Gin and bubbly, made famous by the 1915 cocktail the French 75, is in my opinion one of the most luxurious ways to water down your gin. Whilst strong in alcohol, Spritz’s, Gin Fizz’s and Champagne cocktails can vary wildly in flavour, and don’t always need to be as bold as a French 75 (Gin, Champagne, Lemon Juice, Sugar).
It was no accident that Sibling Triple Distilled Gin has a delicate smoothness to it that many others lack; it takes a lot of work to create a spirit with this lightness from scratch, but it is so worth it. We are able to use flavours that would be obliterated by other more fiery gins, and don’t need to add sugar to our fizzy cocktails to make them refreshing. It also allows us to use less potent flavours, and less quantity of sugary syrups to mask any bitterness, which is always a nice option!
In terms of the bubbly, I personally choose prosseco. A little lighter and with a bit of sweetness (and a fraction of the price) it combines with our gin to make a fantastic base for a Spritz.
A Spritz is a very popular drink in Italy (first made in Venice) and is regaining popularity here in the UK. Usually made up of a sparkling wine, a liquor and soda water, the flavours can range massively. We have a couple of examples below which we make that have taken their inspiration from Spritz’s and evolved into something slightly different.
While on holiday in Rome my sister overheard two barmen arguing about whether or not an Aperol Spritz should contain gin, along with prosecco and soda water. In my eyes that is a no brainer – of course it should. I would recommend one measure of Sibling, one measure of Aperol, topped up with plenty of ice and prosecco – essentially swapping the soda water for gin. Serve with a thick piece of orange peel to compliment the bitter orange in the Aperol, and to balance out the sweetness a little.
Another simple cocktail along the same lines again uses a base of one measure of Sibling topped up with prosecco and then drizzled with Chambord (a raspberry liquor) to taste. Personally I use enough to just colour the drink to a very light pink, but it really depends on how sweet your tooth is. The raspberry flavour combines beautifully with the vanilla tones in our gin for a very luxurious tasting cocktail. For serving, my sister came up with a better way to get the most out of fresh blueberries – freeze them and use them as ice cubes. Not only does this keep your drink cool without watering it down, but also breaks the skin of the blueberries, meaning that some of the flavour escapes and enhances the subtle blueberry notes that you get in Sibling Triple Distilled Gin (fresh blueberries are one of the ten botanicals we vapour infuse). As with the Aperol Spritz I also garnish with some orange peel as I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, but that is completely down to preference.
To be honest, once you have your base of Sibling gin and prosecco, you have lots of options to finish it off, from Creme de Mure to Grenadine and Rosewater, use the weekend to be creative!
