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Cocktail of the Week | Sage & Clementine Mule

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clementine sage mule

We have been enjoying the cocktail of the week for the last few months and the few times we have come across a savoury cocktail they have been a hit. Whilst looking for a good cocktail for Thanksgiving, we came across a savoury cocktail from Jamie Oliver’s Drink Tube that really interested us and thought it would be perfect to try as our cocktail of the week, Sage and Clementine Mule.

This cocktail is a twist on the classic mule cocktail the Moscow Mule. As with many cocktails from the 1940’s there seems to be a bit of mixed history as to who created the Moscow Mule and where it started. Some attribute it to John Martin, a Spirits and Food distributor in Hartford, CT and Jack Morgan, President of Cock ‘n’ Bull products (which produced ginger beer). This story line gives it a bit of a corporate myth style story, a ‘cock ‘n’ bull story’ if you will.  The other is attributed to Wes Price, Jack Morgan’s head barman who wanted to clear out the cellar of dead stock. From what we have learnt, we are more inclined to believe the latter story. Needless to say the Cock ‘n’ Bull team had a hand in its development. As with all classic cocktails, a new twist on tradition is always a good thing and this one has some expectations to live up to.

For this week’s cocktail, you will need;

  • 1 measure Lemon Vodka
  • 1 Fresh Clementine
  • Ginger beer
  • 5 Sage leaves
  • Ice

To make the drink, quarter a clementine and add it with the sage to a Collins and muddle the mix.   Add some ice to the glass, followed by the vodka. Add the ginger beer to fill the glass, giving it one final stir and you have this week’s cocktail, a Sage and Clementine Mule.

The cocktail has a good mix of flavours, the clementine is not as sweet as expected and the ginger is not over powering. The sage is very subtle taste to the drink and works well with the hint of lemon from the vodka.  It is a refreshing drink that is well worth making as a seasonal drink.

clementine sage mule
clementine sage mule

 

1st December 2016
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Cocktail of the Week | Pumpkin Cocktail

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Pumpkin Cocktail

After making a pumpkin cake using our Nordic Ware bundt tin we found ourselves sitting with a few teaspoons of pumpkin purée.  Rather than waste it, we decided to create a cocktail using it.  There are very few pumpkin flavoured ones, but did take inspiration from Serious Eats and came up with our own Pumpkin Cocktail.

The pumpkin is ubiquitous with Autumn.  It has received a massive push in the last few years thanks to a certain coffee based drink!  None the less, it is a great ingredient to use for many things. Calum has been known to make a pumpkin and chilli ravioli in addition to the pumpkin cakes and soups.  We also like to carve our pumpkins for Halloween, so keep an eye out for efforts in the next few weeks!  We may find a need to try a different pumpkin cocktail when we do!

For this week’s cocktail, you will need;

  • 2 tsp Pumpkin purée
  • 1 measure Vanilla vodka
  • 1 measure Pressed apple juice
  • Ginger beer
  • Ice

Take the pumpkin purée, vanilla vodka and the pressed apple juice and pour into a cocktail shaker with ice.  Shake the mix well before pouring the mix into a tall glass with some ice.  Fill the glass with the ginger beer.  Add a straw and there you have our pumpkin cocktail.

The drink has a lovely smooth taste and certainly would be a hit and any Halloween or autumnal party! It even has Rich’s Mum’s seal of approval!

Pumpkin Cocktail Pumpkin Cocktail Pumpkin Cocktail

Pumpkin Cocktail
6th October 2016
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Cocktail of the Week | Plum Sour

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Plum Sour Cocktail

As we are now in mid September, our thoughts have started to turn to autumn.  Our first cocktail of autumn is making the best of the plums that are now in season.  For our Cocktail of the Week we decided to go for a change from the sweet, summer inspired cocktails.  We wanted to   try something that could be enjoyed in the last of the sun or next to an outdoor fire.  We found this one from Difford’s Guide that fitted the bill, the Plum Sour.

The Plum Sour is originally a Japanese cocktail made with sake that has evolved over many years.  It falls into the sours family of cocktails.  Sours were the original cocktail and classic sours, such as the margarita, kamikaze and the daiquiri can be dated back to the 1860s.  The Plum Sour made its leap across from the East some time during the early 20th Century as more Japanese people moved across the world, taking the mix with them and finding an alternative to the sake to create the drink.

