One Drink, Three Ways: Nouaison Gin Reserve

One Drink, Three Ways is the signature feature by The Three Drinkers. Join The Three Drinkers’ Helena, Aidy and Colin as they take one bottle and create a trio of phenomenal serves which you can enjoy anytime, anywhere. From rums and whiskies to gins and wine styles, the three help you get the most out of your glass. It’s time to get liquid on lips.

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Nouaison Gin Reserve recently won the coveted ‘out of the ordinary’ spirits prize at this year’s People’s Choice Drinks Awards; a category that was sponsored by us, The Three Drinkers! It’s an intriguing spirit, made by distilling French grapes (like Cognac), which is then redistilled with botanicals, herbs, fruit and spices using traditional Gin methods, before being aged in Cognac-seasoned oak barrels. It’s Gin meets Cognac in a quirky and complex way, but it absolutely works. Sip it alone or try it in one of these three delicious serves.

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Helena’s Choice: Stinger

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I love the Nouaison Gin Reserve in this cocktail for something totally out of the ordinary. The mint really lifts the botanicals and the cream enhances the spice. The result is something unlike anything you’ve tasted before and totally moreish.

Stinger

Recipe

60 ml Nouaison Gin Reserve

5 ml Mint cream

Garnish: Mint Sprig and  / or a piece of white chocolate.

Glassware: Rocks glass

Method

Build the drink in the rocks glass by combining the ingredients over ice cubes, then stir with a bar spoon, garnish and serve.

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Aidy’s Choice: Smash & Fresh

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You know I love my Gin sours and this serve offers something very different from the norm that your guests will adore. With a refreshing kick from the Absinthe cordial and lemon juice combo, it’s the perfect kick starter to any meal or festive occasion. I know I know, absinthe does come with a stigma that it’s way too powerful and overbearing, but trust me, everything here balances together so well - you will be super surprised and thoroughly refreshed!

Smash & Fresh

Recipe

45 ml Nouaison Gin Reserve

20 ml Cordial Absinthe

20 ml Lemon Juice

20 ml Egg White

Garnish: Mint Sprig

Glassware: Coup or coupette

Method 

Pour all the wet ingredients into a shaker, dry shake (without ice) to get the egg white to foam, then shake with ice for ten seconds. Double strain over a coupette glass and garnish a mint sprig.

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Colin’s Choice: Nouaison Old Fashioned

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The Gin botanicals and the citrus spice here add an intriguing twist to a traditional Old Fashioned recipe, pepping the whole thing up. Try serving it to your guests or to your partner without telling them what it is and watch as they become a Gin Reserve convert!

Nouaison Old Fashioned

Recipe

45ml Nouaison Gin Reserve

5ml Sugar Syrup 

2 Dashes Orange Bitters 

1 Orange Zest 

Garnish: Orange Peel Twist

Glassware: Old Fashioned Glass or Tumbler

Method 

Gently blend ingredients into a mixing glass and strain into an Old Fashioned glass over a large ice cube or sphere. Garnish with an orange peel twist.

UK
ABV: 42%
Size: 500ml
Buy it now for £37.00

Don’t forget to check out our whisky, rum and vermouth One Drink Three Ways suggestions too!

The Marmalade Sour

Words by Aidy Smith

If you’re anything like me, marmalade goes on pretty much everything, even a cocktail! Interestingly, the tartness, sweetness and orange punch work hand in hand with gin, so perhaps this is a new alternative to the breakfast martini?!

Ingredients:

60ml Quality Gin (we recommend Highclere Castle Gin)
15ml Lemon Juice
4 teaspoons of Quality Marmalade

Method:

Pop all of the ingredients into a shaker and stir to combine the marmalade with the liquid. Pop in your ice, shake and fine strain into a glass (we strain to avoid lumps of marmalade in the glass). Et voila!

Find Highclere Castle Gin here: UK £38.07 // US $39.99

HAVANA CLUB BAR ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR: The Winners

Last week, we were excited to watch the winners being crowned at the 2020 Havana Club Bar Entrepreneur Awards; a competition that recognises the passion, entrepreneurship and this year particularly, the resilience and determination of the people behind the world’s most revolutionary bars. A respected panel of judges crowned one overall winner and three other category winners from a shortlist of thirteen finalists. 

Here are the winners of this year’s Havana Club Bar Entrepreneur Awards. Remember their names - you’ll be seeing a lot more of them in the future!

Overall Winner: Oliver Margan

Meet Oliver Margan, overall winner of the 2020 Bar Entrepreneur awards. Having founded cocktail bar Maybe Mae six years ago, in the heart of Adelaide’s west end, at the tender age of twenty two, Oliver has been credited for establishing the city’s cocktail culture, with six new bar openings under his belt. What impressed the judges the most was his unfailing optimism and entrepreneurial spirit, which sits alongside his highly regarded skills behind the bar, a focus on sustainably sourced cocktail ingredients and his support for gender equality within the industry. Oliver was awarded with a €20,000 cash prize to invest in his business. 

