The Wonderland XXX Cocktail (a curiously compelling concoction)

Bespoke Cocktail Service by Toasted Glass

I can hardly believe that it was all the way back in September 2016, that I created this cocktail and that it has taken me more than six months to write a post about it. In the run up to Christmas, I was kept so busy, painting, that I had to temporarily halt the Bespoke Cocktail Service, but it is now available again, so it feels like the perfect time to share the story of the 'Wonderland XXX'.

This cocktail was commissioned by a very thoughtful lady, to celebrate her friend's 30th birthday. Using the information she provided about her friend's drinking preferences and her unique insight into her character, I was able to create a Bespoke Cocktail that I hope, encapsulated all those elements.

The name, 'Wonderland XXX' was playing on the Alice in Wonderland theme, with the 'XXX', implying, not only the strength of the drink, but the roman numeral for '30'.

The drink features Bloom Gin, Cointreau, Aperol, prosecco, cherry concentrate and lemon juice, creating a fruity cocktail with plenty of zing and fizz. 

Bloom Gin provides a delicate backdrop to the contrasting, sweet and bitter orange elements of the Cointreau and Aperol, whilst the cherry concentrate provides a natural cherry flavour and lots of lovely vitamin C, to help mitigate some of the alcohol (although I suspect this is not NHS approved...).

Wonderland XXX

50ml Bloom Gin
25ml Cointreau
25ml Aperol
25ml Cherry Concentrate
15ml freshly squeezed lemon juice
Prosecco to top up
Fresh cherries and a twist of orange zest to garnish

Begin by squeezing half a small lemon to extract the juice.
Add the Bloom Gin, Cointreau, Aperol, cherry and lemon juice to a cocktail shaker, half filled with ice.
With the lid firmly closed, shake for about half a minute.
Strain into a chilled champagne coupe and top up with prosecco, to taste.
Garnish with fresh cherries (stones removed) and a thin strip of orange zest.

The painted glassware was created especially for this cocktail, but you can find similar pieces in the 'Drink Me Alice' section of the Toasted Glass website.

Vitamin C

Cranberry and Elderflower Mojito - glass by Toasted Glass

Mr TG and I have oft remarked that since I began my foray into the world of mixology, neither one of us is ever likely to fall foul of scurvy, given the vast amounts of limes we habitually consume through the medium of cocktails. Our livers may be the size of an elephant's, but by jingo, our vitamin C levels are through the roof...This week's cocktails all feature cranberry juice which is also high in vitamin C, not to mention antioxidants and flavonoids and has been shown to have an antibacterial effect in the body - admittedly, the health benefits are largely mitigated by the addition of sugar and alcohol, but it does look pretty and it tastes good too.

For those of you of an age to have been partying in the 90's, you will no doubt have sampled the delights of cranberry cocktails. The Cosmopolitan, the Woo Woo and the Seabreeze were all cocktail bar favourites and still persist today, but I wanted to mix up my own drinks, using some of my favourite ingredients. My problem with the aforementioned cocktails is that they all feature vodka, which is fine, but it doesn't bring a lot to the drink other than alcohol content and I wanted to mix some drinks that created new flavours with the cranberry, drawing on that slightly bitter fruitiness.

I personally love a cocktail with bitter sweetness to it and am a big fan of Campari and Aperol, so the combination of cranberry with that, works perfectly and creates the most beautiful colour as well. Cranberry and orange work very well together, so the bitter citrus of Campari and the sweeter orange of triple sec in this first cocktail, are a great combination with the juice. I used Williams Chase GB Gin as it's big, juniper and spice notes are fantastic with Campari and the addition of a little lemon juice balances out the flavours.

Vitamin C

Ingredients

1 oz Chase GB Gin

3/4 oz Campari

3/4 oz Triple Sec

1/4 oz freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 oz cranberry juice

Dash of sparkling water

Strip of orange zest to garnish

Add the everything except the sparkling water and garnish to the bottom of a shaker or large glass, with some ice and stir until the outside begins to frost.

Strain into an ice filled tumbler and add a dash of sparkling water to taste.

Cut a strip of zest from the peel of an orange and twist over the drink, releasing the essential oils, and garnish.

