When we launched Juniper – our fabulous,
modern gin trolley – on World Gin Day, we asked some of our favourite mixologists for some ginspiration. To come up with a fresh, new and unique gin cocktail that we could serve at all our summer events. And so, they slaved away over bottles of gin, herbs, fruits, syrups, mixers and garnishes to come up with their perfect take on a gin cocktail. Together with our partner gins,
Wild Island and
Pickering’s 1947, you’ll find thyme and lemon balm, grapefruit and pomegranate, even a splash of champagne.
Saturday 3 August is International Scottish Gin Day so get yourself a cocktail shaker and give them all a go
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- 60ml Wild Island Botanic Gin
- 30ml Freshly squeezed lime juice
- 110ml Thyme and Lime syrup (see recipe below)
- 1 egg white
- Dash of Angostura bitters
- Fresh Thyme sprig to garnish
- Ice!
You’ll also need a cocktail shaker for this recipe.
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For homemade Thyme and Lime syrup:
- Heat 200ml water to boiling in a non-stick pan and gently add 100g sugar, zest of half a lime and a large sprig of fresh thyme.
- Turn down the heat and stir constantly for 3-5 minutes until the sugar is dissolved.
- Turn off the heat and leave to cool. Whilst still runny decant into a sterlised glass bottle/jar.
- Store in the fridge for up to 6 weeks (mine never lasts that long!)
For Wild Island Sour:
- Shake the gin, lime juice, syrup and egg white ‘dry’ (without ice) for at least 15 seconds.
- Then add ice to your shaker and shake again (the first shake gets a good foam on the cocktail).
- Strain into the glass and add a couple of drops of Angostura bitters and garnish with the thyme sprig.
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I hope you feel the wow factor here?!
The result is a cocktail that is balanced between the sweet syrup and the sour lime juice, with a good head of egg white froth on the top. If the balance isn’t quite right then add more syrup/lime juice to get it to your taste. You should be able to taste the gin without it being too strong a flavour, but still be able to enjoy Wild Island Botanic gin to the full.
I could see this being shaken up from the Juliettes Interiors gin trolley for sure! Let me know what you think when you try it out!
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- Shake the Gin and syrups over ice
- Strain into a champagne flute
- Finish with the champagne
- Spritz gold to top of glass
- Garnish with dehydrated apricot slice
To create the Lemon Balm Syrup
- Mix equal parts water, sugar and lemon balm
- Simmer until the water and sugar combine to a Syrup
- Remove the Lemon Balm leaves and leave to cool
Either buy dried apricot for garnish – or dehydrate your own!
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The perfect excuse to combine Champagne and Gin. Following the launch of “Juniper”, the gorgeous new Bespoke Gin Trolley at Juliette’s Interiors, I’ve created what I believe is the perfect way to celebrate.
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- Wild Island gin 50ml
- St Germain elderflower liqueur 15ml
- Cucumber and mint pressé 40ml
- Apple green tea syrup 15ml
- Mint leaves x4
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- Fill a cocktail shaker with ice.
- Add the gin, St Germain, pressé, green tea syrup, and mint leaves.
- Shake.
- Strain into a martini glass and garnish with a mint leaf.
To make the apple green tea syrup…
- Boil 150ml of water on the hob.
- Take the hob off the boil.
- Add your apple green teabag.
- Once infused (five minutes), put the water back on the heat and add 150g sugar.
- Stir until dissolved and allow to cool.
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Wild Island gin is infused in a copper still with six native hand-foraged botanicals growing wild on the island of Colonsay: lemon balm, wild water mint, meadowsweet, sea buckthorn, heather flowers, and bog myrtle. And ten further botanicals are used as the base. While there’s quite a lot going on with it, in terms of a floral, citrus character, it can also stand up to complementary flavours, which is why I think it works in my cocktail with its flavours of elderflower, cucumber, mint and apple.
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- 4-5 ice cubes
- 25ml Pickering’s Original 1947 Gin
- 125ml Fever Tree Elderflower Tonic Water
- 15ml Lanique Rose Liqueur Spirit
- 15ml ginger beer
- Juice from half a lime
- Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
- Lime wedge
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- Place the ice cubes in a tall narrow chilled glass
- Pour in the gin, tonic, rose liqueur, ginger beer and lime juice
- Top with grated nutmeg and stir well
- Garnish with lime wedge
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Juliette’s Garden G&T would go well on its own as an aperitif as well as alongside spicier dishes such as jerk chicken or Indian food.
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- 70ml of Wild Island Botanic Gin
- 50ml freshly squeezed pink grapefruit juice
- 25ml pomegranate juice
- 20ml Prosecco
- Soda water (to top up)
- A handful of pomegranate seeds
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- Add 70ml of Wild Island Botanic Gin to a wide gin glass (seriously, this stuff is one of the best gins I’ve ever tried -and I have sampled a lot of gin!)
- Squeeze the grapefruit and add 50ml of fresh juice to the gin
- Add 25 ml of pomegranate juice, alongside 20ml of Prosecco and gently stir
- Top up with chilled soda water (I initially topped up this cocktail with Prosecco but found that it completely overpowered the other flavours so soda water become the final addition and works much better)
- Garnish with fresh pomegranate seeds and a slice of grapefruit
- Enjoy!
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The core ingredient (after gin) reminds me of when the kids and I took a trip to Italy a few years ago and enjoyed grapefruit sorbet by the coast. The tang of the pink grapefruit instantly takes me back to Ischia and there’s just something inexplicably luxurious about the addition of pomegranate, don’t you think?
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Voting has now closed!
The winning ginspiration challenge cocktail was Juliette’s Garden by Tiki Chris and is now officially named the J&T (after our founder Juliette Thomas). It was served from Juniper, our fabulous gin trolley, at all our prestige events throughout the year; Salon Privé at Blenheim Palace, Caviar with Ainsley at our showroom, the official launch of Juliettes Exteriors property management, and our New Collections launch later in the year.
In honour of International Scottish Gin Day on Saturday 3 August, get out your Wild Island and your Pickerings 1947 and give them all a go.
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