Gone are the days when cocktails were the sole domain of the saccharine sweet – today, reputable bars showcase menus that are peppered (sometimes literally) with an array of complex, herbal, bittersweet concoctions; gin cocktails made with herbaceous twists as diverse as tree bark, herbs and spices of limitless design.
Given the depth of flavour in savoury gins, the base spirit is going to be the drink’s ‘hero’. Our hero, Bush Tomato. Hell, it’s not the craziest idea we ever had. Now that the weather is cooling, your dinner table is going to be festooned with bigger, heartier, warmer foods, thus the perfect time for us create On the Sauce Gin!
SIGNATURE SERVE
Fevertree Indian tonic with green capsicum
BIJOU
INGREDIENTS
45ml On The Sauce Gin
15ml green Chartreuse
15ml Sweet Vermouth
Orange bitters
GARNISH
Lemon twist
METHOD
1.
Add all ingredients to an ice-filled cocktail shaker.
2.
Shake and double strain into a chilled coupette.
3.
Garnish with a lemon twist.
Our recipe is adapted from Harry Johnson’s Bartender’s Manual, which in 1900 called for essentially the same ingredients, except without the bush tomato twist we’re offering here. The Bijou originates in an 1895 volume called The Mixologist; while Chartreuse, the French liqueur, comes to be thanks to its production of 130 herbs and botanicals. You know that by the time you add our bush tomato gin to the mix, you’re going to be in flavour country, son.
GIN MULE
INGREDIENTS
45ml On The Sauce Gin
15ml sugar syrup
15ml lime juice
10 mint leaves
Capi ginger beer
GARNISH
Lime rounds
METHOD
1.
Add first four ingredients to an ice-filled cocktail shaker.
2.
Shake and strain into an
ice-filled highball.
3.
Top with ginger beer.
4.
Garnish with a lime round.
This refreshing cocktail is a modern take on the bubbly Moscow mule, remixed with a Mojito to create an impressive offspring that doesn’t have the negative geopolitical connotations of all things Soviet. Invented in 2000 at the Pegu Club in New York City, we’re taking things out of the same-sameness of vodka, giving it a mighty gin hit and leaving the rest of it to your tastebuds. Doubtlessly, you’ll be Russian back for more…