Vitamin C Cocktail - glass by Toasted Glass

This next cocktail was inspired by the Woo Woo, which is a rather sickly mixture of vodka, peach schnapps and cranberry juice. I actually used to love this drink, but since discovering the joys of Catron Creme de Peche de Vigne, I could never return to the artificial flavour of peach schnapps. The original drink is served long, over ice whereas this is served in the Martini Style. Rather than vodka, I have used Bloom Gin as it's delicately floral flavour works beautifully to enhance the peachy notes, rather than overpowering them. To avoid the flavour being too sweet, the addition of lemon juice is a must and as with all Martini Style drinks, it must be as cold as possible, so shake, shake, shake....

Poinsettia

Ingredients
2 oz Bloom Gin
1 oz Catron Creme de Peche de Vigne
1/2 oz freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 oz cranberry juice
Strip of orange zest and fresh cranberries to garnish

Add all of the ingredients to a shaker and shake hard for about 20 secs.
Strain into a chilled martini glass and garnish with a strip of orange zest and fresh cranberries, as shown.

Poinsettia Cocktail - glass by Toasted Glass

Now I have to be honest and 'fess up that I originally made this last cocktail with Bloom Gin and it was delicious. In my opinion it was even nicer than the rum version, but I absolutely love gin above all other spirits, so I would think that. In the interests of proffering options to those of you who who might want to drink something other than gin, I thought it only fair to try it with rum too and actually, it is very nice. The trick is to use a rum agricole such as the Clément Blanc which has an almost fruity taste to it and to avoid one that might be too nutty in flavour, which doesn't sit well with the Elderflower.

Cranberry and Elderflower Mojito

Ingredients
2 oz Clément Blanc Rum
1 oz freshly squeezed lime
6-8 fresh mint leaves
1 oz Chase Elderflower Liqueur
Dash of simple syrup
2 oz cranberry juice
Sprig of mint and fresh cranberries to garnish

Add everything but the cranberry juice and garnish to a shaker and muddle (gently squish with a blunt ended utensil) the mint with other ingredients.
Add a handful of ice and shake for 20 secs.
Strain into an ice filled glass and top with the cranberry juice.
Garnish with a sprig of mint and fresh cranberries, as shown.

Cranberry and Elderflower Mojito - glass by Toasted Glass

Overall, I found cranberry juice to be a versatile and attractive ingredient despite it bringing back hazy and often toe-curlingly, embarrassing memories of a bygone decade. In fact, I could have made many more cocktails, but Mr TG and I are trying to show some restraint in our cocktail consumption, so my ideas will just have to wait for another post. Watch this space....

Bloom Gin

Bloom Gin - glasses by Toasted Glass

I've had my eye on the delightfully presented Bloom Gin for quite some time now; ever since it was recommended to me by my favourite purveyors of fine spirits and liqueurs at Amathus City. I was intrigued by it's list of botanicals that include, alongside the essential juniper; sweet honeysuckle, pomelo and chamomile. I was promised a delicate gin that sounded perfect for making the kind of floral and fresh cocktails that I love.

Now don't get me wrong, I love a big, punchy gin as much as the next ginthusiast, but variety really is the spice of life and there's always room in the cocktail cabinet for another juniper based spirit and they really do vary. The only hard and fast rule, to which distillers must adhere when producing gin, is that the predominant flavour should be juniper, but otherwise, the options are infinite. The base spirit is generally a clear, grain spirit (vodka), but even that, needn't be the case, as Chase Distillers have proved, by producing a number of gins using apples from their orchards in Hereford. When it comes to botanicals, gin producers can get creative and no two brands will taste the same. Hendricks, for instance, uses a rose and cucumber infusion, Gin Mare is flavoured with olive and Blackwoods lists water mint and wild violet among it's ingredients, all of which give each gin their own, unique flavour.