Other Category Winners

As well as crowing an overall winner, Havana Club awarded €10,000 each to three other candidates who showed determination and passion in three other categories: The True Grit Award, which honours strength, resilience and bravery during the most challenging period of modern-day hospitality; One to Watch, which focuses on emerging talent and the achievements of those under the age of 30 and Social & Eco Entrepreneurship, which recognises a commitment to improving the environment or a local community, while achieving business success.

Winner: True Grit - Rani Al Raji

This year’s True Grit award was presented to Rani Al Raji, owner of Beirut’s Brazzaville; a neighbourhood bar that has continued to serve the community and remain a hub of positivity through the challenges of 2020 including the pandemic and Beirut’s horrific explosion. Rani’s team did what they could not just to survive, but to thrive despite the shortages and the struggles seen in the country’s capital. 

 Winner: Social and Eco Entrepreneurship: - Yeferson Avila and Jean Trinh

Columbia’s Yeferson Avila and Jean Trinh, co-owners of Alquímico Farm in Cartagena, were awarded with the Social and Eco Entrepreneurship prize for their commitment to keeping their staff, small producers and local farmers in business despite the pressures of the pandemic. While having to close their popular, three-story mansion bar, Yeferson and Jean instead put their team to work at the Alquímico Farm where they grow organic produce to use in their cocktail programme. The farm has since become an educational space for the local agricultural community and professionals from the drinks industry who want to learn more about vegetables, fruits and spices from planting to harvest.

Winner: One to Watch - Omer Gazit-Shalev

Omer is a clear rising star in the global bar community. He managed to impress the judges with the variety and diversity of projects he has taken on despite his young age. As the CEO of Monkey Business, a unique style of hospitality group, he and his teams manage several of Israel’s most famous food and drink venues and are being credited with redefining the country’s bar experience in general.

The Judges

The judges for this competition are all key figures in the global drinks and business industries:

• Rhys Oldfield: co-founder of Be at One and a leading adviser to food and drink businesses.

• Juan Valls: owner of El Nino, Sinner Club and key figure behind Spain’s FIBAR.

• Vijay Mudaliar: founder of Native Bar in Singapore and its concept to explore local culture through the lens of drinks.

• Ara Carvallo: co-founder of Barra Mexico, the world’s first zero carbon bar trade show and Latin America’s key spirits trade show.

• Kelsey Ramage: winner of the One to Watch category in 2019 and owner of Trash Tiki, which focuses on creating cocktails from waste.

• Tess Posthumus: successful business entrepreneur and owner of the Netherlands’ leading bars, Flying Dutchman and Dutch Courage in Amsterdam.

• Cécile Bulle: business educator who leads a mentoring programme helping students and alumni from Paris Dauphine University establish their business.

• Rasmus Lomborg: bartender, bar manager and entrepreneur who has opened multiple bars across the UK and Europe.

The winners were announced during a virtual ceremony presented by leading global rum ambassador Ian Burrell and featured a showstopping live concert from international rapper Kelvyn Colt.

To find out more about the awards and the winners check out @havanaclub_pro on Instagram, use the hashtag #BEA2020 or read more here

The Fettercairn 1824 Martini

Fettercairn Distillery, founded in 1824, was one of the very first licensed distilleries in Scotland. Located in a small village in Aberdeenshire under the Grampian foothills in the Howe of Mearns, this distillery got a new lease of life in the 1950s and is now creating exciting new expressions using their stocks of well-aged whiskies.

This elegant and contemplative cocktail is perfect for refined sipping as an aperitif or digestif on any occasion. Based on a classic Old Fashioned recipe but without the mixer, it uses ingredients that gently enhance the tropical fruit flavour of the whisky. Serve in your most elegant Martini glass, well-chilled.

Ingredients
50ml Fettercairn 12 Year Old Whisky
5ml Coconut sugar syrup
4 Dashes of pineapple and star anise bitters
Garnish: 1 Pineapple leaf
Glass: Elegant Martini glass

 Method
Combine all ingredients together into a mixing glass and stir well, before straining into a chilled Martini glass. Garnish with an attractive pineapple leaf.

Want more whisky cocktail recipes? See the Fettercairn Tropical Highball, the Craighouse Rocks, the Jura Sunset, The Dalmore Old Fashioned and The Dalmore Mackenzie Highball

The Fettercairn Tropical Highball

Long, light and refreshing, this is a super simple, perfect highball serve that showcases the light vibrancy of Fettercairn 12 Year Old and accentuates the tropical distillery character derived from Fettercairn’s unique, copper cooling ring distillation process.

