TASTE cocktails - The Blog

TASTE is a monthly cocktail kit subscription with premium ingredients, recipes, hints and tips on technique, created and sold in the UK. Check it out at www.tastecocktails.com Join our mailing list to get recipes, tips and deals straight to yout inbox.

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1 year of TASTE! (and a new box)

1 year ago, in February 2014 the first TASTE cocktails boxes landed on a tiny number of people's doorsteps and some Manhattans were mixed and enjoyed! One year later, we're re-visiting the Manhattan cocktail and its classic variations with some new premium ingredients.

Our original box was a glossy little black number, so the first few orders this month (and a few select long-term subscribers) will receive their Manhattan kit in a limited edition black box to celebrate our first year.

We have some exciting partnerships and excellent spirits brands to work with this year, and I can't wait to tell you about some of them next month. Until then... enjoy your Manhattans!

The Manhattan kit this month features McAffee's No. 8 Benchmark Bourbon, Noilly Prat and Punt e Mes vermouths, Angostura Bitters, and Maraschino Cherries. Subscribe now to get this kit by the end of the month.

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Our subscribers kit for January: The Clover Club with @sipsmithgin, parfait amour and grenadine. Perfect for a Valentines night in or to enjoy all to yourself! #tastecocktails #cocktails #gin #parfaitamour #grenadine #valentines #subscription #shaker #bar #bottles #liqueur

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The Hemingway Daiquiri - The recipe and its history

Our August kit was "The Daiquiri Box", and featured some great Panamanian Rums to make some classic Cuban recipes. Read on below for more on the man who inspired one of these, and the story of how the recipe came about.

Ernest Hemingway is something of a legend in the cocktail world. He has written extensively about his travels and the various drinks he enjoyed around the world, and even had a fair few created for him, such as this one created at La Floridita bar in Havana, Cuba by bartender Constantino Ribalaigua Vert. 

Hemingway was affectionately known as "Papa" in Havana, and supposedly tried his first Daiquiri at La Floridita and remarked "That's good, but I prefer mine with twice the rum and no sugar." Effectively asking for a quadruple shot of rum and a splash of lime juice! His nickname, and the request for twice the rum, caused Constantino to name this new version a "Papa Doble" in his honour.

Over time, La Floridita have evolved the original "Papa Doble" recipe by adding maraschino and grapefruit into the one presented here, and it is now know as a "Hemingway Special Daiquiri". I've tweaked their recipe very slightly and removed the "special" from the name, although I mean the great man no offence by it!

- Ernest Hemingway enjoying what looks like a very large neat rum!

The (TASTE) Hemingway Daiquiri 

2 shots Rum (we used Ron Cortez or Ron Abuelo in our kits) 

3/4 shot Freshly squeezed pink grapefruit juice

1/4 shot Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur

1/4 shot  2:1 sugar syrup

thick piece of grapefruit peel to garnish

Add all ingredients to a shaker, fill with cubed ice and shake for 10-15 seconds. Fine-strain into a chilled coupe glass and garnish with a thick piece of grapefruit peel.

The (Original) Papa Doble

4 shots White Rum

1/2 shot Freshly squeezed lime juice

lime peel to garnish

The (Modified) Hemingway Special

3 shots White Rum

1/2 shot Freshly squeezed pink grapefruit juice

1/2 shot Freshly squeezed lime juice

1/4 shot Marashicno Liqueur

lime peel to garnish

Check out our new kit for this month, or buy your own Daiquiri Kit now!

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New kit for September: The Negroni/Americano Box!

Both the Negroni and Americano cocktails feature the bitter liqueur "Campari" - an often overlooked but actually very versatile ingredient. I personally used to say that I hated it! But these two cocktails, and a great variation "The Lucien Gaudin" have made me see the error of my ways.

The kit this month contains: Southbank London Dry Gin, Campari, Martini Rosso, and Cointreau. All those in enough quantities to make:

2x Negronis

2x Americanos

2x Lucien Gaudins

or you can swap out any of the above to try some of the extra recipes in the online subscribers' area.

We now offer 3 ways to start your subscription. Ingredients kit only, equipment kit only, or the full subscription with both a Negroni/Americano kit, and all the equipment you need to start making perfect cocktails at home.

Check out the options and subscribe!

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August's new kit: The Daiquiri Box!

