Category: Gin

Gin Cocktails /

Martini Day 2021

Happy Martini Day!

A Classic Gin Martini has long been one of my favourite cocktails… I tend to make it with a 6:1 ratio of gin to vermouth, though of course a Martini is quite a personal thing and finding your own preference can take some time 😉

This was, of course, one of my chosen recipes for my Martini Day video, together with an Appletini and an Espresso Martini…

Martinis and Martini-style cocktails often need only a few ingredients, making them a good choice for cocktails at home.

The Appletini is lovely for summer – crisp and clean, with a choice of vodka or gin, the apple flavour makes a refreshing and very easy to drink cocktail!

Ohhh, but then there is the Espresso Martini… perfect for after dinner drinks, this is a recipe I am at last happy with. The vanilla vodka makes all the difference here, but if you don’t want to splash out on vanilla vodka, plain vodka with just a drop of vanilla essence is a great alternative.

Gin /

World Gin Day

It wasn’t hard to choose a gin to showcase for World Gin Day… I knew I wanted to go for something outside of the UK and recently I’d purchased Mackmyra’s Lab Distillery Organic Gin, which I may have fallen in love with!

With botanicals including lingonberry, elderflower and mango, this is right up my street! Mackmyra are a Swedish distillery, mainly known for their whiskies, but their gin is great and well worth considering for your cocktail kit.

I chose three cocktails that I think work brilliantly with this gin, the Swedish 75 (appropriate, yeah?!), Flora Dora and Have a Heart.

Swedish 75 is the perfect Summer cocktail, whichever gin you choose… gin, lingonberry jam, lemon juice and fizz make for such a lovely spritz for BBQs, picnics or outdoor drinks. If you can’t get hold of lingonberry jam, choose raspberry or strawberry instead – I like the Strawberry Daiquiri jam from Baked in Belfast.

The Flora Dora is such a fabulous classic – long, cool and so easy to drink (oops!), with gin, Chambord, lime and ginger ale, or soda water if you prefer.

And Have a Heart packs a punch – quite literally… Swedish Punsch, gin, grenadine and lime gives a grown up cheekiness. No Swedish Punsch? No worries – switch for golden rum.

Swedish 75 - gin-based sparkling cocktail
Flora Dora - Gin Cocktail
Have a Heart - Gin Cocktail