Ahh yes. I couldn’t very well ignore Valentine’s Day could I? Mr GFB and I don’t really celebrate it that hard – but whether you’re single, taken, or undecided, romance is in the air.
Of course, I’m hitting the gin. Well, when you have gins like Bloom you have the excuse to hit the gin in the most romantic way possible. The Shrub and Shutter in Brixton are serving a set of matching cocktails, with their Strawberry Crumble.
Pretty isn’t it? If you fancy making it for the loved on in your life (or hell, just for yourself), it’s recreatable at home with a little prep:
50ml Bloom Gin, 20ml Shrub and Shutter slow cooked wild strawberry puree*, 15ml fresh lemon juice, 20ml bergamot tea syrup*, 10ml lavender shrub*
*Substitute a homemade puree and syrup (stock syrup infused with bergamot tea) and you can make the shrub or drinking vinegar too.
The finished cocktail is garnished with lavender, fresh strawberry gel, strawberry jelly and honeycomb crumble.
Much, much closer to home, one of my favourite bars, Oscar’s on Canal Street, has it’s own romantic leaning, using Fentimans Rose Lemonade and garnished with fresh rose petals.
In the interests of research (obviously) I popped in to sample this gorgeous G’indulgent Rose Bloom and can highly recommend it, floral, lightly sweet, it has an air of decadence about it – though that could have just been the bar!
For something spicier, Joe Wild of Jenny’s Bar in Liverpool has created a cocktail to celebrate Chinese New Year, The Shangri La – and just the sound of it makes my mouth water.
50ml Opihr Spiced Gin, 50ml Plum juice, 2 dashes of hoi sin bitters, 15ml Chinese takeaway syrup (5 spice syrup), 20ml lemon juice
And London again are getting in on the act, with Domaine de Canton. Rasa Gaidelyte of Peony in Chinatown has made the G&G (grapefruit and ginger), using the Domaine de Canton, and adding gin, grapefruit juice, hopped grapefruit bittersand Peony’s own Chinese spiced syrup.
I feel a London trip coming on…