Gin Gin Gin. Pt 2

Back once again…

So,

I continue my jaunt through the realms of gin. Starting with a beauty straight from the pages of the Savoy (and a little bit of fiddling on my end to suit taste).

Royal Clover Club (Verso edit)

50ml Gin
12.5ml Lemon Juice
12.5ml Grenadine (Or other suitably coloured and sweet liquor*)
1 Whole Egg Yolk (Note. Not egg white, egg yolk)

Shake hard for around 10 seconds, then fine strain into a frozen champagne coupe. Garnish with a short curled lemon zest

* original recipes are known to call for raspberry liquor in place of the grenadine.

The royal clover club is a variant upon the original stunning clover club cocktail. A drink which in its hay day reperesented an entire class of pre-prohibition yuppies.

An interesting article on the originals rise and fall from cocktail culture can be found here.

Notes. Simple and elegent like so many of its time. Usage of the egg yolk leaves a smooth yet defining texture in the mouth, combining well with the light sweetness from the grenadine (or substitute) and the underlying sharpness of the lemon juice. The lemon zest as garnish masks a cloyingly bland nose on the drink.

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My next foray pays due to Leanne Davidson, a Manchester and Leeds bartender at heart, now found in the Townhouse, Knightsbridge.

Jazz Negroni

25ml Gin (Preferably strong taste, eg. Tanq No. 10)
25ml Dubonnet Red
25ml Jagermeister
2 Dash Orange Bitters*

*can be substituted for Peychauds bitters to add more underlying sweetness

Build in an old fashioned glass, stirring down so to chill not dillute. Garnish with a hefty sized orange slice.

Less a gin cocktail per-say and more a modern day corpse reviver!

Notes.The use of jagermeister put me off at first however the deep herbal taste it imparts upon the gin and dubonnet lends an interesting complexity to the mixture. The drink progresses into an almost medicinal end taste with the dubonnet and bitters.

By no means to everyones taste, however works extraordinarily well as a digestif, or as a late night tipple.

Gin Cosmopolitan (Verso variant)

37.5ml Gin (Herbal tasting preferably, eg. Hendricks)
12.5ml Mandarine Napoleon
37.5ml Cranberry Juice
10-15ml Fresh Lime Juice (to taste)

Shake hard and strain into a frozen martini glass. Flame an orange zest over the mixture and bin,  then garnish with an orange slice skewered with a rose petal.

The background of whether to use vodka or gin in this modern day classic has, as far as I can tell, always been quite up-in-the-air.

I found through experimenting that the tartness of the Cointreau combined with the dryness of most London-esque gins to create an overpoweringly pallete cleansing drink. Hence, I began swapping out dryer gins in favour of Hendricks, with its more prominant herbal notes proving useful. Additionally I started using Mandarine Napoleon to add the orange flavour and also to sweeten the mixture ever so slightly.

Notes. A far more complex and subtle blend of flavours than the original. Deep orange and mandarine notes are found upon first sips, with an underlying gin burn found throughout. The cranberry and Hendricks create a refreshing end. The nose is disinctly of orange zest, however the rose helps add a floral edge.