Mix Up the Perfect Bank Holiday Cocktails
It’s a Bank Holiday. Celebrate the long weekend by mixing up the perfect cocktail or two. Here are some of our favourites…
The French 75
A decadent mix of champagne, Lind & Lime gin, lemon juice and sugar syrup, the famous French 75 dates back to the First World War, created in 1915 at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris. The cocktail was said to pack such a punch that it was reminiscent of being shelled by a French 75mm field gun.
Ingredients & Method
50ml Lind & Lime
30ml freshly-squeezed lemon
15ml sugar syrup
Champagne or prosecco to finish
Shake and pour the ingredients into a champagne flute. Once settled, pour champagne or prosecco down a bar spoon, allowing it to sit on top of the gin mix.
Optional: Drop a sugar cube into the glass. Serve with a lemon twist.
The Gimlet
In the Raymond Chandler novel The Long Goodbye, a character famously describes a Gimlet as ‘half gin, half Rose’s Lime Juice, and nothing else’. Indeed, that is how the recipe is originally set down in the famous Savoy Cocktail book of 1930. Serendipitously, Rose’s Lime Cordial also originated in Leith. For this Gimlet, things take a grown-up turn with fresh lime.
Ingredients & Method
50ml Lind & Lime
Limes
15ml sugar syrup
Squeeze some limes and make some fresh lime juice. Mix one part juice to two parts Lind & Lime gin. Stir in sugar syrup or sugar and sweeten to your taste. Shake with ice and serve in a coupe.
Escubac Fizz
Escubac is a botanical spirit that, in terms of flavour and style, sits somewhere between gin, aquavit, and herbal liqueurs. The spirit became obsolete in the early 20th century and stayed that way until 2015, when Sweetdram revived it as a unique, delicious gin-alternative for the modern drinker. As the only version to still exist today, Sweetdram Escubac contains 14 botanicals – including caraway, nutmeg, citrus, and cardamom – and is steeped in raisins, vanilla and saffron to create an intensely flavoursome elixir.
Ingredients & Method
50ml Escubac
20ml Crème De Pêche
20ml Lemon juice
Orange bitters
Soda
Combine Escubac, lemon, creme de peche and a dash of orange bitters in a cocktail shaker. Add ice and shake. Double strain into an ice-filled highball glass. Top with soda and garnish with an orange twist.
Bakewell Fizz
This goes beautifully with an afternoon tea! But be careful they are very easy to drink…
Ingredients & Method
Prosecco
Kirsch-soaked cherries
Kirsch
Amaretto
Pop a pre-soaked kirsch cherry into the bottom of your glass, and add in a splash of kirsch
Top with one part amaretto, and three parts prosecco.