Rose and Cardamom

Fun With Marshmallows (Part 2)

Rose Cardamom Martini - glass by Toasted Glass

After the success of cocktail making with Earl Grey marshmallows, those lovely people at Eat Toast Dunk Me were kind enough to send me another, intriguing flavour to try. This time it was a box full of middle eastern promise - delicious Rose and Cardamom. All the flavour of turkish delight but without the stickiness and light as air.

Having explored the potential of infusing alcohol with this superior confectionary in my last post, Fun With Marshmallows, I decided that this time, I would take my inspiration from the delicately exotic and fragrant flavours and mix up some rose and cardamom cocktails. The marshmallows make a fun accompaniment and can really enhance the aroma when used as a garnish or just have them as an indulgent snack, alongside.

This first cocktail takes the classic Gin Rickey (gin, soda and lime) and turns it into a fragrant summer cooler, perfect for balmy nights and hot, sunny afternoons.

Rose and Cardamom Gin Rickey

2 oz Martin Miller Gin
1 oz freshly squeezed lime juice (about 1 lime)
1/2 oz simple syrup
2 cardamom pods
tbsp rosewater

Muddle (squish) the cardamom pods with gin, lime, simple syrup and rosewater in the bottom of a heavy bottomed glass.
Add plenty of ice, top up with soda and stir to mix.
Serve with a rosewater and cardamom marshmallow.

Rose and Cardamom Gin Rickey - glass by Toasted Glass

This next cocktail is adapted from one that I found whilst trawling the virtual bars of the internet. I couldn't attest to its origins but whoever thought it up - well done - it's jolly nice. I have used rosewater and simple syrup rather than rose syrup as it's unnecessary to invest in or make your own when the composite parts are those two ingredients anyway. The ruby grapefruit gives a wonderful pale pink tinge and the Peychauds bitters add a depth that is hard to explain, but try one with and one without and you'll see for yourself...

Cardamom Rose Cocktail

2 oz Hendricks Gin

1 oz freshly squeezed ruby grapefruit juice

1 oz freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/2 oz simple syrup

1 tbsp rosewater

2 dashes Peychauds bitters

1 cardamom pod

In the bottom of a shaker, muddle (squish) the cardamom pod with the gin.

Add all of the other ingredients with a handful of ice and shake hard for about 10 seconds.

Strain into a chilled glass with ice.

Serve with a couple of cubes of Eat Toast Dunk Me rose and cardamom marshmallow.

Cardamom and Rose Cocktail - glass by Toasted Glass

Last but not least is a cocktail in the 'martini' style, featuring Hendricks Gin and Martini Rosato, a rosé vermouth that is sweeter than it's dry counterpart, with flavours of raspberry, lemon, cinnamon and cloves.

Rose Cardamom Martini

2 oz Hendricks Gin

1 oz Martini Rosato

2 tsp simple syrup

1tsp lemon juice

2 tsp rosewater

dash of Angostura orange bitters

1 cardamom pod

In the bottom of a shaker, muddle the gin and cardamom.

Add the remaining ingredients and shake hard until the outside of the shaker becomes frosty.

Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Pop in a rose and cardamom marshmallow.

Rose Cardamom Martini - glass by Toasted Glass

Thank you to Eat Toast Dunk Me for this week's inspiration and if you'd like to find out other delicious ways to enjoy their marshmallows, then pop along to their website and be inspired by the plethora of delicious and inventive flavours.

Visit Eat Toast Dunk Me

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

Just Peachy...

Sweet Rosemary cocktail - glass by Toasted Glass

This week's post has been brought to you, courtesy of Lockets, Olbas Oil and Kleenex Balsam Tissues, without which, none of this would have been possible. I am currently in the midst of Lady Flu and viewing the world as though I had a vaseline smeared fish bowl on my head - none of which is conducive to good mixology, taste being an integral part of the process. Luckily however, the week began in less snot-centric circumstances and I was able to create a few peachy numbers before the flu fairy descended upon me, sprinkling me with her germ-laden, fairy dust. 

Why peaches, I hear you ask? Well, the truth is that Mr TG returned from a hard day's foraging in the supermarket, laden with multiple punnets of white peaches which had been reduced in price. They were a tad on the hard side, so we left them to ripen in the bowl, but after two days of waiting patiently, they were still looking more useful as cricket balls, than a fruity treat. Not wishing to admit defeat, I decided to turn them into peach purée - worst case, we'd drinking Bellinis all week...

So, should you find yourself in similarly saddled with a bowl of hard peaches, this is what to do to make them into peach nectar.

Peach Nectar

Firstly, score the skin of the peaches with a sharp knife, to make several crosses over the surface - this will allow the skin to loosen when you blanche them.

Place the peaches in a pan of water so that they are covered and bring quickly to the boil - if the peaches are really hard, allow to boil for minute or two.

Remove from heat and run immediately under the cold tap - this should loosen the peach skin and make it easy to peel off.