This month we've gone all Cuban, with the Daiquiri Cocktail, and a few amazing variations. We're mixing things up, however, by using 2 brilliant rums from Panama instead! This box makes:

2x Canchanchara cocktails (the precursor to the Daiquiri)

2x Classic Daiquiris (premium rum, lime, and sugar. Delicious)

2x Hemingway Daiquiris (made originally for Ernest Hemingway, but tweaked since then to create a sweet yet sour grapefruit variation)

This month we're giving you a whopping 260ml of rum! Ron Cortez Blanco (white) and Ron Abuelo Añejo (aged) and 2 great rums from the same distillery in Panama. So Panamanian Rum meets Cuban recipes meets London mixing! Enjoy!

To start your TASTE cocktails subscription, join here: £29 per month for 6 drinks and extra ingredients to taste.

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New Name, Same Great Service!

Over the next few days, TWIST will be changing to TASTE, but everything else will stay exactly the same.

our new domain is www.tastecocktails.com

you can find us on twitter @tastecocktails

and facebook at http://facebook.com/tastecocktailsdotcom

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New for July: The Vestal Vesper Box!

June’s “Gin Martini/Martinez” box was the first in a 2-part series charting the history of the Martini cocktail, and how it has changed over 2 centuries. Now we move on to the second, more modern half...

This month's box has been created in collaboration with Vestal Vodka, a fantastic father and son team selling modern Polish Vodka in Britain. We have their blended potato vodka, and a fantastic 2013 vintage vodka, "Kasebe". Both these vodkas are nothing like what you might be used to mixing with coke or soda. These are fantastically complex and flavoursome in their own right, due to undergoing only 1 distillation, and they make some mean Martinis and Vespers.

Vesper?

The Vesper cocktail was created by Ian Flemming, the author of the James Bond novels, and recently featured in the Bond film "Casino Royale". James, at a difficult point in an important poker game, orders his own recipe... "A Martini. Wait... 3 measures of Gordon's gin, 1 of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it over ice and then add a thin slice of lemon peel."

Nowadays Kina Lillet is no longer produced, but Cocchi Americano is widely considered to most closely match the flavour of the old aperitif. With the flavoursome Vestal Vodka, you'll have a very different experience to James' drink.

So what's in the box?

This box contains ingredients for 2x2 main cocktails and enough extra to make up to 2 more from a number of possible variations, or taste the vodkas on their own. That’s up to 6 drinks total.

The cocktails are: The Vodka Martini The Vesper & a few different variations on those recipes to try out.

The box contains: Vestal Blended Potato Vodka Vestal Kasebe 2013 Jensen Bermondsey Dry Gin Noilly Prat Dry Vermouth Cocchi Americano

You’ll also need: A lemon for the peels. A mixologist kit for stirring, straining and peeling. The best way to try TWIST cocktails is through our monthly subscription.  Have a new kit delivered every month for just £25.

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Inventing new cocktails with Van Wees at the Oliver Conquest

Last Friday I was invited to Judge a cocktail competition at the Oliver Conquest (a fantastic pub near Aldgate with over 150 gins on offer) run by Amathus Drinks and Van Wees. In the end, I threw a few new cocktails into the ring as well. Here are my weird creations:

The Van Violette

This was my actual competition entry. I rarely use St Germain but wanted to give it a go, and liked the idea of something short and floral. I think it turned out pretty well!

40ml Van Wees Three Corners Gin

20ml St Germain Elderflower Liqueur

20ml Bitter Truth Violet Liqueur

20ml Lemon Juice

Rose petals to garnish.

Stir all ingredients except rose petals in a mixing glass with ice. Fine strain into martini glass and drop petals on top.

Un-named  (or "The Chocolate Fish" if you don't need your names to be appetising)

Based on the well-known chocolates "Rose & Violet Creams", this is a sweet and syrupy mix of rose, violet and cherry chocolate liqueurs, lengthened and balanced by gin and lemon juice. The chocolate garnish really adds to the drink purely by its smell as you sip it. remarkably it tastes completely different without it.

25ml Van Wees Three Corners Gin

10ml Bitter Truth Violet Liqueur

10ml Van Wees Rose Without Thorns

10ml Van Wees Heaven on Earth (cherry/chocolate)

25ml Lemon Juice

Build in a glass over ice and stir. Garnish with lemon slice and chocolate square.

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New for June: The Gin Martini/Martinez Box!

June's "Gin Martini/Martinez" box is the first in a 2-part series charting the history of the Martini cocktail, and how it has changed over 2 centuries.

This box has been created in collaboration with Jensen Gin, a fantastic craft distillery in Bermondsey, London, and uses both their London Dry and Old Tom gins. The next box will feature a Vodka Martini and The Vesper, in collaboration with Vestal Vodka.

