lemon juice
  • 1 measure of sugar syrup
  • 1 measure of creme du mure (blackberry liqueur)
  • Lemon slice and blackberry to garnish
  • Crushed ice

To make the drink, add the ingredients to a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Once mixed, fill a glass of choice with the crushed ice and pour over the cocktail. Add the lemon and blackberry and there you have this week’s cocktail, The Bramble.

The drink resembles a slushy but is still an enjoyable drink to have on an early autumnal day. Do you have a favourite autumn cocktail, let us know it the comments?

Bramble CocktailBramble Cocktail

Bramble Cocktail
13th October 2016
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