Cut the peaches in half and remove the stones.

If the peaches are still very hard, place all the cut pieces into a saucepan with just enough water to cover the bottom and simmer for a few minutes until soft, ensuring the pan doesn't boil dry.

Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Push through a sieve with the back of a spoon and store in an airtight container. 

Add a little water and or sugar, if necessary.

As this peach nectar has no preservatives, you should aim to guzzle it within a day or two, which means lots of cocktailing opportunities, or you could just drink it as juice, but where's the fun in that?

This first cocktail brought a touch of summer sun to an autumnal evening. It plays the sweetness of peach against the tang of grapefruit and tops it off with a touch of fiery ginger beer. The combination of sweet and spicy Añejo 7 Años Havana Club, dark rum with the citrus notes of Clement Rhum Blanc Agricole give the drink lots of flavour layers in the tradition of a Tiki style cocktail.

Peach Tiki

Ingredients

1oz Añejo 7 Años Havana Club

1oz Clement Rhum Blanc Agricole

1oz peach nectar

1oz freshly squeezed pink grapefruit juice

A little ginger beer to top up

Strip of pink grapefruit zest to garnish

Using a sharp paring knife, cut a strip of zest from the peel of the grapefruit and set to one side.

Add everything, but the ginger beer to a cocktail shaker and shake hard for about 20 secs.

Strain into a large tumbler or highball filled with crushed ice and top up with a little ginger beer.

Peach Tiki - glass by Toasted Glass

As well as being a gorgeous shade of blush, this next cocktail is a delicate blend of gin and juice, enhanced with the herbal notes of fresh basil. I used Williams Chase Extra Dry GB Gin because it has strong spicy notes of cinnamon and nutmeg that compliment the peach nectar and plenty of juniper and citrus to blend with the pink grapefruit. There are a lot of different flavours going on in one glass, but the result is a delicately perfumed and refreshing  drink.

Basil Blush

Ingredients

2oz Williams Chase Extra Dry GB Gin
4-6 fresh basil leaves
1oz peach nectar
1oz freshly squeezed pink grapefruit juice
1/2oz simple syrup
Dash of sparkling water
Sprig of basil to garnish

Add the syrup and basil leaves to a cocktail shaker and muddle gently (squish) to release the essential oils - don't overdo the muddling or the flavour will be vegetal rather deliciously herbal.
Add the rest of the ingredients to the shaker with a handful of ice and shake to mix.
Strain the shaker contents into a chilled tumbler, filled with ice and top with a dash of sparkling water.
Garnish with a small sprig of basil - gently slap the sprig between your palms to release the basil aroma.

Basil Blush cocktail - glass by Toasted Glass

Now I realise that tequila isn't everybody's spirit of choice, but I have grown to love the smokey, earthy flavour of a tequila resposado and find it combines really well with elderflower and rosemary syrup as in the Tufnell cocktail from my Ashes post. Here, I've used these flavours again, but combined them with peach nectar and topped up with a spot of bubbly to add some sparkle and dilute the concentration in the absence of ice.

Sweet Rosemary

Ingredients

1oz tequila resposado
1/2 oz Chase Elderflower Liqueur
1/2 oz rosemary syrup (click here for recipe)
1oz peach nectar
1/2 oz lemon juice
Cava or your fizz of choice to top up
Strip of lemon zest to garnish

Before cutting the lemon to squeeze it, take a sharp paring knife and cut a strip of zest from the peel.
Add the rest of the ingredients, apart from the Cava, to a shaker and shake hard.
Strain into a chilled martini glass or coupette and carefully add some fizz, ensuring you pour slowly to avoid it fizzing over. Allow to settle and gently stir to mix.

Sweet Rosemary cocktail - glass by Toasted Glass

And so we come to the end of the week, when the lurgey caught up with me and I was rendered temporarily off the cocktail radar. I was sorely tempted to treat myself with Penicillin cocktails, but upon reflection, decided that, although undeniably delicious, the health benefits were debatable. Instead, I made a warming, fruity punch, using the rest of the peach nectar, lemon and honey-ginger syrup. I can testify to it's soothing and warming qualities and should you wish to pop a tot of rum in there too, I imagine you'll be perky again in no time!

Rum Tea Remedy

Ingredients

1oz Clements Rhum Blanc Agricole

1oz honey-ginger syrup

2oz water

2oz peach nectar

1oz lemon

Add everything to a saucepan and heat very gently for about 5 mins, never allowing it to boil.

Pour into a suitably heat resistant receptacle, cup hands around it and curl up in a comfy chair, preferably with a warm, snuggly blanket...achoo

Rum Tea Remedy - cup by Toasted Glass

Pinkster Gin

Back in June, you may or may not remember that I went to the wonderful, food and drink extravaganza, that is the Taste London Festival and although I did remember to eat something, it was a very gin-centric sort of day. One of the purveyors of gin that I met there, were the relative newbies, Pinkster, who were enjoying a fantastic response to their subtly pink and delicately flavoured gin. At the time, I was unable to take a bottle home and as yet, Pinkster is not available in stores, but can be ordered online and I am now happy to say that I have a bottle of my own and it has been well and truly tested - the results of which, I am of course, going to share with you all.