Ingredients
25ml Fettercairn 12 Year Old whisky
25ml Coconut Water
4 Dashes of Pineapple and Star Anise Bitters
Top with Soda Water
Garnish: Dried pineapple and flamed star anise
Glass: Highball Glass

Method
For the perfect highball and for any occasion, simply build all Ingredients in the highball glass, then garnish with dried pineapple and flamed star anise.

Fettercairn Distillery, founded in 1824, was one of the very first licensed distilleries in Scotland. Located in a small village in Aberdeenshire under the Grampian foothills in the Howe of Mearns, this distillery got a new lease of life in the 1950s and is now creating exciting new expressions using their stocks of well-aged whiskies.

Want more whisky cocktail recipes? See the Fettercairn 1824 Martini, the Craighouse Rocks, the Jura Sunset, The Dalmore Old Fashioned and The Dalmore Mackenzie Highball.

Jura Craighouse Rocks

The Isle of Jura lies sixty miles away from the mainland of Scotland’s western coast. It has a harsh, cool climate, but an exceptionally warm community, all focused around the Island’s one whisky distillery in Craighouse. Founded originally in 1810, the distillery fell into ruin at the end of the 19th century but was entirely rebuilt and reopened in 1963 in order to boost the local economy and rebuild the community. It makes whiskies that are characteristically smooth, bright and lively.

This Craighouse rocks cocktail is ideal for post dinner drinks. A twist on an Old Fashioned recipe, the chocolate and the crème de poire really highlight the nutty and green fruit flavours of the Jura 12 Year Old whisky.  

 Ingredients

40ml Jura 12 Year Old Whisky.
10ml Oloroso Sherry
5ml Crème de poire
5ml Sugar syrup (1;1)
Dash of chocolate bitters
Glass: Rocks
Garnish: Lemon twist

Method:
Combine all the ingredients in a mixing glass over ice and stir for one minute to get a slight dilution and chill. Strain into a rocks glass over a large, clear ice block and garnish with a fresh lemon twist.

Want more whisky cocktail recipes? See the Fettercairn 1824 Martini, the Fettercairn Tropical Highball, the Jura Sunset, The Dalmore Old Fashioned and The Dalmore Mackenzie Highball.

The Jura Sunset

One of Jura Whisky’s signature serves, this is a simple, beautifully balanced drink that works brilliantly as an arrival drink or an apéritif. Bittersweet and citrussy, the Jura Sunset is ideal for new whisky drinkers.

Ingredients
25ml Jura 10 Year Old Whisky
25ml Apérol
Top with Fever Tree Mediterranean Tonic (or premium tonic water)
Glass: Copa glass or red wine glass
Garnish: Orange wedge 

Method
You can make this drink in the glass itself. Simply add the Jura whisky, Apérol and tonic into a glass that already has crushed ice in and stir. Garnish with a fresh orange wheel or wedge.

 The Isle of Jura lies sixty miles away from the mainland of Scotland’s western coast. It has a harsh, cool climate, but an exceptionally warm community, all focused around the Island’s one distillery in Craighouse: Jura Distillery. Founded originally in 1810, the distillery fell into ruin at the end of the 19th century but was entirely rebuilt and reopened in 1963 in order to boost the local economy and rebuild the community. It makes whiskies that are characteristically smooth, bright and lively. 

Want more whisky cocktail recipes? See the Fettercairn 1824 Martini, the Fettercairn Tropical Highball, the Craighouse Rocks, The Dalmore Old Fashioned and The Dalmore Mackenzie Highball.

The Dalmore Old Fashioned

Not far from Inverness overlooking the famous ‘Black Isle’, sits The Dalmore distillery. At The Dalmore, the whisky house style is dark, rich and chocolatey with notes of dried fruit, spice, vanilla and tropical fruit thanks to the team’s long term relationship with sherry house González Byass who offer The Dalmore exclusive access to rare casks. These special casks have  previously held exceptional, old sherries such as Matusalem Oloroso sherry and it is these casks that add to the quintessential Dalmore style.

The Old Fashioned needs no introduction as a cocktail and the beauty of this classic drink really  is its simplicity! Think of fruit cake with shaving of dark chocolate and orange peel on top. One for those cosy nights by the fire, for sure.

Ingredients
50ml The Dalmore 12 Year Old Whisky
25ml Sugar syrup
Dash Orange bitters
Glass: Rocks glass
Garnish: Fresh orange twist

Method
Find a rocks glass or a tumbler, add ice and then pour all the ingredients in. Stir well until chilled and slightly diluted. Garnish with an orange wheel.  

Want more whisky cocktail recipes? See the Fettercairn 1824 Martini, the Fettercairn Tropical Highball, the Craighouse Rocks, the Jura Sunset and the Dalmore Mackenzie Highball.