It’s Crisp and Sparkly, But It’s Not The Snow

This post is - to my utter shame - about six months late. I was at the Foodies Festival back in August and got chatting to the guys who were there from the Spencerfield Spirit Company (yes, them of the Raspberry Gin fame). They had just brought out their new Elderflower flavoured version of the delicious Edinburgh Gin and I had my eye on a bottle.

When I’d tasted all their gins a couple of times (freeloader? Me? Never…) I decided to buy a bottle of the elderflower - despite the temptation for another bottle of the raspberry - and whilst I was paying for it they suggested that if I liked it I should make it into a cocktail, using champagne in place of tonic.

Well, to be exact they told me to get ‘a cheap bottle of cava or something from Tesco; the gin will cover the more subtle flavours in anything better’. How could I resist such a suggestion?

Fast forward a few months and I’ve only just got round to opening the bottle. Disgraceful, I know. As I was baking the champagne-poached pear tart last weekend I realised that I could easily divert about a third of the bottle into this little taste experiment. Purely in the name of science, you understand.

It was a resounding success, making what is already an absolutely delicious gin into something that is as potent as it is irresistible. If you happen to have some elderflower Edinburgh Gin and some spare cava - who doesn’t have these kicking about, I ask you - you could do no better than to mix yourself up a drink. It would also be excellent for a party, if you were having one, and wanted your guests a little tipsy before you feed them.

Elderflower Gin and Cava Cocktail

The idea for this recipe came from the wonderful Spencerfield Spirit Company although the proportions are an original recipe from The Usual Saucepans. This recipe will make one glass; if you are using a standard 750ml bottle of cava it will go round about seven people (if you give them a full glass).

Ingredients

25ml Elderflower Edinburgh Gin
100ml cava (or similar)

Directions

Chill both the gin and the cava - for something extra special chill the gin in the freezer so it becomes slightly thicker. Pour the gin into your glass/champagne flute and then top up with the cava, making sure to leave space at the top for any bubbles that form.

Obviously The Usual Saucepans encourages responsible drinking, but doesn’t condone using this as an excuse for being boring.

Oh, and if you haven’t seen enough photos of the snow of late, then here’s another one. Just because I can.

Craig (246 Posts)

Edinburgh-dwelling, baking and food-obsessed, twenty-something adventure enthusiast. Runs on liberal amounts of coffee, cheese, cake and gin; bribable with same.