Back to Bloom, our light and delicately flavoured gin. As you would expect, it's subtle on the nose; predominantly juniper with floral notes. The flavour is similarly understated and pleasantly sweet on the palate, without losing it's essential gin-iness. The pomelo makes for a softer citrus flavour than usual which is beautifully balanced by the unobtrusive hints of chamomile and sweet honeysuckle. All in all, I think it's rather lovely and would highly recommend it, but do pick and choose your cocktails carefully. The combining elements in some other cocktails could overwhelm such a delicate flower and that would be a shame. You need to make drinks that play up to it's floral delicacy rather than obscure it. There are a number of delicious sounding cocktails on their website that you should definitely have a look at and I have created a few here that I am particularly pleased with. So, without further ado...

I named this cocktail 'Forbidden Fruit' because pink grapefruit, (which is a hybrid of pomelo and sweet orange) when first discovered in Barbados, was given that name. Having a very similar taste profile to pomelo, pink grapefruit is good choice to bring out the best of Bloom gin. It's sweeter than ordinary grapefruit and of course, it's a wonderful colour. I find that basil and pink grapefruit work remarkably well together, but basil is a powerful herb, so less is most definitely more in this case.

Forbidden Fruit

Ingredients
2 oz Bloom Gin
1 large basil leaf
2 oz freshly squeezed pink grapefruit
1 tsp agave syrup
Pink Grapefruit zest and basil to garnish

Before cutting the pink grapefruit to squeeze it, first pare off a long strip of zest, ensuring to leave as much of the pith behind as is possible and set aside for garnishing the cocktail at the end.
Add the gin, basil and pink grapefruit to a cocktail shaker and muddle gently to release the aroma from the basil.
Remove the basil leave and discard before adding the agave syrup and a handful of ice.
Shake hard until the outside of the shaker is completely frosted and then double strain into a chilled martini glass.
Before  garnishing, twist the zest over the drink to release a micro fine spray of citrus oil and gently slap the basil between your palms to allow the aroma of the herb to escape.

Forbidden Fruit - glass by Toasted glass

This next cocktail makes me think of warm, mediterranean summers. The lemon and rosemary keep it fresh and light and I used Prosecco because it's a touch sweeter. You only need a little of the rosemary syrup, and the peachy citrus notes of the bubbles are perfect with this light and floral gin.

Bubble and Bloom

Ingredients
2 oz Bloom Gin
3/4 oz freshly squeezed lemon
1 tsp rosemary syrup
Prosecco to top up
Lemon zest and rosemary sprig to garnish

Before cutting the lemon to squeeze it, first pare off a long strip of zest, ensuring to leave as much of the pith behind as is possible and set aside for garnishing the cocktail at the end.
Add the gin, lemon and rosemary syrup to a cocktail shaker with a handful of ice and shake.
Strain into a champagne flute and carefully top with Prosecco.
Strip the lower needles from the sprig of rosemary and twist the lemon zest around the stem and garnish.

Bubble and Bloom - glass by Toasted Glass

This last cocktail was my personal favourite, not least because, as soon as I opened my bottle of Bloom Gin, I knew I wanted to make a cocktail that involved chamomile tea and the drink that I created in my head at that moment, worked perfectly. I wanted to use whole dried chamomile flowers to make the tea, but was unable to source them at short notice. However, to my delight, I discovered that teapigs chamomile tea temples are stocked in my local Tesco. Each little 'temple' contains a generous quantity of whole, dried chamomile flowers which brew up to produce a perfect cup of naturally sweet and golden tea. The teapigs website is well worth a visit if you are a fan of tea. It's fun, easy to use and they sell a myriad of loose and bagged, high quality teas.

Teapigs Chamomile Tea - glass cup by Toasted Glass

Chamomile Lawn

Ingredients
2 oz Bloom Gin
1 oz Chase Elderflower Liqueur
1/2 oz freshly squeezed lemon
1 tsp agave syrup
3 oz cold chamomile tea
Sprig of mint to garnish

Pour around 200 ml of just boiled water into a cup containing a teapigs tea temple and allow to infuse for around 10 mins.
Remove the chamomile and allow to cool before refrigerating until chilled.
Add all of the ingredients to a shaker with ice and stir steadily until the outside of the shaker develops a frosty bloom.
Strain the contents into an ice filled tumbler.
Gently slap the sprig of mint between your palms to release the aroma and garnish the drink.

Chamomile Lawn - glass by Toasted Glass