Tag Archives: gin

Celebrate World Gin Day With Charlotte’s Bistro Cocktail

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Flickr_-_cyclonebill_-_Gin_^_tonicWorld Gin Day was founded by Neil Houston of ‘Yet Another Gin’ in 2009. What started with a few Gins has turned into a worldwide celebration. This year our friend Emma Stokes of Gin Monkey takes over the reins.

All over the world, in different time zones obviously people will be celebrating the beautiful spirit of Gin.

Our love and borderline obsession of Gin began with the introduction of our “Gin Wall” in August 2013 followed by the introduction of Monday night Gin School (@GinSchool) in November. Brainchild of Charlotte’s owner Alex Wrethman, our bar team Fredi, Ted, Nicholas and host Matt Mawtus have continued to grow this Monday night institution. Charlotte’s Bistro has become a secret hideaway for all Gin aficionados. They serve 40 different European gins in constant rotation, taking into consideration seasonality and personality.

Fredi and his bar team have created something unique for #WorldGinDay the ‘Charlotte’s Cup’ – based on the basic Summer Cup recipe with our personal twist, and feel it’s pretty darn good. It will be served in true British style with our homemade lemonade. The ‘Charlotte’s Cup’ will be launched officially on Saturday 15th June – #WorldGinDay.

 

The Recipe

 

Charlotte’s Cup       Lemonade

1500ml Gin – use simple based gin     25ml Gomme

750ml Sweet Vermouth      25ml Lemon Juice

3 Cucumbers       1 spoon Vanilla sugar

4 Punnets of Strawberries      2 mint leaves 75ml Sparkling water

700g Coriander Seeds

1 Vanilla Pod

1 Cinnamon Stick

 

After 3 days add:

100g Lemon Thyme

300g Sugar

 

 

Chop all your Charlotte’s Cup ingredients and snap cinnamon stick. Strain all ingredients and macerate in a sealed container (we recommend using a large 3ltr Kilner jar) for 3 weeks in a cold area.

After three weeks add your Lemon Thyme and sugar and leave for a further three days.

To make your homemade lemonade just put all the ingredients in a clean bottle and shake!

 

Serve long with lots of ice, strawberries, cucumber, mint and of course your homemade lemonade.

 

#WorldGinDay, @GinSchool, @CharlottesW4, Saturday 15th June 2013

 

Gillray’s Steakhouse & Bar | Restaurant Review – Part 1: The Bar

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The bar at Gillrays

Gillray’s Steakhouse & Bar is situated in a five star hotel, the London Marriott. Which is in turn located in the former seat of London’s government, County Hall, just across Westminster bridge from the Houses of Parliament. Walking up to the hotel to get to the restaurant, one’s breath is taken away by just how beautiful it is. It is so full of class and elegance that you almost feel it is from a different era.

The hotel itself is beautiful. The stuff dreams are made of and as we walk into the restaurant our first view is of a gorgeous English Gin bar, with riverside views of the Southbank. The bar is based on 18th-century social and political caricaturist James Gillray.

The Perfect Martini

 

We talk to Carlos, the bar room manager. Carlos is friendly, passionate and knowledgeable. It’s clear that no expense has been spared and a huge amount of effort has been put into every last detail. Gillray’s Steakhouse & Bar has 35 English gins, and it will soon be ‘over forty’. Only the very best make it onto the menu. The bar looks wonderful, almost like some fantastic chemistry cocktail laboratory.  Everything has been done to an exact science to ensure perfect quality and it comes across in the taste of the cocktails

The menu is fascinating and separated into eras, Georgian, Victorian, Edwardian, contemporary and modern Britain. Each era has its own brilliant Gillray caricature. Although the specialty is Gin there is a huge range of many different cocktails. A full menu can be found here

I ask Carlos for a recommendation and have the St James Martini, something I already had my eye on. It comes in the most perfect glass, looks great and tastes divine. If you love martini’s, make sure you try one.

My colleague has a ‘First Kiss’, made up of Hendrick’s gin with peppermint, lemongrass tea tincture, shaken with lime juice, sugar and fresh pineapple. The result is a delicious, refined and refreshing. One of the best cocktails he has ever had.

The ‘First Kiss’ cocktail

The cocktails were fairly expensive. Most of them are around £10.

However this a real experience. It is something unique that you will remember and it fully justifies the cost. Anyone who loves cocktails must try it, and everyone else should go at least once for the experience.

Having finished off our cocktails we head off to the restaurant area behind the bar. You will be able to  read a full review of the restaurant part of Gillray’s Steakhouse & Bar very shortly.

Part 2 here

 

 

 

No.3 London Dry Gin Review

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This gin is beautifully packaged and designed in every way. I especially love the key on the bottle. This No.3 London Dry Gin from Berry Brothers & Rudd, Britain’s oldest wine and spirit merchants, uses just 3 fruits and 3 spices (the ‘botanicals’ which flavour every gin), The No.3 also comes from Berry Brothers’ home; No.3 St. James’s Street.

This is now my favourite gin. Careful though, it’s 46% ABV. It’s crisp and fresh. I also made a Gin & Tonic with it which tasted perfect. It is pure class all the way. 46% is also the perfect strength for a Dry Martini.

To make a G & T

50ml of No.3 London Dry Gin, pour into high top glass over ice, add a slice of Lemon and stir, then top up with tonic water to taste.

Dr. David Clutton is the only person to have a PhD in gin flavour, the team deliberately set out to make No.3 taste ‘as gin should’ – without the use of an excessive amount of ingredients and distilled in traditional copper pot stills without any over-elaboration. So, with classic simplicity the goal, the experts placed a robust helping of juniper – the key ingredient in any gin – at the heart of No.3. This striking juniper quality was then cleverly complemented by just 5 other fruits and spices; namely, sweet Spanish orange peel, grapefruit peel, Angelica root, Moroccan coriander and cardamom seeds.

From Waitrose RRP of £33.65 for a 70cl bottle, but it’s worth it!

www.no3gin.com or Twitter @No3Gin.