Happy International Gin Day

Today is International Gin Day and it’s even better that this event coincides with the Queens Birthday long weekend. What better way to celebrate the Queens Birthday weekend than with the ever classy mixer gin, paired with a modern twist! We are sure the Queen herself would be pleased.

We asked mixologist Finn Healey from SA Cocktail Events to once again help us out with a cocktail to mark the occasion, and he said he knew the perfect drink, the Plum & Cinnamon Spiced Negroni. Finn also gave us a quick history lesson on gin which was pretty interesting. He told us the story of how the particular drink he was going to be making us came about. Apparently it all started when “Count Camillo Negroni concocted it by asking the bartender, Fosco Scarselli, to strengthen his favourite cocktail, the Americano, by adding gin rather than the normal soda water. The bartender also added an orange garnish rather than the typical lemon garnish of the Americano to signify that it was a different drink and from there it just caught on”.

After Finn had explained all this to us we decided we definitely wanted to try it, so we asked him to make us one. It was, as always, fantastic watching Finn at work as he mixed the drink for us. We could smell the homemade peach and cinnamon vermouth from miles away, and it smelt amazing! Probably the best part of the whole mixing process was when Finn ignited the orange peel he was using as a garnish. He told us that blow torching the orange peel helped release the flavour in the rind. He garnished the whole drink with a sprig of thyme and when we took a sip we loved it. It is definitely not cocktail you can drink in 10 seconds, you really do need to sit down and enjoy this one.

If you want to give this great cocktail a go to get into the Gin Day spirit, and of course to help the Queen celebrate her birthday then take a look at the recipe below. If you want to add a further royal twist to the recipe then ‘Distillery Botanica’ have just released a limited edition Australian gin from Sydney called ‘Rather Royal Gin’ – they used only botanicals from Sydney’s botanic gardens.


How to Make a Plum & Cinnamon Spiced Negroni

“A modern spice twist on an amazingly popular classic cocktail”

Ingredients

25ml Distillery Botanica Garden Grown Gin

25ml Campari

25ml House Made Plum & Cinnamon Sweet Vermouth ( The Duke makes this in house, though you may have to settle for store bought )

Method

Stir in mixing glass until perfectly diluted.

Strain over large ice cubes into old fashioned rocks glass

Garnish with flamed orange peel & fresh thyme

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