For this week’s cocktail, you will need:

  • 1 fresh plum
  • 1 plum piece for garnish
  • 2 measures of vodka
  • 1 measure of fresh lemon juice
  • ½ measure of sugar syrup
  • ½ a fresh egg white
  • ice

Take the plum and roughly chop it into small pieces.  Use a muddler to crush the fruit into a mush.  Add a good amount of ice to the shaker and add the remaining ingredients.  Give the mix a good shake to cool it well. Take a glass and add some ice before pouring the cocktail in.  Add the plum garnish and there you have our cocktail of the week, the Plum Sour.

If you like a sour drink, this is a good cocktail to enjoy.  The egg white did make it a slightly unusual drink and something we would probably leave out if we made it again.  We would also use sweeter plums to draw out a stronger plum taste.

plum-sour-4
Plum Sour Cocktail
Plum Sour Cocktail

Plum Sour Cocktail
15th September 2016
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Cocktail of the Week | Cucumber & Thyme Spritz

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As we have finally hit summer with the temperatures hitting 33 degrees, it was time to find a refreshing drink for this week’s cocktail of the week.  Once again taking inspiration from the garden, where our cucumber plant has just started to flower, and the spirits we have in the cupboard we stumbled on a Cucumber and Thyme spritz.

This is not your usual cocktail combination, but that is the joy of cocktails, a little bit of experimentation. It is also one of the things Calum enjoys about cooking.  Needless to say, experimentation does not always work, but it does give you some great and, sometimes, surprising results. The only thing to remember when you are experimenting is to write down what you do, if you don’t and it turns out great, you won’t be able to recreate it!  We found this drink on belvederevodka.com and thought it was a good use of the ingredients we are growing in the garden and an opportunity to use up some more of the vodka collection Calum has amassed over the years!

For this weeks cocktail, you will need:

  • One measure of dry vermouth
  • One measure of vodka (as we used a Belvedere recipe, we thought it right to use Belvedere)
  • Soda water
  • Tonic water
  • Three ribbons of cucumber
  • One sprig of thyme
  • Ice

To create the drink, place the tall glass you intend to use in the fridge to chill them.  Take the cucumber and peel across the length to create the ribbons. Take the glass from the fridge and place the cucumber and thyme in the glass followed by a handful of ice.  Pour in the measure of dry vermouth, the measure of vodka and use equal parts of tonic water and soda water to fill the glass. Once full, give the mix a little stir and there you have this weeks cocktail, a Cucumber and Thyme Spritz.

We found the cocktail to be a good savoury drink, if a little drier than we normally would like.  It is certainly a summer drink to enjoy on a hot afternoon to keep your sprits up when drinking cocktails!

Cucumber & Thyme Spritz

<Orchard Blog | Cucumber & Thyme Spritz/div>

21st July 2016
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Cocktail of the Week | Raspberry Collins

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This week we dived into the drinks cabinet to try find a bottle that was nearly finished to create our cocktail of the week. It is tough all this cocktail drinking! It is however, quite fun learning about cocktails and we will continue with the hardship of creating and sampling drinks from our random collection of spirits for you. Who knows, we might actually get good at this. In the drinks cabinet we found a bottle of Absolut Raspberry Vodka that was nearly finished. We did little bit of research to see if there was anything we could use it for and we came across the Raspberry Collins. This drink comes from the ‘Collins’ cocktail family and there appears to be many relations in this family. We will have to try these in the future.

For this weeks cocktail, you will need:

  • 1 measure of simple syrup
  • 1/2 measure of fresh lemon juice
  • 2 measures raspberry vodka
  • soda water
  • raspberries

Firstly, if you have not made a syrup before it really is simple. To make ours, we add 300 grams of sugar 60 ml of water, place it over heat and stir until it is a clear liquid. As it cools it will come a thick liquid.

To prepare the drink, start by adding some ice to a tall glass, add the syrup, lemon juice and vodka to the glass and stir well to mix them together. Fill the rest of the glass with soda water and garnish with a few raspberries. That’s it, you now have a Raspberry Collins.

The drink is refreshing and very easy to make. You can make this in a jug quite easily by multiplying the ingredients for number of people you are making it for. Perfect for an evening of drinks in the garden with friends. It will certainly be on our repertoire of cocktails in future.

Raspberry Collins

Orchard Blog | Raspberry Collins
9th June 2016
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