More cocktails this month!

This box contains ingredients for 2x2 main cocktails and enough extra to make up to 2 more from a number of possible variations! That's 6 drinks total, up from 4 in all our previous boxes.

The cocktails are: The Martinez The Gin Martini & 6 different Martini recipes to try out which suits you best.

The box contains: Jensen Old Tom Gin Jensen London Dry Gin Noilly Prat Dry Vermouth Martini Rosso Vermouth Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur Angostura Orange Bitters.

You'll also need: A lemon and a lime for the peels. A mixologist kit for stirring, straining and peeling. The best way to try TWIST cocktails is through our monthly subscription. Have a new kit delivered every month for just £25.

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[Recipe] The "Refreshing Gem List" Cocktail

@stef is a well-known hacker (the good kind) and London startup personality. He sent me a tweet recently asking for a bespoke cocktail recipe for the Ruby (a web programming language) developer community, based on a shared joke about how long it takes to refresh a list of "gems" (Ruby code files). Who doesn't like a pun-based cocktail challenge? Here's what I came up with:

The Refreshing Gem List:

50ml London Dry Gin 25ml Bénédictine D.O.M liqueur 20ml Freshly squeezed lime juice 75ml Cranberry Juice 150ml Canada Dry ginger ale Maraschino cherry and a Little Gem lettuce leaf to garnish.

Pour gin, Bénédictine, lime juice and 50ml cranberry juice into a mixing glass

Half-fill with ice and stir for 15-20 seconds

Fine-strain into a tall glass pre-filled with ice

Top with 150ml ginger ale. If it doesn't fill the glass, or tastes too strong add 25ml cranberry juice to top.

Churn with your bar spoon to mix thoroughly

Garnish with a maraschino cherry (The Gem!) and a Little Gem lettuce leaf, because a healthy brain is a coding brain.

Drink through a straw and enjoy.

It's actually really delicious! Gloriously red, and 2 punny garnishes :-) The Bénédictine makes it taste slightly medicinal, like it's actually doing you some good, and it's most definitely long and refreshing. Try it out and let me know what you think! It will be featured at a startup event in London soon, so follow @tastecocktaiks on twitter for details of when and where you can come and try one. It might even make it into a TASTE kit one of these days... Fancy a monthly cocktail kit subscription? Or just want to buy a kit for yourself or as a gift? Check out www.tastecocktails.com

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[Recipe] The TWIST Martini

Around the same time I first had the idea for TWIST, I was also playing around with the Gin Martini and trying to put my own spin on it. I've since made this recipe for a huge number of people, and I'm happy to say most of them prefer it to the Gin Martinis they've had in the past. It tastes a little weaker (wetter) than the standard serve, and is sweetened by the inclusion of Martini Bianco. The twist of lime just seems to work brilliantly.

The TWIST Martini: 2 shots Gordon's London Dry Gin 1/2 shot Martini Extra Dry Vermouth 1/2 shot Martini Bianco Vermouth Twist of lime peel to garnish

Put a coupe glass in the freezer 30 mins before making the drink, to chill.

Pour all the ingredients into a mixing glass or shaker

Half-fill with ice

Stir for 15-20 seconds

Double (fine) strain into the coupe glass

Peel a twist of lime over the glass and drop in the drink.

Enjoy.

Want to learn how to make great cocktails at home? Sign up for a monthly subscription on www.givemeatwist.com

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What is TWIST?

TWIST is for the cocktail lover, or the wannabe mixologist. Each box contains premium ingredients, recipes, and information about the source and history of your drinks.

Subscribe to guarantee yourself a new box every month, or buy a one-off for yourself or as a gift from our limited run of boxes. When it arrives you'll have the ingredients to mix incredible cocktails and the information to improve your technique, knowledge and enthusiasm for the world of mixology.

What's in a Twist box?

Each box contains a selection of recipes and all the main liquid ingredients you need to make them (4 cocktails per box). We'll leave it to you to find things like limes, an egg, or mineral water, but we'll let you know before you buy if you need them, and we'll remind you before it arrives so you have time to get them ready. ​The recipe booklet in each box also contains articles about the source and history of the ingredients, interviews with industry experts and hints and tips for improving your technique, tasting, flavour matching and so on. ​We might even throw in a few extra edible surprises...

Why subscribe?

Subscribers guarantee themselves a new box each month (non-subscribers have to be quick to buy one of our limited run of extras before they sell out!) and also gain access to all the previous recipes, tips and information form previous boxes, which are all available online.

Get your own on www.givemeatwist.com