Pinkster Gin available online from Master of Malt

When I received my bottle in the post, simply, but attractively packaged, I wasted no time in breaking the seal, popping out the cork stopper and having a good sniff. There's no denying the hint of raspberry about the gin, but it's very subtle and should not be mistaken for a liqueur and is no way, akin to a sloe gin. The aroma and flavour of raspberry is predominant, but very delicate none the less.

In order to qualify as a gin, the predominant botanical has to be juniper, but other than that , there are not too many stipulations, hence, there are literally hundreds of different brands, all with varying flavour; some big and bold, like Old Raj or City of London Distillery, some very delicate like Bloom Gin. Pinkster is definitely at the subtler end of the scale, which will appeal to most and of course, the colour is very becoming. As a cocktail gin, it works rather well as it does not overpower other flavours and of course, anything that enhances that raspberry infusion is going to be a winner. I am rather pleased with all of the cocktails I have created and Mr TG and I have very much enjoyed sampling them - so much so, that the bottle is three quarters empty. Please do give Pinksters and these cocktails a try - I think you'll enjoy....

First up is the Pinkster, Summer Punch Mar(tea)ni. This is an adaptation of the Earl Grey Mar(tea)ni recipe, a drink I featured in my Mother's Ruin post and first accredited to Audrey Saunders, owner of the famous Pegu Club in New York. As with the Earl Grey Martini, the Summer Punch Mar(tea) requires infusing the gin ahead of time, with a teaspoon of Whittards Summer Punch loose tea. This tea is the perfect blend to use with Pinkster as it uses berry fruits and juniper, both of which enhance the gin's natural flavour.

To infuse the gin, first pour 2 oz into a clean receptacle, add a spoonful of tea and allow to infuse for 1hr and definitely no more than 2 or the flavour will become bitter and woody. Strain the gin into a cocktail shaker and you're ready to begin.

Pinkster Gin infusing with Whittard Summer Punch loose tea

 Pinkster Summer Punch Mar(tea)ni

Ingredients

2 oz Pinkster Gin infused with Whittard Summer Punch loose tea
1 oz lemon juice
1 oz simple syrup
1 egg white
1 raspberry to garnish

Add all of the ingredients to a shaker and dry shake (without ice), ensuring the lid is firmly on - dry shaking with egg white can cause a build up of gas in the shaker which can pop the lid off if you're not careful.

When the mixture is very frothy (about 20 secs) remove the lid, add ice and shake hard again until the outside of the shaker is properly frosted.
Strain the mixture into a martini glass or a small teacup if you prefer.
Garnish with a raspberry.

Hand painted, vintage teacup and saucer by Toasted Glass

Next up is the Colonel's Summer Cooler, a refreshing drink, perfect for those hot, muggy nights in the Colonies...

Colonel's Summer Cooler

Ingredients

1 1/2 oz Pinkster Gin

1/4 oz Luxardos Maraschino Liqueur

1 oz freshly squeezed pink grapefruit

1/4 oz lemon

3 basil leaves

1/4 oz simple syrup

Dash of soda

Sprig of basil to garnish

Add all of the ingredients, except the soda, to a shaker with ice and shake hard

Strain into a tumbler or highball filled with ice and top with a little soda

Slap the sprig of basil gently between your palms to release the oils and garnish the drink

White Stag Tumblers by Toasted Glass

This next cocktail has some herbal ingredients but nothing that overwhelms the drink. The initial scent of rosemary is wonderful on the nose and adds to the gin's botanicals and the addition of a little Giffards Creme de Framboises, plays up Pinkster's natural raspberry flavour.

Pinkster Garden Party

Ingredients

2 oz Pinkster Gin

1/2 oz Giffard Creme de Framboises

1/2 oz lemon juice

1/2 lavender syrup

Sprig of rosemary to garnish

Add all of the ingredients, except the garnish, to a shaker with ice and shake until the outside of the shaker is frosted.

Strain into a chilled martini glass

Slap the rosemary gently, between the palms of your hands to release the aroma and garnish the drink

White Lace Cocktail Glasses by Toasted Glass

This next cocktail is a great alternative to Pimms on a hot day as it is fruity and refreshing and simple to put together.

Lady Pinkster's Summer Cup

Ingredients

1 oz Pinkster Gin

1 oz Cockburns Fine Ruby Port

1/2 oz Giffard Creme de Framboises

1/2 oz fresh lemon juice

Dash of soda to top up

3 raspberries on a cocktail stick to garnish

Add everything apart from the soda and garnish to a tall glass, half filled with ice cubes and stir to mix and cool down the alcohol.

Add more ice and top up with a little soda.

Stir again and garnish

Hi ball Glasses by Toasted Glass