bringing drinks to life

My God it's been a couple of busy weeks for us here at Bitters & Twisted HQ. We have been working closely with our web designers and they have done us proud so we are getting closer and closer to the launch of our full site. We have been to check out the Sipsmith distillery in London, then we went drinking tequila in Leeds, followed by Gin in London, not to mention making pineapple bitters as well as homemade syrups and we have been catching up with friends old and new. I am getting tired just thinking about how rushed off my feet I have been.

On the subject of Sipsmith I am not going to say too much as I am going to be including them in an upcoming blog about artesianal producers and small batch spirits. I will say this however, if you get a chance to try their gin, I can highly recommend it. Somehow it makes me think that this is how old fashioned gins might have been. Not overly rounded or soft, Sipsmith gin is full of character and flavour and is a lively gin that grabs you by the taste buds and takes you for a ride. Right, that's enough of that, before I get carried away and don't leave myself anything else to write about!

I was lucky enough to be asked to judge the 'Cazadores hunt' in Leeds last week, which for those of you who don't know is an ever evolving tequila event that Cazadores are starting to roll out. The idea is simple, get 20 - 30 top bartenders together in a city centre at lunchtime. Refresh them with loads of tequila and then set them a series of tasks to compete at in several bars. End it all with a cocktail comp (after 6 hours of drinking tequila this was the most rowdy comp I have ever seen!) and crown the winning team as winners of the Cazadores hunt... The experience actually got me looking at both tequila and brand run competitions in a whole new light, so much so that I am going to be dedicating a blog update to the subject very soon. Keep your eyes peeled or subscribe to our blog to be notified when it gets updated... 

So the day of the dead passed with a bang for me, but there was no time to recover as two friends from Denmark made their way over the water for a visit. Henrik Hammer, the creator and owner of Geranium Gin came over bringing a couple of cases of gin and our good friend Jimmy Olsen who is Geranium's Global Brand Ambassador. To celebrate their arrival in the UK we decided to do a bit of a bar crawl starting at midday and covering some of London's most respected bars. Lunchtime cocktails at The Dorchester lead to early afternoon martinis at Dukes, followed by a pick-me-up at Salvatore's @50 and then a quick refresher at LAB. All this before hitting the London Cocktail Club for an invitation only bartenders preview of Geranium. 

You may remember that not too long ago I blogged about Geranium www.bittersandtwisted.com/content/new-gin-really-cats-whiskers and having had a chance to hear other people reacting to it I feel sure it will be a huge success when it finally gets distribution in the UK. In the meantime if you fancy getting a taste of it before it is available over here then visit any one of the bars mentioned above and ask nicely. You might also find a bottle on the back bar of Hawksmoor, Callooh Callay or The Connaught as we also managed to work those into our visits.

If you are lucky enough to live in a country where Geranium is available why not mix up a 'gin thyme' if you get a second. This is a slight adaptation from a drink in Gary Regan's excellent book, with just a tweek to the proportions so that it works perfectly to showcase Geranium Gin. 

60 ml Geranium Gin

10 ml Green Chartreuse

a sprig of fresh thyme

1 dash lemon bitters

in a mixing glass with cubed or cracked ice stir the Geranium Gin with the Chartreuse until chilled and dilluted, then strain into a chilled coupe and garnish with a sprig of fresh thyme.  The aroma of the thyme works beautifully with the herbal kick from the chartreuse and the floral notes of the gin.

Obviously after all that tequila and gin drinking I needed to give myself a little break, so I set a day aside for finishing off my homemade pineapple bitters and for making some new syrups using dried herbs, fruits and flowers. I am still on a big hibiscus kick and have been playing with the dried flowers and dried orange peel to make a sharp, fruity syrup with a long floral finish. I also got my hands on some rose petals which have ended up balanced against a hint of cinnamon to create a delicate syrup that adds a refreshing floral note and a hint of spice when added to cocktails. 

Unfortunately this cunning plan to give myself a break backfired entirely as it is impossible to make new ingredients without testing them in a few drinks. So a home cocktail session involving seeing how every spirit imaginable might work with each of the new flavours ensued. As of course did a hangover the following day. To give the bitters a proper road test we put them in the hands of a few of our bartending friends and have had a pretty good response. I realised I have become a complete drinks geek when I received a text from Ago at The Connaught to tell me that he had just made one of their signature martinis with my pineapple bitters... in his own words 'superb!'. Obviously this made my day but also confirmed my suspicions about my geek tendancies.

Now we are planning the next couple of weeks of 'work'. Next week Jim Rutlidge, the master distiller from Four Roses will be over on this side of the pond and I will be spending the week with him. Expect a full blog to follow with some interviews with Jim, bartenders and possibly even some consumers to see how people react to the range. I know I am a fan, but honestly that means very little so let's see what a broader audience think of Four Roses!

Well as I said, I am getting tired just reading about how busy I have been. Please keep your eyes peeled for further blog updates as the next couple should be really interesting. In the meantime I am going to kick back and relax with a Four Roses and hibiscus sour with a pineapple bitters foam!

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