Green fingered gardeners can treat their vegetable patch like a fridge this summer as the Portobello Road Gin Gurus have created a series of cocktails made from juices designed to tap into Brits' obsession with the hobby. The Vegetable Patch Copa, The English Garden Copa, The Good Life Copa and the Portobello Road Summer Serve Copa will each be available at the Portobello Star (London) and Pintura (Leeds) this July featuring an array of unusual ingredients and garnishes. Explore and experiment with surprisingly delicious flavours such as baby carrots, radishes, and gooseberries from the garden as recipes are also available for Brits to replicate at home.
It wouldn't be summer without a cocktail!
The taste boffins at Portobello Road Gin created the cocktails to compliment the gin's unique set of botanicals and tap into Brits' love of the outdoors. Gardening is this summer's coolest hobby; more people watched BB C 2 ' s The RHS Great Chelsea Flower Show than Game of Thrones in May this year and over half of consumers aged 24-44 cite that they grow flowers/plants or trees in their garden, and a quarter grow fruit or vegetables (Kantar Media TGI 2014).
Served in Copa, or large red wine, glasses - a pour that originates from Spain - and decked with fresh garnishes from the garden, these recipes were created at The Portobello Star by Jake F Burger, one of the creators of Portobello Road Gin;
" When we came up with the concept of these cocktails we wanted to create a delicious set of drinks that showcased the botanicals of the gin and that Portobello Road Gin drinkers can re-create from comfort of their own back garden. The nine botanicals in our gin produce a nice depth of flavour so Portobello Road Gin really has the strength of character to stand up to other strong tastes - its flavour profile gives us a great opportunity to be a little more daring with our drink ingredients .
" We started with inspiration from the Spanish style Copa serve - any recent visitors to the country in the last few years will have noticed how they ' ve taken that most English of drinks - the G&T - to a whole new level. So we started with a large bowl glass, lots and lots of ice, a measure of gin and went from there.
" The idea is to treat your garden like your fridge. The adventurous home bartender can grab a large red wine glass, plenty of ice, a generous measure of Portobello Road Gin, a decent tonic and head to your vegetable patch for ingredients and garnishes that you normally might not consider. We chose ingredients that compliment but don't overwhelm the flavours of the gin or the tonic. These might not be the first flavours you'd think to use but we think they work really well."
The Vegetable Patch Copa
Create this stunning Copa serve and enjoy outside with friends this summer.
50ml Portobello Road Gin
200ml Tonic water
25ml Carrot juice made from around 8 baby carrots
Basil sprig
Juniper berries for garnishing
Glassful of ice
Red wine glass
Place the ice into a large red wine glass.
Take the baby carrots and extract the juice using a juicer.
Pour the juice over the ice then slowly add the gin and the tonic, give it a gentle stir and garnish with a basil sprig and a sprinkle of juniper berries.
The English Garden Copa
Summery, savoury and elegant - everything an English inspired Copa should be.
50ml Portobello Road Gin
200ml Tonic water
25ml Radish and red chicory juice made from around 10 radishes and 4 leaves of red chicory
1 radish cut into thin slices
Rosemary sprig
Lavender sprig
Glassful of ice
Red wine glass
Place the ice into a large red wine glass.
Take the radishes and red chicory and extract the juice using a juicer.
Pour the juice over the ice then slowly add the gin and the tonic, give it a gentle stir and garnish with sliced radishes, a rosemary sprig, lavender and a sprinkle of juniper berries.
The Good Life Copa
Made with dextrose - the easiest sugar for the body to metabolise, grape seed extract - which is a great source of anti-oxidants, and superfoods gooseberry and pomegranate.
Ingredients: 50mls Portobello Road Gin
200mls High mineral content sparkling water
Pinch grape seed extract
Teaspoon of powdered dextrose
A couple of frozen gooseberries Pomegranate pieces A large twist of your choice of citrus Rose petals Glassful of ice
Red wine glass
Place the ice into a large red wine glass. Stir the dextrose, the grapes extract and the gin to create a smooth paste.
Add the ice, pomegranate and the frozen gooseberries and top with sparkling mineral water then finally drop in a few rose petals.
FOR THE NON-GARDENERS
And of course, our favourite is the Portobello Road Copa … You don ' t need to be green-fingered to enjoy a G&T outside. Just grab a red wine glass, a huge handful of ice, a twist of pink grapefruit, a sprinkling of juniper berries and a measure of gin. Head to garden for the perfect summer serve.
Portobello Road Summer Serve Copa
50ml Portobello Road Gin
200ml Tonic water
Pink grapefruit
Juniper berries
Glassful of ice
Red wine glass
Garnish your G&T with a large twist of pink grapefruit and a sprinkling of juniper berries for a simple serve that once tasted, you'll return to again and again. Sit back and savour!
Tagged in Cocktails